CLAL'LAM, SKLALAM. or NCSKLALA. A Salishan tribe, formerly of considerable impor tance, occupying the greater part of the coast extending west from Puget Sound, in ClaIlam Comity, Wash. They still number about 330, attached to the Puyallup Agency.
CLAM (older form also damp, from the firm clamp of the shell, S. bond, OlIG. Ham ma, narrow pass; cf. also Dutch Hump, cleat). The popular manse of many widely various .bivalve mollusks, especially those good to eat. In the United States it commonly designates either the quohog ( Venus ,ncrecnaria), distinguished as the hard or round clam. or else the manni nose (.1iya arcauria), called long or soft clam. The former is a heavy, globose shell. allied to the cockles, which plows its way along sandy bottoms, standing erect upon its thin edge, and is obtained wholly by raking. in water from 10 to 40 feet in depth. It abounds from Cape Cod to Florida, and also near Shediae, New Brunswick. and is the common 'clam' of Nev York markets, where small ones (young) are much esteemed under the name of 'little necks.' after Little Neck, Long Island. whence they orig inally came. In Boston and New England the Indian name 'quohog' attaches to this, and usually means the Mya. called 'soft clams' elsewhere. These are of a very different charac ter, having comparatively thin. smooth, elongat ed shells. a protrusile, blade-like foot. adapted to digging, and siphons that may be longer than the -hell. They remain sunken in the sand of the shore, between tide-marks. their siphon mouths just at the surface, and when disturbed they eject a spurt of water as they withdraw to safer depths. These clams are obtained by digging at ]ow tide: and they are cultivated by the protection of certain favorable areas of sea beach, where they soon lie almost as thick as paving-stones. Formerly enormous quantities of both these clams, with razor-clams, etc.. were gathered and salted in New England as bait for the cod-fisheries, but this demand has diminished. Great Britain has the 'gaper.' a closely allied species. hut it is not so popular. On the New England coast two other large mollusks of deep water are eaten when obtainable, under the name of beach, sea, or surf elaml—especially Spisula solidissima. The Southern States have a large edible species. also, in the painted clam (('a/lista
iiiflualca)• On the Pacific Coast — to which Eastern clams have been transplanted with some success. and are constantly sent, refrigerated, for immediate consumption—several edible bi valves are used. for some of which the term has been borrowed. Thus, the California 'flat is a species of Semele, and others are of the genera Tapes. Saxidonms. and Glyeymeris. The *geodn•k; gathered for food by the Indians of the Northwest Coast. is GlyCyliPTIS yrlicrosq. The shells of most of these were formerly used by the natives in manufacturing the various Leads and shell ornaments which passed as money among them. (See SuEtf.-MosEv.) In land, the word 'clam' refers to some of the many fresh-water mussels. (see 'Alussr.i..) The 'giant' clam of the East Indies (Tridarna giyas) is the greatest of living mollusea. it; soft part amounting to 20 pounds of edible flesh, while the deeply hollowed shells may weigh 500 "In some eliundies of France they are employed to hold the holy water—a use which well with the beautiful white of the inner surface of the shell. . . . In many of the islands, stones are unknown: hut, as a sub stitute, the natives make their knives aml axes from the fragments of this shell." Sec Colored Plate of CLAMS AND EDIBLE Mt ssEL.s.
FoSSIL FORMS. The genus \lya ('soft' or long' clam) appeared in Tertiary tithe, with species that show little difference from those now living. So with the genus Maetra. The family Venerida?, to which the little-neek clam incrcenaria) belongs. is an old one: it began in the Aliddle Jurassic, with small spe •ies of rounded form, can often with diffi culty be distinguished from the accompanying species of Cyprinidic. The genera Tapes, Cythe rea, and Cyprimeria are abundant in Cretace ous rocks, Cytherea in the Eocene, and Venus in the Aliocene. Shells of several species of Venus are extremely common, and finely pre served in the :Miocene sands and marls of some localities in Virginia and southern Europe. For _American clams of all sorts. consult : Goode, Fishery Industries. see. i. (Washington. 18841: Lovell, Edible Mollusks of Great Britain, etc. (London, 1884). For fossil forms, see 'TERTIARY: MIOCENE. See Colored Plate of CLAMS AND EDI BLE MUSSELS.