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many other varieties of delicious table fish, some of them ob-
tained at each and all seasons of the year, and easily caught
by traps, weirs, the seine, or hook and line.

In the way of shell fish there are most abundant, large
and widely dispersed beds of oysters of the finest flavor, and
furnishing employment to millions of capital and thousands
of laborers every year, hard crabs, soft crabs, maninoes,
turtles, and last, but by no means least, the diamond black
terrapin, wonderfully esteemed by epicures, and yet so deli-
cate and easily digested, that the daintiest invalid need fear
any ill consequences from a hearty meal.

The above variety of game and fish belong not to one or
several localities, but are widely diffused throughout every
part of this section and easily obtained with but slight labor
or with but little expense, and frequently are contiguous to
the gardens and orchards of the inhabitants.

This is the variety, this the abundance which this section
offers to its settlers, can it be matched elsewhere in the old
or in the new world ?

The value of the oyster trade and the traffic in canned fruits
from this section may be estimated with some degree of cor-
rectness from a perusal of the following statement from the
Baltimore price current for 1866.

OYSTERS AND CANNED GOODS.

"Baltimore continues the great centre for this class of goods,
especially as relates to oysters and most kinds of fruits and
vegetables, and the past year has more fully demonstrated
her peculiar advantages of position for it.

The houses prosecuting the trade have increased during the
year 1866, and now number upwards of forty, employing
more than 4,000 persons of both sexes, in the various depart-
ments of shucking, packing, peeling, preserving. &c.

The oyster packing commences in September, and continues
to June 15th, though the great bulk of the hermetically seal-
ed varieties are prepared for market within about three and a
half months, when the oyster is in perfection. The quantity
of oysters brought to this market, is fully 5,000,000 bushels,
though some dealers estimate the receipts at seven millions
Some two millions of these are packed raw, in cans (iced) of
1/2 to 1 gallon in size, requiring about 4,250,000 cans and
200,000 cases. The balance of say 3,000,000 bushels, are
hermetically sealed. The average daily consumption for the
whole season is upwards of 20,000 bushels, but during the
three and a half months of hermetically sealed activity, the
consumption is upwards of 47,000 bushels daily !

The raw or fresh oyster branch gives employment to about
1,200 persons—shucking, packing, &c. The shuckers are
principally negroes.