OYSTER BOTTOMS OF MISSISSIPPI SOUND, ALA. 23 



The eastern part of this bed is a small area of very scattering 

 growth lying north of a long shell bank west of Grants Island. It lies 

 in the very shoal water wliich stretches north to Gull Island, on a 

 deposit of an inch or two of soft mud on a substratum of hard sand 

 and shells. The oysters are small and poor. West of this lies the 

 dense growth covermg an area of about 39 acres in a <lepth of water 

 varying from 1 to 5 feet. This bottom consists of densely com- 

 pacted sand and shells, with oysters of the raccoon type in clusters. 

 On the western border of this growth there is a depleted area on which 

 there are few oysters of any size. The bottom changes gradually 

 from hard sand and shell close to the dense area to soft mud with 

 buried shells on the western border of the bed. 



Details of Examination op Peter Billys Gully. 



GRANTS PASS. 



Grants Pass is a dredged channel cut through the oyster beds 

 which extend as a practically unbroken reef from Cedar Point to 

 Little Dauphm Island and separate Mobile Bay from Mississippi 

 Sound. The channel itself carries a minimum depth of about 11 

 feet, but at the Mobile Bay end the water shoals to about 8j feet, 

 and opposite the western or Mississippi Sound end to about 6^ feet 

 at low water. There is a row of 7 dolphins or clusters of pOes for 

 25 to 60 yards north of the thread of the channel. The oyster bed 

 designated by the name of this pass is here arbitrarily assumed to lie 

 not only in the deep water of the channel, but to extend as a strip 

 about 200 to 250 yards wide on each side of the row of piles above 

 described, with the exception of the cluster at the Mobile Bay end, 

 which is assumed to lie in Big GuUy bed. This bed was extensively 

 worked by tongers during the period of the survey and with Pass 

 aux Herons, which adjouis it to the south, produced the bulk of the 

 oysters taken by tongmg in the winter of 1910-11. 



The extent and productiveness of this bed are shown on the table 

 following. 



