786 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



In March, 1886, in consideration of the hydrographic 

 data to be incidentally added to the archives of the United 

 States Coast and Geodetic Survey Office, the schooner 

 " Scoresby," with a hydrographic party, was placed under 

 the command of Lieut. Francis Winslow, U.S.N., and 

 Assistant U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, to aid in the 

 development and definition of areas adapted to the culti- 

 vation of shell-fish in the sounds and estuaries of North 

 Carolina. 



Although the investigated areas lie within the boun- 

 daries, and are subject to the jurisdiction of a single State, 

 the cheapening of a universally-esteemed and valuable food 

 product by the extension of the cultivable area adapted 

 to its growth renders their development a matter not of 

 local but of general interest. The extent to which that 

 interest is affected is implied in the fact .... that 

 within the brief period of less than three years since the 

 commencement of his operations, they have resulted in the 

 development of nearly 600,000 acres of such cultivable 

 area, capable of producing annually perhaps twice or thrice 

 the product of the Maryland oyster-beds in 1880; in the 

 discouragement of excessive fishing, and consequent des- 

 truction of the shell-fisheries ; in the diffusion of informa- 

 tion and increase of public interest in the subject, with the 

 resultant organization of a State shell-fish commission, and 

 enactment of effective legislation for the protection and 

 encouragement of the shell-fishing industry, including the 

 opening for entry and record, by citizens of any State, of 

 cultivable and easily described areas or tracts for oyster- 

 beds ; under which law fully 50,000 acres of such areas 

 have already been taken up by both residents and non- 

 residents of the State. 



