62 OYSTER BOTTOMS IN MATAGORDA BAY. 



have, either at this or some other not remote period, undergone similar 

 experiences. If a bed raised high above the bottom, as is Forked Bayou 

 Reef, can be thus threatened with extermination, planted beds, which 

 will never be permitted to accumulate to any considerable depth, 

 would be subjected to still greater danger. Fortunately, however, 

 storms of such violence are uncommon, and an average period of con- 

 siderable length is to be expected between successive occurrences. 

 The chief danger to oyster beds lies in that part of the bay closest to 

 the peninsula; the prairie shore and the middle of the bay are com- 

 paratively little affected. With this matter the sole consideration, 

 the prospective oyster culturist should avoid a location in an exposed 

 situation too close to the peninsula and especially the vicinity of very 

 shifting sands either along shore or on the adjacent bottom. 



There is another possibility of storm action, however, which may 

 have a favorable aspect for the oyster industry. The same gale which 

 practically covered Forked Bayou Reef cut a semipermanent com- 

 munication between the gulf and upper bay, with the result, as has 

 been before stated, of making favorable to oyster growth a great area 

 of the bottom on which it had previously been inhibited by the fresh- 

 ness of the overlying water. The same thing is liable to happen again 

 under similar conditions, but of course it can not be anticipated or 

 taken into consideration in the location of oyster claims; and more- 

 over, while benefiting the upper bay in general, the local conditions 

 in the immediate vicinity of the cut, through scouring and erosion in 

 one place and silting in another, would undoubtedly be more or less 

 destructive. 



So far as freshets are concerned, the peninsula shore, especially 

 below Tiger Island, is practically immune. The drainage into that 

 side of the bay is local and circumscribed and can never be consid- 

 erable in amount. On the other hand, the streams discharging on 

 the prairie shore drain thousands of square miles of land, over which 

 at times there may be enormous precipitation. Freshets act de- 

 structively in two ways — by reducing, for considerable periods, the 

 density of the water to a degree which the oysters are unable to 

 tolerate, and by carrying upon the beds sand, mud, and debris, which 

 bury the oysters, killing them and rendering their shells inaccessible 

 to a new set. The first disaster is more liable to occur in that part 

 of the bay above Dog Island Reef where the fresh water tends to 

 become impounded or dammed back and where its effects extend 

 more or less completely from shore to shore. The burial of beds 

 under the deposits of detritus carried down by floods is, on the other 

 hand, more likely to occur closer to the mouths of the streams, and 

 the damage may be done in a comparatively short time. This agency 

 of destruction is therefore more imminent close to the prairie shore, 

 either above or below Dog Island, and we have a case in point, 



