The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-01-25
THE RHODE ISLAND CLAM.
shOveIinS In the sIud-Baking tho CLANS
-Quahaugs- Chowder.

the fats across the bay from Nayatt,
on the Con1mlcut shore and on Green's
island. AS far up as Pawtuxet and
about Sabin's point the clans are con-
sidered hard, glue-shelled, and gritty;
but across at Bullock's point they are
good, and the Builock's pointers get
their clans right at home. TWo-thirds
of the clans are got by ''churning."
The clam gang Wades out over the bed
and shoYels up mud and clans and ev
erything that comes along into big wire
baskets, which, when about full, are
lifted out of the water, and rinsing
and shaking washes out the mud and
leaves the CLANS. Two men and
shO, cling in the mud, the second get
ting out the clans, and the boy ''cull-
ing" them. Churning can only be done
at about half-tide, when the water is
two or three feet deep, as, by the time
the workman has to put his head under
water when he bends over at shoveling,
he soon has to give up the job. The
suction on the shovels is tremendous,
and they are made exceptionally strong.
When there are good tides, on the
full and change of the moon, the clans
may be raked ont after the manner of
non-professional diggerS; shovelful of
mud is turned up at the time, and the
CLAIMS it contains are raked out with the
clam-hoe. Consideration of either of
the above methods is sufficient for true
understanding of the happiness of the
clam in high water. The clam ordinar
lily lies in the mud from two to eighteen
inches; clam that would bury itself
much deeper than eighteen inches is not
to be looked upon with favor. 1t is
hot h al y loo Il
working as they do five or six hours at
a time in the water, and so hard as to
be constantly wet with perspiratiOn.
The tide was about half in, and the
mud flats were scattered over with all
sorts of refuse, shells and weeds. The
captain bent down and picked up what
looked at first like a minute, broken off
bit of clam-shell, but as it lay in his
hand, a closer look re, called it a per-
fectly-formed clam shell, a beautiful OBJ
ject, not as big as babys little finger
nail, as white as alabaster, and the light
showing pink through its delicate sub
stance The least pressure would have
crushed it to almost invisible atoms.
That's a clam" said the captain,
chats maybe three weeks old, and
you'll find millions about here.
AS quick as they get any sic they
will begin to burrow down into the
mud. The whole shore Is covered with
them, and in all my experience of thirty
years never saw such a set They
are so thick that the prospect is they
will not grow fast, and it will take two
or three years for them to get big
enough unless they die off. A handful
of these will make more'n bushel when
they are grown up" A careful look
over the muddy beach revealed these
beautiful miniature elam-Shells yet
without a trace of meat within them in
hundreds, and q microscope would have
shown thousands where the few were
visible to the naked eye.
Well, once the clans are out of the
water and in the boats, they are towed
to shore, where they are piled in shed,
picked over, and carefully washed. Five
or six men are employed constantly at
this work at the larger resorts. The
preparation of the pile on which the
CLAIMS are to bake Is the next step, and
this is done on much the same plan
everywhere; pile of wood is laid, on
every layer of which cobblestOnes are
placed, and the burning of the wood
heats the stones and makes them ready
to have the clans thrown on top.
At Rocky point, instead of build
ing the pile on the ground it is laid on
surface of stone cemented with fire-clay,
and some such plan has been adopted
in other places. This allows of the
stones being pulled off after the wood is
consumed and the plate swept clear of
ashes, when the stones are piled on it
again. Over the hot stones q mass of
rockwell is piled, and the sight of line
of walters with tubs of CLAIMS between
them running at breakneck speed for
the pile, forming circle about it. and
employing the tubs on top with concerted
effort, is familiar. Over the whole the
canvas is laid, seaWeed is heaped, and a
fragrant steam arises from the pile.
Twenty minutes later the CLAIMS are
ready for the table.
The Rhode Island clam is, alas, going
out of use for chowder. 1t has too
much grit in its belly, and when it is
cut up it makes a chOwder not agreeable
to look at; and SO about two-thirds of
the ohowder clans are quahaugs- SO to
express it, Old-fashioned people say
the quahaugs are white and clean and
palatable thus prepared, and of late
years have come into general use. If
the visitor to Rocky point should chance
to stroll down toward the beach behind
the laundry house he would discover
near the water an old shed. Against
the side facing him is a huge pile of
quahaug shells, and through a slit
that runs the whole length of
the shed quahaug shells are flying
out in a way at once mysterious and
startling But behind the opening is a
bench, and at the bench are three OF
four men opening quahaugs for chow
der ''cut-o outs they call them, and a
few of the largest clans are also cut
out for the same purpose. The qua
haugs come from Edgartown, and a
schooner brings 900 or 900 bushels of
them every fortnight, which are
emptied in shed where the water con-
stantly flows over them. Cuahaugs
grow" close to the surface of the mud
and are raked ont the same as oysters,
or may be ~trod out" at low water.
Three hundred gallons of chowder
make an average course for good-sized
excursion party. Fatent clam choppers
chew longnecks and littlenecks into
tidbits in no time to put into the cauld-
ron.
The shells are about the only things
left after a well organized excursion
party has attacked clam bake. These
are carted off and dumped on some
stretch of waste land. The accumula
ted shells of a season of some eighty
days is considerable. They lie in the
sun until the following spring. Then
%hax enroa6 ovar tho P0a6C and