ENVIRONMENT OF THE OYSTER 96 



guard — having a circumscribed oyster area. Richmond (or Malpeque) 

 bay is of a more complete type, consisting of several modified systems 

 behind an extensive common guard. This is of a double nature. On 

 the outside and extending from the entrance of Malpeque harbour in 

 a north-westerly direction to Cascumpeque, a distance of forty-five miles, 

 there is a series of almost continuous sand-ridges varying in height from 

 20 to 45 feet. Inside of this is a chain of islands: Bill-hook\ George^, 

 Middle' and Lennox. The narrow entrance is to the east between Bill- 

 hook island and cape Aylesbury. 



The bay is irregularly quadrangular in shape, the east side being some 

 ten miles in length, the west over sixteen, while the greatest breadth is 

 about eight. It may be regarded as having five chief extensions: Darnley 

 basin with Baltic creek, March water (Malpeque bay in the restricted 

 sense) with Shipyard river on the east, the "Upper bay" with Indian, 

 Barbara Weit and some smaller rivers on the south, and the estuaries of 

 Grand river and Bideford river on the west. The eastern mainland be- 

 tween the March water and the Upper bay is almost continuous through 

 Curtain island with Bunbury island. In a similar manner the mainland 

 to the north of the March water is continuous at low tide with Grover 

 island. The channel at its narrowest part, between Bill-hook Island light 

 and Royalty point, is 8 fathoms in depth, but it soon shoals up to half as 

 much. Opposite Grover^ island it branches into the part which enters the 

 March water between Grover and Bunbury^ islands and the part which, 

 taking a wide sweep round Bunbury island, gives off branches towards 

 Bideford and Grand rivers and continues into the Upper bay. The 

 deepest parts between Curtain^ island and Bideford are about 5 fathoms, 

 in the Upper bay about 4, and in the March water about 3. Towards the 

 land on all sides the water becomes so shallow that one is able to wade 

 long distances from shore. The Malpeque wharf, situated near the 

 mouth of Shipyard river, is 1,050 feet in length. 



The great masses of the oysters are towards the south and west. 

 Deep-water beds occur along the channel to the west of Bunbury and Cur- 

 tain islands. Shallow-water oysters are most abundant in the Upper bay, 

 in Grand and Bideford rivers, about Lennox and Grover islands and in 

 the March water. 



In several respects the gulf of St. Lawrence repeats on a large scale a 

 similar structure. The island of Newfoundland forms an enormous guard 

 with exits at Cabot strait and the strait of Belleisle. A line from the 

 northern point of Cape Breton curving outwards past the Magdalen islands 

 and then inwards to cape Gaspe marks off a deep eastern and northern 

 part from a shallow western and southern portion. The great volume of 



* Locally known as Fish island * Locally known as Ram island 



2 " " " Hog island » " " " Curtain island 



« " " " Bird island « " " " Little Curtain island 



