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Sorting out sizes, good from bad, etc. The larger oysters bring the best prices in the shell;
so most of the small ones are opened and sold in bulk.

While there are still many independent oyster-fishermen, it may be said in general that the beds are divided into large holdings leased by wealthy corporations which maintain finely equipped fleets and mammoth packing and distributing stations. Sailing craft have gradually fallen

Gathering the Harvest

The improved dredge has a triangular iron frame, to whose apex is made fast the chain by which it is manipulated. To the base of the triangle is fastened the mouth of a large sack, the lower half of which is composed of metal links; and

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The oysters in baskets are to be sent to market in the shell. Those piled on the floor are to be opened and shipped in bulk by the gallon.

the upper half, of fish-net. The mouth is held open by iron bars, the lower one being armed with formidable teeth.

When the boat reaches the scene of operations, its two dredges are thrown overboard, one over each side. The balancing of the frame is such that the dredge always lands upon the sea-bottom with the chain-net and toothed bar undermost. As the vessel proceeds with the dredges in tow, the teeth tear the oysters from their attachments, and they are scooped into the sacks, which hold several bushels each. At regular intervals a signal is given; the chain rattles. through the block; and the dredge, bulging with riches, rises from the cool depths, disgorges its dripping cargo upon the deck, and again sinks from view. The bunches are broken apart and rapidly sorted into heaps of various-sized oysters; and the broken shells and other debris are shoveled over the side. By the time this is done, another dredge-load falls upon the deck; and the work, like Penelope's web, is begun anew.

The territory is systematically worked, the boats moving slowly in concentric cir

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WASHING AND MEASURING THE SMALL OYSTERS AFTER OPENING AND BEFORE PACKING.

guide and measure, the yeasty wake of the steamer quickly melts into the universal blue, and the marine farmer must depend upon distant landmarks and the instinct of the seafarer to shape his course over his unseen meadows.

The tide is the oysterman's clock. When it comes creeping back to embrace the shore it so lately deserted, the dredges are hoisted for the last time, and the heavily laden craft turned homeward. As it nears the shore, it is met by a squadron of flat-bottomed scows, to which the oysters are transferred in baskets. The scows are poled or sculled up a fresh-water creek, known colloquially

as the drink; and here the much-traveled bivalves are dumped overboard, to gorge themselves with the fluid until the next low tide. This treatment washes out a portion of the salt, improves the flavor of the mollusks, and increases their plumpness.

When the fickle sea again recedes, the oysters are returned to the baskets with pitchforks having long, curved tines and short handles, and are transported to the oyster house. The scow is pushed under the floor of the structure, which is supported by piles, and the baskets are hoisted into the building through a hatchway.

Sorting and Marketing

Here the final sorting occurs, the sizes being carefully graded, and all diseased or injured specimens and empty shells thrown aside to be utilized for a variety of purposes which have no bearing upon this story. The larger oysters bring the best prices in the shell, and are packed in bushel baskets for shipment, while the smaller ones are removed to the opening room. Here, standing before a long row of tables, are the openers, each armed for the fray. Faster than the eye can follow, the shells are wrenched open, and the contents removed and thrown into water. After washing and measuring, comes the final packing; and the oyster, torn from his native element, naked as he was born, helpless and smothering in his own juices, is ready to be rushed along by rail and water to grace the table of his natural enemy and self-constituted "protector"-man.

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Easy There!

OUT the time you get to thinkin' that you're gittin' on a bit, An' you jingle of your money as you stroll and strut about, Better keep your peepers open, for your life ain't over yet, An' there's always lots of danger when the chest is swellin' out.

EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATION CAMP ON GROUNDS OF U. S. NAVAL OBSERVATORY.
Three polar axes set up and being tested.-Main building of Observatory in background.

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How Eclipses are Studied

The Equipment, Methods, and Aims of Eclipse Expeditions

I

By C. H. CLAUDY

Author of "Press Photography," "Elementary Photomicroscopy," Etc.

T will be news to many people that there occur every year at least two eclipses of the sun, and that the most usual number of these phenomena is. four in one year. Solar eclipses are more numerous than lunar, by a ratio of nearly three to two. But while an eclipse of the moon is always visible over more than half the earth, a solar eclipse, and particularly a total eclipse, is visible only to a restricted area, so that the great majority of mankind see a good many more lunar than solar eclipses. Total solar eclipses average one every year and ahalf, visible to some part of the earth. The average track of totality, however, is only between sixty and seventy miles. wide, and a total eclipse happens at any given station only about once in every 360 years. For instance, in the nineteenth century there were but seven total eclipses visible in the United States; and the same number will occur, visible to this country, in this present century.

Importance of Total Solar Eclipses

The solar eclipse is the one opportunity the astronomer has of investigating certain phenomena of the sun, which he can observe at no other time. The sun is so obscured by its own light, paradoxical as such a statement may seem, that his most wonderful manifestations-the corona, chromosphere, and photosphere, and the coronal prominences-are entirely invisible, either to the eye of an observer or to the eye of the camera, during daylight. The atmosphere, too, has a great part to play in this obscurity, radiating so much light in all directions that a veritable screen of light is formed, which prevents observation upon the less brightly lighted portions of the sun. During an eclipse, however, the sun is covered from view by the moon, and the coronal prominences and streamers, and the photosphere and chromosphere, are visible in great beauty, not only to the eye, butwhat is now of much greater importance

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Map showing path of totality, limits of shaded area, hours of beginning and ending, etc. Hours are expressed in Greenwich mean time.

-to the camera, the spectroscope, and the spectroscopic camera. Until recently all eclipse observations were visual, and the reports of the various observers were carefully compared and averaged for the result. But, as no two men ever see a thing exactly alike, the results were not all that could be desired. Moreover, since the time of totality is limited to a few minutes at most (three minutes' totality is considered a long eclipse), visual observation is naturally limited; and for study and measurement there is no time at all. All this is changed now, when the camera is worked to its limits, and the entire energies of astronomers are directed to making photographs of the eclipse in divers ways, with many varieties of cameras, and with modifications of the camera known by other names, as "spectrographs," "chronospectrographs,"

etc.

Spectacular Phenomena

The phenomena of a solar eclipse are spectacular and beautiful. Nothing happens worthy of particular note before totality is reached, except the peculiar shadows cast by the trees when the sun is more than half covered. Every little interstice in the leaves of a tree is

normally acting as a pinhole lens, and throwing on the ground a real image of the sun, seen as a circular disc of light. When the sun is half covered by the interposing moon, it appears as a crescent, and the rings of light upon the ground also change their form to little crescents. Darkness commences to be felt perhaps ten minutes before totality, and the light becomes more and more unreal as the sun is covered. The light from the edges of the sun is very deficient in blue and violet rays, and the result is a light which strongly resembles calcium. The temperature, of course, falls; sometimes dew appears; chickens go to roost; dogs and other animals seem disturbed; and a general air of unreality pervades everything. If the observer can so stand that he can see the distant horizon, he can see the moon's shadow coming like a black thunder-cloud, rushing on with incredible swiftness, ranging from one thousand to five thousand miles an hour, according to the time of day and the latitude at which the eclipse is seen.

It is dark during a total eclipse, of course, but ordinarily not so dark as night, even a moonlit night. The corona and chromosphere give at least three to four times the light of the full moon,

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