256 Our Food Mollusks 



the bottom between it and the shore will constitute the 

 oyster field. This area embraces six million acres. 



Though it is believed by some that oysters exist in the 

 waters of the open Gulf, this has not been demonstrated, 

 and is very doubtful. Whether conditions will allow of 

 their growth if planted there, must be determined by ex- 

 periment. What evidence we possess, as will be ex- 

 plained later, makes the possibilities of oyster culture in 

 open waters other than those of Chandeleur and Isle au 

 Breton sounds seem to be very few. 



The broken coast of St. Bernard Parish, or County, as 

 it would be called in another state, is quite typical. Sail- 

 ing southeast from the opening of Lake Pontchartrain 

 across Lake Borgne, one sights what seems to be a low, 

 straight shore line in the far distance. Soon the stranger 

 to this region discerns, at wide intervals, isolated groves 

 of dense forest growth, but nothing in the background 

 to break the monotony of the straight line of shore. 

 Then, with bewildering suddenness, the vessel draws 

 near; the distant coast, with its hidden details, resolves 

 itself into a line of grass near at hand. While one gazes 

 at them, the trees shrink into low shrubs, and one ex- 

 periences the weird sensation of having arrived at the 

 kingdom of Lilliput. 



But the vessel skirts this dense jungle of stiff, high 

 grass from morning until night, and a second or a third 

 day may still find it passing the unchanging, but by no 

 means uninteresting, borders of this strange kingdom. 

 Now and then an excursion may be made into its interior 

 through one of the numerous inviting channels that lead 

 to a network of narrow bayous, broad passages, or salt 

 lakes, many of them of great size. One might sail for 

 weeks through these meadows and among islands always 



