THE OYSTER INDUSTRY OF GEORGIA. 271 



at low water to be 1*0067. At one-half flood tide it was 1-0124 at the surface, while 

 at the bottom it was 1-0214. Three fall-grown starfish were dredged up. One of 

 them, placed in the surface water, died in twenty-four hours. 



We know that attempts have been made to introduce the American oyster in 

 France, and while it survives but will not spawn at Arcachon, in a density of 1-023, 

 it perishes in the general density of the French coast of 1-026, the difference being 

 only 0*003. Dr. Bashford Dean says: . 



In the southern oyster the greater saltness of the water is at once apparent in the richness of 

 many forms of food regarded as exclnsivly marine, as Triceratitm Jams and several Tricwatia, 

 apparently undescribed, that I have seen in the Caribbean Sea. The lack of brackish-water diatoms 

 affords a marked contrast to the Lon<£ Island forms. 



It appears from the report of the North Carolina survey, by Lieut. Francis Wins- 

 low, that no oysters were found in the deep-water sections. 



We know the density increases with the depth. Ensign Drake reported the 

 surface density at the mouth of Wilmington River at 1-0271, which is in excess of the 

 density fatal in France, and it was probably still greater at 20 to 35 feet deep, a 

 little higher up the river, after the two seasons of excessive drought which had suc- 

 ceeded the planting and during which the river could have brought down only a 

 small quantity of fresh water. Large lakes in Florida and Georgia had gone dry, as, 

 for instance, Lake Newman, or Paiue's Prairie, 68,000 acres; and Lake Miccosukee, 

 9,099 acres. I took out of the basin of the latter, about 3 acres in extent (at one spot 

 65 feet deep), with one seine, in four days, 123 barrels of terrapin, and 6 barrels with 

 the first haul. All the trout had perished as soon as the water became stagnant. 

 They had been so abundant that the dried carcasses still lined the shore. Buzzards 

 had not been numerous enough to devour them, although I counted 91 on an area 

 not more than an eighth of an acre. The shores of the lake had been pleasure-grounds 

 for fishing parties from the neighboring counties of Georgia and Florida, and the 

 lake had supplied the population with fresh fish ; yet the neighboring farmers were 

 congratulating themselves upon the destruction of the trout, because they had 

 afforded a precarious support to and demoralized their labor. Whatever be the 

 cause, the fact remains, that the deep waters of Georgia within or beyond the 1,000 

 feet limit must be excluded from ground heretofore held fit for oyster culture, and 

 it emphasizes the value of the last law, which slightly increased the actually valua- 

 ble area subject to lease, especially in Chatham County. Without that accession 

 Chatham County would have to rely, at no distant day, upon the cultivated crops from 

 less than 100 acres to supply the population of Savannah (now over 50,000) and its 

 entire oyster trade. 



Ensign Drake estimated the entire area of the State fit for oyster-culture at 30,000 

 acres, of which 6,000 is outside and 24,000 inside the 1,000 feet limit, and of this latter 

 the Oemler Oyster Company have demonstrated the unfitness of about 500 acres in 

 Chatham County alone, and that of the entire 6,000 acres of the State in mid-stream. 



When the oyster-canning compauies went into operation they anticipated the 

 temporary use only of the inferior coon oysters until they should be able to avail 

 themselves of the product of their non-cultivated grouuds, but the disastrous expe- 

 rience here aud at Brunswick has shown that such companies can not become self- 

 sustaining, because they now lack the territory on which to grow a better quality of 

 stock than the native coon oysters. The best of these are not satisfactory and yield 



