1064- OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



elusive, and it was necessary to supplement such testimony 

 by actual examination of all the adjacent area. Such has 

 been the course adopted. (_/") 



Dr. Brooks, describing a natural bed, says : An 

 examination of a Coast Survey chart of any part of the 

 Chesapeake Bay, or of any of its tributaries, will show that 

 there is usually a mid-channel or line of deep water, where 

 the bottom is generally soft and where no oysters are met 

 with, and on each side of this an area where the bottom is 

 hard, running from the edge of the channel to the shore. 

 This hard strip is the oyster area. It varies in width from 

 a few yards to several miles, and the depth of water varies 

 upon it from a few feet to five or six fathoms, or even 

 more. But there is usually a sudden fall at the edge of the 

 channel where the oysters stop, and we pass on to hard 

 bottom ; and a cross-section of the channel would show a 

 hard, flat plane, with oysters on each side of the deep, 

 muddy channel. The oyster bottom is pretty continuous, 

 except opposite the mouth of a tributary, where it is cut 

 across by a deep, muddy channel. The solid oyster rocks 

 are usually situated along the outer edge of this plateau, 

 although in many cases they are found over its whole 

 width, nearly up to low-tide mark, or beyond. As we 

 pass south along the bays and sounds of Virginia and 

 North Carolina, we find that the hard borders of the 

 channel come nearer and nearer to the surface, until in the 

 lower part of North Carolina there is on each side of the 

 channel a wide strip of hard bottom, which is bare at low 

 tide and covered with oysters up to high-water mark, 

 although the oysters are most abundant and largest at the 

 edge of the deep water, where they form a well-defined 



(f) Report on the Sounds and Estuaries of North Carolina, with 

 reference to Oyster Culture. By Lieutenant Francis Winslow. 



