Year: 1876

it is true, but they are well kept and COM
Portable. Their owners, at least, have faith
i'll lime and soap as their houses are gen.
orally kept well whitewashed, and when
the luxury of a carpet is impossible
well secured floor does not detract from the
comfort of their interiors.


OBSERVANCE OF TIE SABBATH.


| have never been in community where
there was a more general observance of the
Sabbath. Not that the people generally
are especially religious or devout, but they
at least entertain creditable regard for
the observances of the Christian Sabbath,
and decent respect for its institutions.
Morning and night of each recurring Sab
bath day, the four white and two colored
churches of the Island are filled with wor-
shippers. Secular pursuits are entirely laid
aside, and l know of one instance in par
ticular, where 4 well known Judge of one
of the City Courts in Baltimore very seri-
ously offended the religious sentiment of
the people of the Island, by fishing on
Sunday. The churches of the Island en-
brace: one Methodist Episcopal Church,
one Baptist, one Methodist Protestant and
one Southern Methodist Church, while the
colored inhabitants maintain two for their
exclusive use.


OYSTER PRODUCTION.


Chincoteague is a port of entry of the
Cherrystone Customs District, and has
custom house, at which are licensed and
enrolled nearly one hundred and forty YES
sells engaged in oystering and other pur-
suits. A large proportion of these vessels
are engaged in planting during the early
season, while the carrying trade to the city
markets is done by about thirty vessels,
which, in the course of season, make an
average of about eight corgoes each, aver
aging about six hundred bushels of oysters
to the cargo. This trade alone yields an
annual production of about one hundred
and forty four thousand bushels of oysters,
which, at the average price of sixty five
cents per bushel, amounts to the handsome
sum of $685. In addition to this trade,
an incompatible quantity is carried by
small vessels. The value of the whole
annual product may be very safely stated
at 800, 600. This is the important industry
of the Island, and upon which every other
interest relies. Few or no native oysters
are marketed. Indeed, the entire Bay is
one immense bed of oysters, marked by
stakes indicating the lines Of individual
ownership. The oysters are taken early in
the season from their native beds in the
lower Bay, and in some instances in the
Chesapeake, and are replanted or rebedded,
where they remain from two to three years,
before they are Of marketable size. Gen
orally they attain sufficient growth in two
years. Their increase in value for that
time is from ten to fifteen cents per bushel
as plants, to the average Of sixty five cents
as marketable oysters. Chicoteague oysters
are nearly all single ones and find a market
principally in Philadelphia and New York,
where they are particularly esteemed. In
Baltimore, oysters are bought and resold
10y the bushel, but in Philadelphia and New
York they are often purchased from the
vessel, assorted and resold by the thousand.
The finest Chincoteague oysters find their
way to the ''raw boxes" of city restaur-
ants and saloons. When navigation is
closed in the Winter, and transportation is
limited to the railroad, the oysters packed
in barrels bring fabulous price, sometimes
reaching as high as $40 per barrel | never
had particular fancy for raw oysters,
either as an appetizer or otherwise, but
must confess that if prime Chincoteague
oysters were always at hand, | should pre-
fer them raw to any manner in which they
could he cooked, unless that be genuine
bay side roast. By the way, if the reader
of this letter has never tasted an oyster
roasted in the manner refer to, there can
be no sympathy between us on the oyster
question if he does not pronounce Mat the
mess of his life. | have had but one, and
frankly own that | never really enjoyed an
oyster before. | mean salt one. Not he
of doubtful brackiSh water paternity, or his
still sicklier brother of unenviable fresh
water notoriety. Charles Lamb has des-
canted charmingly upon the discovery and
virtues of roast pig. But were he of this
day and generation, to seat himself by the
side of a roaring fire from which he plucked
as brands from the burning. his tizzing,
ordorous bivalve, reeking with its native
juices, he would sing in even more enchant-
ing language the praise of roast Chinco-
teagne oysters. Two sticks of pine cord
wood, thick and substantial, make the base
of the pyramid from the apex of which are
to be taken a mess fit for the palate of a
king. On these are placed crosswise other
sticks, laid closely side by side, upon which
the oysters are emptied after being covered
with sea grass, and through the insterstices
of which the blazing flames kndled under
meath soon wrap in their fiery embrace.
Seated on pine logs, cushioned with their
native bark, you take your place to the
windward of the roasting pyre. Your
master of ceremonies lin my case as clever
a judge of a good oyster as could be found
the country round) hands you large oyster
Shell selected for its depth and capacity.
1t is hot one, too. Be careful as you take
it you do not burn your fingers, as did.
| did not know its use, but still did not
betray my ignorance, but followed the ex-
ample of my practiced leader. In his shell
he dropped good round lump of butter,
on which, as it whizzed and fizzled, he
poured vinegar enough to put stop to its
greasy restlessness. Here, take this cloth.
wrap well with it your left hand, one small
oyster knife is all the appliance you need.
Your fragrant bivalves come at you thick
and fast with open mouths, and as dipped
in the melted butter, they reach your own,
your courage and appetite rise equal to the
occasion, until you cease the gastronomic
process from sheer want of accommodating
capacity.


But the length of this letter already
warns me that space is exhausted, and
shall leave to my next the "Story of Chin
colleague Ponies" and other interesting
features of the mysterious Island.


T.


......Best assortment of Boots and Shoes in Cecil