Abstract

Clamming

The scene is far too grand for the trivial action staged upon it. In front is the North Mountain; behind is the Basin. Between, on the vast red clay foreshore left bare by the ebb, is a solitary human figure. It is the Summer Boarder engaged in clamming. The crest and flanks of the long trap-rock wall called North Mountain are clothed with spruce forest. Clamming may be defined as the art or science of extricating the clam from his native mud. The process sounds extremely simple. There is the mud in which the clam lies embedded a few inches below the surface. Here is the hunter armed with a narrow shovel or a five-pronged stable fork. The psychology of the clam has no doubt been exhaustively studied, but possibly the observations of an. independent investigator may not be altogether without value