14:2 UTILIZATION OF THE CONCH. 



abundant, tin's operation is quickly repeated and vastly destructive. One 

 planter in the upper part of Buzzard's Bay, Massachusetts, where this pest 

 is very troublesome, told me that oue winkle was capable of killing a 

 bushel of oysters in a single hour. They do not confine themselves to 

 oysters altogether, of course ; any mollusks or other marine animal, slug- 

 gish and weak enough to be caught and broken up, suffer from their 

 predacity. I was told in New Jersey, by an intelligent man, that the 

 conch would even draw the razor-shell out of his burrow and devour it. 

 If this be true, no donbt the soft clam also falls a victim to the same 

 marauder, but the quahaug in his massive shells is generally safe. 



The oyster-beds most subject to attack and harm by the winkles and 

 conchs are those planted in water which is quite salt, as is the practice in 

 New England and in Long Island Sound. The beds of the Great South 

 Bay, Staten Island, and the southern Jersey coast, are well protected by 

 the outer beaches from the sea, and to these barriers owe their immunity 

 from the fulgur, while the sycotypus, though present inside the beaches, 

 seems to do small damage. Oystermen will tell you, also, that beds which 

 are disturbed from time to time by the planter will suffer more harm 

 than neglected beds, especially in summer. Where planting has gone 

 on for many years, these predatory mollusks have visibly increased in 

 numbers — the natural result of abundance of food. 



The shells of both were used by the Indians of the coast ceremonially, 

 and as material for the making of white wampum, a description of which 

 will be found in another chapter. From them, also, were fashioned arti- 

 cles of service or ornament, such as maces, hoes, trowels, spoons, and 

 dippers ; sometimes even yet they are called " ladle shells." The Indians 

 ate the animals, too, when hard-pressed for food, and have been followed 

 in this practice by the whites, to some extent. De Voe says they used 

 sometimes to be sent into Catherine Market, New York, from Long Isl- 

 and ; " but," he adds, " they are not generally relished, being somewhat 

 strong flavored. They are mostly used by the poor who live near the 

 coast." Several foreign mollusks, not greatly different, are utilized— gen- 

 erally by boiling — and perhaps proper cooking would make these conchs 

 more palatable than they have hitherto proved. In Florida allied species 

 are occasionally eaten ; and often, in times of scarcity, they are caught 

 and cooked to be fed to dogs. 



Perhaps as destructive an agent as the conchs and winkles is the fish 

 known as the drum-fish {Pogonias chromis, Linn.) ; for, although this 

 plague is not steadily present, when it does occur the devastation is 

 enormous. " Let us make a visit," says Samuel Lockwood, that brightest 



