Secondly, there are but two ways in which a monopoly of the shellfisheries can be obtained: one is the control of the market by buying up all the shellfish,--a thing far easier under the present conditions; the other, by buying through contract the rights of the individual planters. The success of such an enterprise would depend wholly upon the personnel of the shellfishermen, and such a result could never become possible if each shellfisherman would refuse to sell his rights. SUMMARY. This survey has shown (1) that the shellfisheries have declined (an established fact); (2) that the causes of the decline are overfishing and unwise laws; (3) that the remedy is, not to check the demand, as has been previously attempted, but to increase the production by the utilization of vast areas of barren flats, which have been experimentally proved capable of yielding a great harvest; (4) that the present chaotic laws render this impossible; (5) that there is a need of reform, or else the shellfisheries will soon disappear; (6) that the first step is the removal of these laws to permit the application of proper cultural methods. FOOTNOTES: [1] Gulf Biologic Station, Cameron, La., Bulletin No. 3, 1905. [2] Returns of Massachusetts Department of Fisheries and Game. [3] United States Fish Commission Pamphlet, 1898. [4] New York Shellfish Report, p. 7. [5] Report on the Shellfisheries, pp. 33-35. [6] Forest, Fish and Game Commission Bulletin, Shellfish Culture in New York, 1905. By B. Frank Wood. QUAHAUG (_Venus mercenaria_). Inhabiting common waters with the scallop, the northern range of the quahaug (the hard-shell clam or "little neck") in Massachusetts is Plymouth. Commercially it is found both on the north and south side of Cape Cod and in Buzzards Bay, the principal fisheries being at Wellfleet, Orleans, Edgartown, Nantucket and in Buzzards Bay. The quahaug, while essentially a southern and warm-water form, being found in the United States along the Atlantic seacoast as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, practically reaches its northern range in Massachusetts. In a few sheltered bays on the Maine coast quahaugs are sometimes found, but in small quantities. However, at Prince Edward Island there is said to be an abundance. Along the coast of Massachusetts north of Boston very few quahaugs are found, although they were formerly taken near Salem. The black quahaug (_Cyprina islandica_), so called from its dark epidermis, is often caught in the trawls, but this is a deep-sea form, and by no means a true quahaug. In Essex and Ipswich rivers and on Plum Island experimental beds have shown that quahaugs grow in these waters, but no spawn has yet been noticed, though ripe eggs were developed in the planted quahaugs. Owing to the swift currents, which carry the spawn perhaps for miles, it is impossible to determine accurately whether any set has taken place.