THE CLAM FISHERIES. 611 



ing its quantity, either party may call on an inspector of fish and have it measured, and if it does 

 not contain the number of gallons of clams aforesaid, the seller shall receive pay for only the num- 

 ber of gallons each barrel contains, and shall pay the expense of measuring and coopering; other- 

 wise the purchaser shall pay the expense." 



(d) CLAMS OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 

 18. COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE OF PACIFIC COAST CLAMS. 



The edible mollusks in addition to oysters to be found on the Pacific coast of the United 

 States are many. First in importance among them probably is the Lutraria maxima, concerning 

 which a long account is furnished by Mr. J. K. Lord, in his "Naturalist in British Columbia," 

 which I subjoin in full. 



"Among the edible shell-fish found on the coast of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 

 the Great Clam as it is there styled (Lutraria maxima), or the otter-shell of conchologists, is by 

 far the most valuable. Clams are one of the staple articles of winter food on which all Indian 

 tribes in a great measure depend who inhabit the northwest coast of America. The clam to the 

 Indians is a sort of molluscous cereal, that they gather and garner during the summer months ; 

 and an outline sketch of this giant bivalve's habits and style of living, how captured, and what 

 becomes of it after being made a prisoner, may be interesting; its habits, and the uses to which, if 

 not designed, it is at least appropriated, being generally less known than its minute anatomy. 

 Clams attain an immense size ; I have measured shells 8 inches from the hinge to the edge of the 

 valve. We used them as soap-dishes at our headquarters on Vancouver Island. 



" The clam has a very wide range, and is thickly distributed along the mainland and Vancou- 

 ver Island coasts ; his favorite haunts are the great sand-banks that run out sometimes over a mile 

 from the shore. The rise and fall of the tide is from 30 to 40 feet, so that at low water immense 

 flats or beaches, consisting of mud and sand, are laid bare. 



" There is nothing poetical about the clam, and its habits are anything but clean; groveling 

 in the mud and feeding on the veriest filth it can find appears to constitute the great pleasure of 

 its life ; the stomach is a kind of dust-hole, into which anything and everything finds ready admis- 

 sion. Its powers of digestion must be something wonderful; I believe clams could sup on copper 

 tacks, and not suffer from nightmare. Spending the greater part of its time buried about 2 feet 

 deep, the long siphon reaching to the surface discovers its whereabouts, as the ebbing tide leaves 

 the mud, by continually squirting up small jets of water, about 6 or 8 inches high. The sand flats 

 dry, out marches an army of squaws (Indian women), as it is derogatory to the dignity of a man 

 to dig clams. With only a small bit of skin or cedar-mat tied round the waist, the women tramp 

 through the mud, a basket made from cedar root in one hand, and in the other a bent stick about 

 4 feet long. Thus armed they begin to dig up the mud-homes of the unsuspecting clam ; guided by 

 the jets of water, they push down the bent stick, and experience has taught them to make sure of 

 getting it well under the shell; placing a stone behind the stick, against which the squaw fixes her 

 foot firmly, she lifts away; the clam comes from darkness into light ere he knows it, and thence 

 into the Indian's basket. The basket filled, the clam pickers trudge back again to the lodge, and 

 next to open him. He is not a native to be astonished with an oyster-knife; once having shut his 

 mouth, no force saving that of dashing his shell into atoms will induce him to open it. But the 

 wily redskin, if she does not know the old fable of the wind and the sun trying their respective 

 powers on the traveler, at least adopts the same principle on the luckless clam ; what knife and 

 lever fail to do, a genial warmth accomplishes. The same plan the sun adopted to make the trav- 



