The Gulf of Mexico 255 



Better oysters than those from the natural beds are being 

 produced in increasing numbers on cultivated tracts. 



Every one is familiar with the manner in which the 

 great Mississippi is bearing down and depositing in the 

 Gulf, as it has done for ages, vast quantities of surface 

 soil eroded from the interior. It perhaps is not so well 

 known that the land all about its delta is slowly subsid- 

 ing. Back from the shore, the preserved stumps of trees 

 once standing near the water, have been found hundreds 

 of feet beneath the surface of the ground. It is stated 

 that oyster shells have been encountered at a depth of 

 two thousand feet, in some of the recent oil well borings 

 near the Texas line, though the statement needs verifica- 

 tion. In spite of this subsidence, that still continues, 

 the river is building its channel each year farther into 

 the Gulf on its own deposit. 



The whole of the present delta and the shore east and 

 west of it is irregular and much broken. Some have 

 estimated the actual extent of the shore line in the state 

 at two thousand miles, but on account of its unstable 

 nature in some places, no accurate estimate of it can be 

 made. The extent of the enclosed bays and lagoons is, 

 however, very great, and in them oysters thrive. Com- 

 paratively few oysters are found, or can be reared, on 

 the west half of the coast of the state. 



Some very optimistic estimates have been made of the 

 area available for oyster culture. One writer, for ex- 

 ample, citing the fact that oysters are planted in seventy- 

 five feet of water in Long Island Sound, reasons from it 

 in the following interesting manner: — If it is possible to 

 rear oysters at that depth in Connecticut, it will be pos- 

 sible also in Louisiana. If, then, we draw a line on the 

 map following the seventy-five foot level, in the Gulf, 



