The North Carolina Field 247 



oystermen made great preparations for the season of 

 1898-9. A large number of dredging vessels and tong- 

 ing boats began work with its opening and continued to 

 its close. The total number of oysters marketed was 

 greater than ever before, 1,559,000 bushels being cred- 

 ited to the dredgers, and 900,000 to the tongers. 



Naturally, hopes for the season of 1899- 1900 were 

 high, but it brought disappointment, for dredgers and 

 tongers together succeeded in gathering about 1,900,000 

 bushels, a number far below that expected. In many 

 cases dredgers were not able to pay expenses by their 

 catch. The season's work clearly developed the fact 

 that the source of supply was limited. The optimism 

 of the previous years, that could see nothing but an in- 

 exhaustible supply, gave way to the fear, in many minds, 

 that the beds were being destroyed by excessive dredging. 



Another explanation for the decrease was offered, 

 however. In the months of August and October of the 

 year 1899, terrific southeast gales had torn the bottom, 

 and had cast upon the west and northwest shores of the 

 sound large numbers of oysters from shallower beds. 

 It also covered many shore beds with mud and sand. It 

 was asserted that waves in the open sound had been 

 large enough to drag bottom, and that shifting sand had 

 thus covered and destroyed oysters enough to account 

 for the great decrease in their number on the beds. 



In January and February of the year 1899, the United 

 States and North Carolina Fish Commissions united in 

 an effort to determine the causes of the partial failures 

 of the fishing reported earlier in the season. The in- 

 vestigation showed that the storms had indeed made 

 many changes. In some localities, where destruction 

 had been greatest, as many as twenty per cent, of the 



