OYSTER BOTTOMS OF MISSISSIPPI SOUND, ALA. 



27 



REDFISH GULLY. 



Redfish gully is a strip of slightly deeper water lying between the 

 shoals south of Pass aux Herons and the bar, bare at extreme low 

 tide in winter, extending for about 800 yards northwest from the tip of 

 Little Dauphin Island. The shallowest part of this gully has a depth of 

 about 3 feet at low water, the average is about 6 inches deeper and near 

 the western end is a hole in which there is a maximum of 7 feet or more. 

 The oyster bed designated by this name lies in and about tlie gully. 



The following table shows the extent, character of oyster growth, 

 and estimated content of this bed: 



Oyster Growth in Redfish Gully. 



Practically all of this bedconsistsof dense growth, there being but one 

 patch of about 1 1 acres of scattering oysters near tlie northeast edge, 

 where there is a considerable proportion of large oysters of good shape. 



On the dense growth market oysters are least abundant in and 

 about the deeper water m the southwestern part of the bed. The 

 proportion of oysters over 4 inches m length is greatest in the eastern 

 part of the bed, adjoining Mobile Bay, and it was there that most of 

 the boats were observed working on the bed, although there were 

 three or four schooners operating in the deep hole. 



Details of Examination op Redfish Gully. 



