Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1893-06-30

the profits not so great as in oysters.
The clans are dug at points as far as
twenty miles from Olympia. Those
i'll the immediate vicinity of the city
are not good, because of the drainage.
Any person who has lived on Puget
Sound at least one summer knows
how to dig CLAIMS. Clam-diggings and
clam-bakes are all the rage during the
summer months. A spade, sack
and pair OF gum boots, and you have
the professional clam.digger's tools.
lie usually works alone. Frequently
he has small boy with him to pick
the clans out OF the sand as fast as
he turns them up, and put them in
the sack. After the tide goes out the
digger sinks his spade into the sand
and digs backward, throwing the sand
out on either side. The CLANS are
found at depths varying from three
inches to foot. They indicate their
whereabouts by the holes in the sand
through which they suck the sea
water. After they have absorbed the
animal life from the brine, they eject
it through the hole leading down TO
their rural retreat. This is the signal
for the digger to sink his spade down
beside the hole and bring up mess
OF clans. A sack of CLANS can be dug
in few hours.
A curious power conferred upon
the clam by his maker is the one that
enables him to dig hole in the sand.
How he does it is mystery. He has
no legs or arms, nothing but mass
OF black that is commonly called the
CLAIMS head. 1t is misnomer. This
black thing that can sometimes
stretch out two and three inches is
his "hcel," and with it he can dig a
hole in the sand with remarkable
rapidity. He can sink out of sight in
a sand bed almost before you can turn
around. Amusing stories can no
doubt be told about the races of clam
diggers with CLAIMS. Take clam and
an oyster apart some time and see
how they are made. 1t is most in
teresting form of study. Oysters can
live a week after being removed from
sea water, but clans die easily. When
an oyster is lifted out of his native
element. he closes his shell and re-
tains a supply OF sea water, from
which he absorbs nourishment. 1t
is n mistake to throw fresh water upon
a sack of oysters or clans, in hopes OF
reviving them. They think it is sea
water, open their shells and lose the
water they had retained.
The fish business of Olympia is
controlled by two Portland firms-G.
Covsch & Co, and Gustin & Co. They
employ about ten men and use six or
seven fishing boats. Most of the fish
is caught within the limits OF Budd's
Inlet, sometimes in the channel south
of the draw bridge. They make good
hauls of smelt, sea bass, founder and
perch. The fish are caught the way
they have been caught for thousands
OF years, with a net. Operations are
carried on almost all the time. Puget
Sound smelt are said to be somewhat
smaller than those caught in the Co
lumbia river. but possess much
sweeter and better flavor. All the
shipments of these fishermen 60 TO
Portland, likewise hundreds of sacks
of oysters and CLANS. In pounds the
average weekly shipments amount to
oysters, 10000 pounds, fish 5000, and
clans 5000. These figures merely
relate to the shipments made by Pa
ciic express. The shipments by
steamer are fully half as much more.
No account has been taken in this
article of the home consumption OF
oysters, fish an clans. There is profit
in the business at every turn. Oysters
cost the retail dealer the same as the
wholesaler. The retail man makes
his money by Smelling the oysters and
serving them to customers at % cents
a pint. Sometimes they are packed
and shipped into the interior. A gal
Ion of packed oysters can be easily
developed into two gallons by the addi-
ton OF water.
OF clans, the supply OF finest in the
world, of several varieties, seems in.
exhaustible, and varying in size from
the ordinary yield to the guayduck"
of 10 or II pounds. About $50 sacks
per week were shipped and consumed
in the winter and spring months
This industry in full amounts to $lO,'
600 per annum.
In connection with the foregoing is
suggested an industry that gave Balti.
more its commercial importance.
The canning and shipping of oysters
amounts to millions and millions oil
dollars annually to the cities on
Chesapeake Bay, and to Baltimore in
particular. The possibility of Olym-
pia being thus developed is not at all
Utopian.