OYSTER-BEDS OF LOUISIANA. 63 



to Drum Bay on the southwest. It is about 9 miles long and its width 

 varies from £ to 1^ miles, the average being about f mile. The area 

 is about 7.9 square miles and the depth is generally between 3 and 4 

 feet, although deeper water is found near the island in the eenter and 

 some of the oyster-beds are in a depth of less than 2f feet. There is 

 considerable hard bottom, and in the southern two-thirds hard mud 

 is the predominating characteristic. The density is somewhat greater 

 in the northern part of the bay, where it averages about 1.0120 as com- 

 pared with an average of 1.0084 in the southern part, this difference 

 appearing to be due to the closer communication with the exterior 

 waters in the north and with the interior bays and bayous, by way of 

 Catfish Pass, in the south. The water contains a fair amount of oyster 

 food, more than Brum Bay but less than either East Karako or Indian 

 Mound bays, which lie to the north and west, respectively. There are 

 good marketable oysters distributed throughout practically the entire 

 length of Southwest Pass. In most cases the growth is scattering, but 

 north of the island, near the center of the bay, is a reef, on which there 

 is a dense growth of small oysters in clusters, together with a few good 

 ones of medium size and some dead shells. This appears to bean old 

 reef, from which the marketable oysters have been nearly all removed, 

 but its condition is such that it will again be productive within a year 

 or two. There is a scattering growth of oysters, in clusters of from 3 

 to 5, extending eastward from the denser portions of the bed. 



A scattering growth also occurs near the shores of the island, and 

 just south of it there are small patches distributed over the bottom, 

 none of them being extensive enough to be called a bed, but constitut- 

 ing in the aggregate quite a large body of oysters. In the southern 

 half of the pass there is a growth along shore on both sides of the 

 channel, where the oysters are in clusters, much scattered, and all of 

 fair quality. These beds appear to be rather extensively worked, and 

 it is said that large quantities of oysters have been taken from there 

 to the markets and that prior to the Mta crevasse in 1890 they had 

 been almost exterminated by excessive ton gin g. 



Brum Bay. — Drum Bay lies soiTtheastof Southwest Pass, with which 

 it communicates by a broad pass at the western end. Including the 

 waters as far east as Keelboat Pass, the bay embraces about 12 square 

 miles. North of Drum Bay, and separated from it by a long, irregular 

 island, there are two shallow bays having together an area of about 1.7 

 square miles. The water in Drum Bay is from 3£ to feet deep, the 

 general depth being greater to the eastward, where, between the two 

 islands lying northwest of Keelboat Pass, there are 19 feet of water in 

 one place. In the composition of the bottom hard mud predominates, 

 but it is interspersed with areas of soft mud. The density varies from 

 1.0101 near the western pass to about 1.0150 in the eastern part, near 

 Keelboat Pass. The amount of oyster food, as determined by an 

 examination of the water, appears to be small. 



