50 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



expectations, it was fouud that the topography in general had not 

 undergone many important changes since the snrvey upon which the 

 Coast Survey charts were based, and the several points could be iden- 

 titied and located with sufficient accuracy to suit the purposes of a 

 reconnaissance. 



The plan finally adopted was to run lines of timed soundings from point 

 to point, so as to cover the intervening waters by series of intersecting 

 zigzags. As the lines were rarely over 2 miles in length, the position 

 of any given sounding could be approximately determined by its time, 

 the time of beginning and ending the line being noted, aifd the speed 

 of the launch being nearly uniform on each series of soundings. Most 

 of the important beds were also located by compass bearings from 

 charted points. The charted areas of the beds, as well as their posi- 

 tions, are but approximate; but it is believed that the aggregate is 

 measurably near the truth, although individual beds might prove some- 

 what greater or less iu extent than appeared from the hurried exami- 

 nation which it was possible to make. The soundings were made by 

 means of the sounding pole devised and used by Lieutenant Swift in 

 the survey of Apalachicola Bay, and described in his report upon the 

 oyster-beds of that vicinity. Owing to lack of time no effort was 

 made to determine with exactness the number of oysters to the square 

 yard, as is done in a regular survey, and the terms ''dense," "scatter- 

 ing," and "very scattering" are relative in their application to this field 

 only. Dense and scattering beds are such as can be worked with profit 

 by means of tongs. " Very scattering " beds are shown on the chart with 

 some ambiguity — in a few places, especially in the lagoons, denoting 

 a growth, which it hardly pays to work, sparsely distributed over the 

 entire bottom; in other places, as in the northern part of West Karako 

 Bay, representing small beds more or less dense, distributed at irregu- 

 lar intervals, and in the text described as "scattered in patches," or in 

 somewhat similar terms. Such beds can be worked with profit. 



The investigation in St. Bernard Parish was under the direction of 

 Lieut. Franklin Swift, U. S. N., commanding the Fish Haivl: The 

 liydrograi)hic field work and the location of the oyster-beds was carried 

 on by Mate J. A. Smith, U. S. N., and by Mr. Eugene Veith, of the 

 steamer Fish Hawl-. 



After the Fish Haich concluded the reconnaissance in St. Bernard 

 Parish, the writer was instructed to make an examination of the oyster- 

 grounds of Louisiana west of that region. In jjursuance of the latter 

 purpose, he left the ship at Bay St. Louis upon its departure for the 

 north on February 25, and proceeded to several places in Phujuemines 

 Parish, where boats were hired, and all the principal natural beds and 

 planting-grounds were examined. At Grand Isle, on Barataria Bay, a 

 lugger was secured and an examination made of all the oyster-grounds 

 in the vicinity, after which a cr^uise was nuide to the westward, under 

 the guidance of men familiar with the region, as far as Morgan City, all 

 of the oyster regions, with the exception of the upper waters of Terre- 



