Illustration: OYSTERMAN TONGING FOR OYSTERS IN BUZZARD'S BAY.

_Courtesy of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries._]

On the way back to Woods Hole, going down the harbor, Colin questioned
the captain of the M. B. L. boat, the _Cayadetta_,--which happened to
have been at New Bedford that afternoon, and on which he had been given
the courtesy of a passage--why there seemed to be two different kinds of
boats scattered over the harbor oystering.

"That feller's not oysterin'," the captain answered; "he's rakin'
quahogs."

"Quahogs?"

"That's clams," was the explanation; "the right name for what the people
down in New York call a 'little-neck clam.' The 'neck' is a foot, and
it's little because the quahog doesn't burrow deep. The long or soft
clam does."

"And he just pulls them up with a rake?"

"Yep," was the reply; "big rake with curved tines to it. You see he
jerks his rake along until he feels it full, then pulls it up. Now, this
feller, over on the other side here, he's not goin' after clams at all.
He's oysterin'. Ef you'll notice, he has two poles an' he works 'em
apart an' together again like a pair o' shears, an' then when he feels
he has a load, he hauls it up the same way, picks out the oysters that
are big enough, an' throws the small ones back together with the stones
an' other rubbish that he has brought up. They call that 'tonging'
oysters, an' the thing he uses is called the 'tongs.'"

"I've been wondering," said Colin, as they passed over the bay and he
noted again all the lobster-pot buoys which had interested him so
greatly on the way to New Bedford, "I've been wondering whether there
was any crabbing done up this way?"

"Not much," the captain answered; "there's one caught now an' again, but
all the good eatin' crabs belong further south. New Jersey's the place
f'r crabs, an' I reckon most o' the soft-shell crabs o' the country come
from there, but the business o' cannin' crabs is done way down in
Chesapeake Bay, where there's crabs no end."

"A soft-shell crab is just the same species as the regular blue crab,
isn't it," asked the boy; "only it has cast its shell?"

"Jus' the same," was the reply, "but for the market, an' there it's
worth four or five times as much."

"When you come to think of it," said Colin, "there isn't much in the sea
that isn't fit for food. Even the swordfish is good eating."

"There's some poisonous fish down in the tropics," was the reply, "but I
reckon that but for a