CONDITION AND EXTENT OF THE NATURAL OYSTER BEDS AND 

 BARREN BOTTOMS OF MISSISSIPPI SOUND, ALA* 



By H. F. Moore, 

 Assistant in Charge of Scientific Inquiry. 



INTRODUCTION. 



At the request of the Alabama Oyster Commission, through its 

 president, Mr. John Craft, and on the representations of the several 

 Senators and Representatives in Congress from that State, the Bureau 

 in February, 1910, made a preliminary examination of the oyster- 

 producing regions of Mobile Bay and Mississippi Sound. It ap- 

 peared from this examination that the oyster interests were of suffi- 

 cient present and prospective importance to warrant a survey and 

 report on the productive and barren bottoms of Mississippi Sound. 



The triangulation of the region was begun by the Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey, under an arrangement for cooperation between the two 

 bureaus, during the summer of 1910, and was maintained so far in 

 advance of the requirements of the biological and hydrographic work 

 of the Bureau of Fisheries that the latter never suffered a moment's 

 delay for lack of triangulation points. 



Although the work performed by the Coast and Geodetic Survey 

 in connection with this investigation is of a character not requiring 

 treatment in the text of this report, the State authorities charged 

 with the administration of the oyster laws should appreciate it as 

 that part of the results which has the most enduring value. The 

 accurately determmed and substantially marked stations furnish to 

 the State an invaluable and permanent basis for the survey and 

 delimitation of leaseholds of barren bottom for purposes of oyster 

 culture, and if properly used will enable Alabama to avoid the em- 

 barrassment and litigation which elsewhere have been consequent on 

 faulty surveys and descriptions. No survey not properly based in 

 and referred to this triangulation should be countenanced in oyster 

 leases granted by the State. 



The biological and hydrographic survey, which was conducted by 

 the Bureau of Fisheries, began about the middle of November, 1910, 

 when the steamer Fisli Hawk arrived in Mobile Bay, and it was con- 

 cluded in May, 1911, part of the interim being employed in a similar 

 survey in Mississippi waters. The purpose of the survey was the 



