THE COAST FISHERIES OF TEXAS. 403 
small cord. A number of times daily it is visited, raised, and the catch 
‘removed. The crabs are fished for by the negroes and the poor people 
about the wharves, who for the time find nothing else todo. The 
catch is usually peddled around the city, the price received averaging 
about 15 cents per dozen. 
Fish and oyster markets.—The only wholesale fish and oyster markets 
on the shores of Galveston Bay are located at the city of Galveston, 
where there were in 1890 five wholesale dealers who handled these 
products. Besides these there were at Galveston also many others who, 
handled oysters to a limited extent, while nearly all of the groceries in 
the city, as well as many restaurants, received from one to ten barrels 
daily from the fishermen. The property occupied by the five whole- 
sale houses in that year was valued at $63,500, and 85 men were given 
employment. 
When taking their catch to market the greater number of the Gal- 
veston fishermen run their boats into “ vegetable slip,” where the catch 
is sold in open market either to the wholesale dealers or to the many 
retail grocers or restaurant keepers. 
It is an interesting sight to see the fishermen together with the truck- 
farmers who take their produce to market in small sailboats, as they 
congregate at their respective places in the “slip” every morning while 
awaiting buyers for their wares. In this place at times there may be 
counted nearly a hundred sailboats, constituting a regular “‘ mosquito 
fleet.” The list of their produce for sale is almost endless. One may 
find here a load of oysters, there potatoes, in another boat cauliflower 
and pigs, chickens here and terrapins there, ducks and crabs, fish and 
milk. 
For oysters the marketmen pay from 75 cents to $1.50 per barrel, the 
average in 1890 being about $1. The greater part of the oysters were 
handled by the Galveston Packing Company, which, in addition to those 
secured from this bay, obtained large supplies from Matagorda Bay. 
The oysters are sold by the marketmen in various quantities and con- 
ditions. The local demand usually requires oysters in the shell, while 
the inland trade is mostly for the opened oysters. When sold in the 
shell the unit of measure is the barrel, holding about 3 bushels; the 
opened oysters are sold by the number, although there is a growing 
tendency to sell by the gallon. The openers are generally paid at the 
rate of $1.25 per 1,000, but one house has begun, instead, to pay 25 
cents per gallon of solid meats. As the oysters are opened they are 
separated into two grades, selects and standards, They are then placed 
with ice in tubs holding from 1 to 5 gallons, or in tin cans, the capacity 
of which ranges from 25 to 200 oysters. The tin cans are hermetically 
sealed and shipped in boxes containing ice. They are sent into the 
interior by express, and the trade, which is growing rapidly, extends 
throughout Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and other Western 
States, and even so far distant as Chicago. 
