GATHERING  OF  CARRAGEEN  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  421 
pulling-rake  is  the  most  important.  It  is  a  long-handled  rake, 
with  long,  flat,  iron  teeth  set  closely  together.  The  tub  is  a  half 
hogshead  ;  the  turning-rake,  a  common  hay-rake  ;  while  the 
boats  vary  considerably,  but  are  good  in  a  sea-way,  especially 
when  handled  by  experienced  men. 
The  spring  tides  are  selected  for  pulling,  because  the  tide  ebbs 
out  lower  than  at  common  or  neap  tides.  Spring  tides  occur  at 
every  new  and  full  moon,  when  it  is  always  high  water  a  little 
before  twelve  o'clock;  so  the  pulling  comes  at  morning  or  even- 
ing, or  both.  The  spring  tides  also  expose  a  superior  and  cleaner 
variety  of  the  plant,  which  is  "hand-pulled"  and  carefully  cured. 
Apothecaries  buy  this,  and  in  the  form  of  delicate  blanc-mange 
it  finds  a  welcome  at  the  table  and  at  the  couch  of  the  invalid. 
The  period  of  the  spring  tides  is  an  exciting  time  with  the 
mossers.  The  song  of  the  boatman  as  he  rows,  the  merry  laugh 
and  frolic  of  the  boys,  indicate  that  harvest  time  with  them  has 
come,  and  that  before  the  husbandman  has  sown  his  corn  !  It  is 
not  intended  to  intimate,  however,  that  moss-raking  is  as  pleas- 
ant as  raking  red-top  and  clover.  On  the  contrary,  many  tough 
farmer  boys,  after  wading  and  pulling  moss  among  the  rocks  on 
a  cold  morning  in  May,  would  doubtless  abandon  the  business  in 
disgust.  A  nervous  man  would  hardly  like  it.  There  is  a  certain 
animal  that  roams  among  the  rocks  around,  with  such  powerful 
pincers  as  to  inspire  a  constant  solicitude  for  the  extremities, 
and  woe  to  the  luckless  wight  who  comes  in  contact  with  them. 
Over  a  hundred  thousand  lobsters  are  taken  annually  by  the 
fishermen  of  Scituate. 
At  the  earliest  dawn  the  boats  are  launched  and  rowed  to  the 
rocks,  where  the  best  quality  may  be  found.  If  it  is  a  very  low 
ebb,  the  boat  is  forced  as  far  among  the  rocks  toward  the  shore 
as  it  will  float,  and  the  "  hand-pulling  "  is  vigorously  commenced. 
The  gatherers  are  not  confined  to  the  rocks  immediately  adjacent 
to  the  grounded  boats.  These  exhausted,  they  wade  to  others 
and  pick  into  baskets.  Great  care  is  constantly  exercised  to  get 
good,  clean  moss,  free  from  minute  shells  and  tape-grass,  for 
upon  this  the  mosser  reckons  his  price  per  pound.  This  pull 
also  receives  particular  attention  in  bleaching  and  packing,  and 
finally  fetches  two  or  three  times  as  much  as  the  common  kinds. 
