THE OYSTER. 1 47 



during which they paid me for my service to them, 

 and they also furnished aid in other ways, so that the 

 results of our examination of the beds were, in great 

 part, a gift from the University to the State. 



With such scanty means as we could command we 

 organized a plan of work, and soon accumulated 

 enough data to prove that our oyster policy is destruc- 

 tive and sure to result, ultimately, in ruin to the indus- 

 try. Our first step was to try to ascertain the condi* 

 tion of the beds by personal examination, but we 

 found that the absence of any exact data as to their 

 condition in past years rendered any inference from 

 our observations very difficult. 



In a small part of the bay exact data were on record. 

 The beds of Tangier Sound were very carefully 

 surveyed in 1878 and 1879 by Lieutenant Francis 

 Winslow, U. S. N., acting under the direction of the 

 Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey. 

 His published report is one of the most important 

 documents ever printed on the subject, and while 

 it covers only a small part of the waters of Mary- 

 land, it gives a very exhaustive account of all the 

 oyster-beds of the region examined, with their areas, 

 location, boundaries, position, general character, the 

 number of oysters to the square yard, the ratios be- 

 tween oysters of different ages, etc., so that we were 

 able to ascertain without difficulty the changes which 

 these beds have undergone in the three years which 

 had passed since this work was finished, but we were 

 unable to obtain exact information of this kind regard- 

 ing the great mass of the beds of this State. ' Lieuten- 

 ant Winslow was employed for nearly two years in the 



