THE CLAM FISHERIES. 



Statistics of this region are furnished by Mr. Mather's notes as follows : 



607 



NEW YORK BAY. I ain at a loss what estimate to make for the yearly catch of quahaugs in 

 New York Bay, including by that term all the water inside of Sandy Hook where these mollusks grow, 

 but I suppose 150,000 bushels, worth about $100,000, would include all taken, except those caught 

 by the considerable number of boats which go from Staten Island and New Jersey towns, Perth 

 Amboy, Keyport, Shrewsbury, &c., down to Sandy Hook. .These are included in what follows. 

 My notes give 125,000 bushels to Karitan and Prince's Bays alone. The quahaugs caught otherwise 

 in New York Bay are taken chiefly with the oysters and by the oyster planters, though a large num- 

 ber of people alongshore, of the poorer class, make a summer employment of raking them. This 

 number varies, and is not separate from the population already described and enumerated under 

 the history of the oyster product of this coast. The same may be said of the boats employed. In 

 the winter both men and boats are hired by oystermeu, or work their own beds and regard that as 

 their real business. There are few exceptions to this practice here or elsewhere. The clams bring 

 the fishermen about 60 cents a bushel. 



NEW JERSEY. The amount of the quahaug fishery in New Jersey was a subject of careful 

 inquiry when I was along that coast, and was also attended to by Mr. E. E. EarlJ. His estimate 

 for all the shore from (and including) Sandy Hook to Barnegat light, gives as the yield, in 1880, 

 18,931,000 by count. This, at 300 to the bushel, would give 63,103 bushels, which is valued by him 

 at $35,625. 



From Barnegat Light southward around Cape May to Cohansey Creek makes another district 

 to which he assigns an annual catch of 85,741,000, or about 285,803 bushels, worth, it is stated, 

 $117,667. The northernmost locality of this district is "Clam Bay," which is just inside of Bar- 

 negat light-house, and yields 150,000 bushels a year, I was told. Boats come from New York to 

 buy them of the men who rake. Great Bay, at the mouth of Mullica River, is another extensive 

 ground, much resorted to by buyers from Philadelphia as well as New York, and yields 40,000 

 bushels annually. From Lake's Bay, just in the rear of Atlantic City, the clams are sent chiefly 

 by rail to Philadelphia, about 18,000 bushels going last year. Little Egg Harbor is credited with 

 25,000, and Seaville, still farther south, with 8,000 bushels in 1880. All these are from my own 

 studies, and tlie total, 241,000 bushels, agrees pretty closely with Mr. Earll's estimate, which, how- 

 ever, is worthy of higher credence in this case than my own. 



CHESAPEAKE REGION. The Chesapeake region is highly productive, but I must confess to 

 incomplete information in regard to it. The clamming ground extends from New Point, north of 

 Mob Jack Bay, on the western shore, to Old Point, on Hampton Roads, and on the eastern shore 

 from Pokomoke Sound southward. The principal markets are Baltimore, Norfolk, and Yorktown. 

 These clams are got by the oyster tongers, when the summer close-season for the oyster-beds comes 

 on, and the best market prices are received in April and May, because then the whole army have 

 not begun tonging. These clams are sold by the thousand, and the general price ranges from 



