100 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
These are taken chiefly in Queens and Halifax Counties. 
Ho doubt the rapid diminution in quantity since 1885 is due 
to the greatly increased use of the Squid [which see] since 
that time. It is shelled and salted for long voyages, but carried 
alive to the fishing grounds when the latter are near home. 
Willis tells us that “It is said to be an irresistible bait to both 
haddock and codfish.” Mr. J. H. Duvar states in his Report 
for 1880, and subsequently has informed the writer, that they 
were formerly much used in Prince Edward Island for 
mackerel bait and were gathered by the Acadian French who 
sold them to the fishermen for fourteen to fifteen cents per 
quart, shelled. Their use is now almost superseded by that 
of chopped herring. It is used in Gaspe and Quebec even 
more extensively than in Acadia. 
As an article of human food, it is much more used in the 
United States than with us. North of Cape Cod it is the 
common Clam of the markets ; south of New York it is 
replaced by the Quahog, Venus mercenaria ; while between 
those places, both are found in about equal quantities. The 
very best come from Guilford, Conn., and sell for about three 
dollars per hundred. At this place a few of extraordinary 
size are found at lowest tides, the shells being six or eight 
inches long, and the animal of good flavor. These sell for 
about one dollar and twenty-five cents per dozen, the price 
for ordinary sizes being from ninety cents to two dollars per 
bushel, wholesale. The latter retail in the markets for from 
fifty to seventy-five cents per peck, according to size. In 
New Haven they are sold only in winter, and considered out 
of season in summer, though in New York they are sold 
throughout the year. A system of cultivation has been tried 
with good results. The total annual value to the United 
States of this species, including the large quantities collected 
for bait on the New England coast, is, according to the census 
of 1880, about $330,500. $562,376 according to another 
report. It has, however, been estimated by Mr. Earll, of 
the U. S. Fish Commission, in a speech made at the London 
Fisheries Exhibition of 1883, to be as high as $600,000 
annually. These figures do not include those taken on 
