OYSTER-BEDS OF LOUISIANA. 57 



Man Island, as far as the mouth of Picnic Bayon, are patches of scat- 

 tered oysters in clusters. No attempt is made to indicate either 

 their size or location on the chart, although they are shown in toto 

 over the area mentioned. There are other beds of scattering growth, 

 the limits of which are better defined, and these are plotted with some 

 approximation to correctness. All of these oysters are of the same 

 general character, beiug in clusters of from 6 to 20, rather thin-shelled 

 and elongate, approaching in general the raccoon type, and in some 

 parts of the bay they appear to be more or less imbedded in the mud. 

 They are to some extent clothed with brown alga, especially in that 

 part of the bay lying east of Dead Man Island, and many of the clus- 

 ters bear a few mussels and barnacles. The amount of young growth 

 is large. At the time of the examination most of these oysters were 

 but moderately fat, and some of them were quite poor. They show 

 many of the features exhibited by virgin beds, and their quality would 

 doubtless be improved by more extensive working, provided that proper 

 culling methods were practiced. West Karako Bay is resorted to by a 

 number of boats, especially by those engaged in taking oysters for the 

 canneries, and late in the season, after the beds of Three-mile Bay 

 become depleted of their more desirable oysters, some of the oystermen 

 engaged in the "shell trade" also work there. 



Johnson Bay and Johnson Bayou. — Johnson Bayou is about 2 miles 

 long, communicating at its southern end with an intricate series of 

 bays and lagoons lying north of West Karako Bay. At the entrance 

 from Mississippi Sound the depth of water is about 6 feet, but inside 

 it deepens to 12 or 14 feet toward the west bank. The bottom is 

 composed of very soft mud. It contains a very scattered growth of 

 oysters throughout its length. 



Johnson Bay is the easternmost and largest of the several bodies of 

 water communicating with the bayou. It contains about 1.3 square 

 miles. The bottom is principally soft mud, and the density was about 

 1.0002 during the first week in February. 



There is a scattering growth of good oysters all around the shores, 

 and a few also occur in the middle, where there is also an old, exhausted 

 reef, the crest of which is dry at low water. It is about 150 yards long 

 and 100 yards wide, and it constitutes the most extensive area of hard 

 bottom iii the bay. It could be utilized to advantage for planting. At 

 the time when this bay was examined there were seven schooners 

 oystering there, the captain of one of which stated that the oysters 

 were much scarcer than formerly and that it took him from 10 to 17 days 

 to get a load of 120 barrels. The oysters are gathered by small boats, 

 of which each schooner has several, which go into the small bayous and 

 alongshore, where they pick them up in the shoal water. 



In the southern part of the irregular bays west of Johnson Bay 

 there is a bed of scattered oysters on the soft mud in a depth of from 

 1 to 3 feet. They are generally in clusters of from 3 to 15, mostly of 

 medium size, with a good growth of young oysters and some spat, 



