OYSTER CULTURE IN AMERICA. 793 



were more frequently made than the others, and the cur- 

 rent was measured ojdry at such points as would give a fair 

 idea of the general set of the flood and ebb tides ; but 

 whenever an oyster specimen was taken, all the observa- 

 tions, with the exception of those for strength and direction 

 of current, were made. 



Only general instructions could be given as to the 

 points on the beds where it was desirable to obtain speci- 

 mens of any kind, of observations for temperature or cha- 

 racter of bottom, and much was necessarily left to the dis- 

 cretion of the officer of the boat, not only with regard to 

 those points, but also as to the general delineation of the 

 beds. 



So far as it went the work was satisfactory, but there 

 were three great drawbacks to the use of the boats, viz. : 

 The time and labour necessary to effect anything with 

 them, the inability to use the pole with any accuracy in 

 depths over three fathoms, and the failure of the pole to 

 discover anything but the solid beds. We attempted to 

 use with the boats a small and light dredge made especially 

 for us, but found it impracticable, the largest boat, when 

 under oars, fully manned, or when under sail in a stiff 

 breeze, being unable to tow the dredge or even to move 

 it ; consequently the boats were useless for collecting any 

 information, except over solid beds in less than three 

 fathoms of water. 



To define the limits of those beds lying in deeper 

 water and of those not entirely solid, or where the oysters 

 were scattered either in groups or singly, recourse was had 

 to dredging with the schooner, using an ordinary oyster 

 dredge of thirty-six inches width and with twelve teeth. 

 This method was found to be so much more satisfactory in 

 all respects, that all the boat work, whenever it was 



