OYSTER CULTURE IN AMERICA. 805 



no reason was assigned for the preference. The oysters 

 from all these beds are generally transplanted before being 

 sent to market. No oysters were found in the main channel, 

 and in the swash channel only a few, and those widely 



separated. 



. Blue Point Bed.-T\\e area of this bed is 



about 1,125,000 square yards. 



Thomas Point, Kettle Hole, and White Shoal Beds. 

 The areas (approximate) are, respectively, 949,000 square 

 yards; 1,792,000 square yards; and 1,300,000 square yards. 

 On the Kettle Hole and Thomas Point Beds no oysters 

 were found on the shoals when the falling tide exposed 

 them, but great quantities of broken shells were mixed 

 with tbe sand ; on all contiguous parts the oysters were 



very thick. 



. . . . The covering of mud over the animals was 



quite light The oysters were single and in 



small clusters, and whilst those from the Thomas Point 

 Bed were small and of an inferior quality, those from 

 Kettle Hole were larger, of good quality, and with a 

 moderate amount of white and gray sponge clinging to 

 them, and on both beds the proportion of young oysters of 

 less than a year's growth to those mature was very large. 



THE FISHERY AND ITS EFFECTS. 



The oysters are removed from the beds in the James 

 River with the tongs alone, no dredging being permitted, 

 and this may account to some extent for the beds being 

 made up of patches and ridges of oysters. This formation 

 is only advantageous in so much as it assists the rapidity of 

 the current, and in all other respects it is an evil. Beds 

 such as Cruiser's Rock, Nasemond Ridge, and Point of 

 Shoals, where the oysters in places are too thick, would be 

 much improved by using a light scrape or dredge, instesd 



