52 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



wave-action, thus producing the maximum land elevations, in no case, 

 perhaps, more than 3 or 4 feet above tide. During storms the entire 

 land area may be flooded, and in the disastrous hurricane of 1893 it 

 was covered by from 8 to 12 feet of water. The soil is a stiff mud or 

 blue clay, covered with a sparse growth of coarse grasses and scattered 

 tufts of Salicornia. Along the bayous there are clumps of mangrove 

 bushes, but with the exception of several crab trees on Mud grass 

 Island, there is probably not in the whole dreary expanse a plant 

 reaching a height of 10 feet, nor is there a single human habitation. 



The land constitutes a low-lying archipelago of irregular islands 

 separated from one another by shallow bays, muddy lagoons, and tor- 

 tuous bayous, the area of the water being somewhat greater than that 

 of the land. The bayous are of two classes, rather broad, short, deep 

 passes, like Nine-mile Bayou, Three-mile Bayou, and Deep Pass, which 

 serve as the main avenues of tidal flow to and from the interior bays, 

 and long, narrow water courses which characteristically run lengthwise 

 of the islands, as is seen in the cases of Door Point Bayou, Dead Man 

 Bayou, etc. The bayous of the first class have generally a depth of 

 from 18 to 42 feet, those of the second class from 5 to 12 feet, and all are 

 more or less obstructed by bars across their mouths. The bottoms of 

 the bayous are almost invariably composed of soft mud. 



The bays, with the exception of several of those opening into Ohan- 

 deleur Sound, communicate with the outer waters by narrow mouths. 

 Their floors are comparatively level and, with one or two exceptions, 

 are composed principally of soft mud, with scattered patches of hard 

 mud and sand, usually so small in area as to be negligible in plotting 

 the soundings. The depth of water is generally from 3 to 6 feet, 

 although in some of the bays, particularly those to the eastward, there 

 are channels through which a considerably greater depth can be carried. 



The lagoons are very shallow, small-mouthed, blind bays, like Blind 

 Pass and Grecque Bayou, with soft bottoms largely exposed as mud 

 flats at low water. 



Blind Pass, Nine-mile Bayou, and False-mouth Bay. — Blind Pass 

 marks the western extension of the oyster in the marshes on the south 

 side of Mississippi Sound. It is a shallow lagoon communicating on 

 the north with Mississippi Sound, on the east, by a narrow but deep 

 cut, with Nine-mile Bayou, Avhile to the southward a tortuous bayou 

 establishes communication with False-mouth Bay. It consists largely 

 of a mud-flat, exposed at low water, with oysters of rather inferior 

 quality sparingly scattered over the bottom. 



Nine mile Bayou is about 2£ miles long to its main entrance into 

 False-mouth Bay and has a width of from 100 to 300 yards. At its 

 mouth there is a depth of about 18 feet, which rapidly shoals outwardly 

 to 6£ or 7 feet. In the bayou the depth ranges from 17 to 39 feet, the 

 average being about 24 feet. The bottom is soft, excepting that portion 

 lying opposite the small island at the southern end, where hard mud 

 was found. There are no oysters in this bayou. 



