47 



water in them is influenced very markedly by the rains, and 

 was at the time when these observations were made, much 

 fresher than the water in the sound and in the bayous. Th-^ 

 salinity of the water in these pools varied from 1.000, in tin 

 case of a pool near the lighthouse at the north end of the islands, 

 to 1.022 in some of the pools where the surrounding marsh was 

 very low and an overflow from the sound most to be expected. 

 The pools at the north end of the islands are on higher ground 

 than the others and the water in these is said to be fresh all 

 the time. Oysters were found growing in almost all of tho 

 pools in the marsh in greater or less numbers, and many clus- 

 ters of elongated "coony" oysters were found in the marsh along 

 the banks of the inlets where they were above the water 

 most of the time. In the pools the oysters were iTSually ar- 

 ranged in clusters attached to an empty shell that was buried 

 deep in the mud, but in almost every pool a few large single 

 oysters were found, either lying on the surface of the mud or 

 buried deeply with only the open ends of their shells projectinr,' 

 above the bottom. Many of these single oysters ^^were from 

 seven to ten inches long and well rounded.- 



"Whatever hard body had served as an attachment for th-3 

 spat when these oysters settled down had long since disinte- 

 grated and left no trace of itself on the shell. Many broken 

 stems of the sedges that grow about the pools were floating on 

 its surface, and it is probable that these may serve as an attach- 

 ment for spat at the breeding season. Such woody stems when 

 sulimerged in the water would persist for a sufficient time 

 for the young oysters to have attained a size large enough to 

 make it certain that they would be in n^ danger r^ settling into 

 the mud and becoming covered up. A material of this kind 

 would make an ideal spat collector, as the liberation of the 

 oysters from the danger of crowding is assured, and only well 

 rounded individuals could result from the use of such a form 

 of clutch. 



The clusters in the pools bear a dense growth of young 

 oysters, and wherever any hard body was found on the bottom 

 there were always a large number of young attached to it. 



The oysters making up the clusters on the banks of th? 

 inlets were much smaller than those found in the pools, and 



