16 



abundance in isolated patches only, the number present over all 

 of the reefs is sutificient to make profitable fishing for the tongers. 

 The number of spat and young oysters below marketable size 

 is large, almost every shell brought up having several attached 

 to it. 



Outside and to the eastward of the one just described is a 

 large reef that extends outward for two and a half miles. This 

 reef is made up of oysters of good quality, but at present the 

 supply is limited, this reef, like most of the otbers, showing the 

 result of over fishing. Three or four dredging schooners have 

 fished on this reef for the greater part of the present season, 

 and between these and the tongers the supply of good oysters 

 is limited to isolated patches that have escaped notice. 



Beginning at the outer edge of a large dry reef two miles 

 out from Chenier LaCroix, in a southeasterly^ direction, there 

 is a large reef known as Diamond reef. This reef covers an 

 area of two square miles and produces oysters of fine quality. 

 An account of the history of this reef since its discovery is 

 instructive as showing the rapidity with which an especially 

 productive area may be reduced to a state of commercial barren- 

 ness by excessive fishing. At the time when this reef was dis- 

 covered four years ago two men could load a small lugger in a 

 single day, as the oysters were large and most of them occurred 

 singly, so that the labor of culling was reduced to a minimum. 

 As soon as the existence of this reef became generally known, 

 most of the boats fishing in the region flocked to the place and 

 continued to fish there during the remainder of the season, with 

 the result that at the beginning of tbe next season more than 

 three times the amount of labor had to be expended to secure 

 the same amount of oysters as in the previous season. The 

 same extensive fishing with the correspondingly curtailment of 

 the catch has gone on until at the present season there were 

 only a few scattered areas of limited extent where it was profit- 

 able for the tongers to fish. 



The men on the dredging schooners said that it was un- 

 lu'ofitable to work on this rc^ef because of the great amount of 

 cullings that must be handled while securing a small inmiber 

 of oysters, although these would be of better quality than most 

 of the ones secured elsewhere. 



