64 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



There are oysters scattered all over this bay as far as the entrance 

 to Chimney Bay. There is one very dense bed about £ mile long and 

 ^ mile wide lying near the center of the bay, and northwest of it lies a 

 smaller reef, where the oysters are equally dense. Upon these beds 

 the oysters are in clusters of from 3 to 10, of the raccoou type, poor in 

 shape, condition, and flavor. These beds are not worked and there are 

 about 18 inches of water on their crests at low tide. There is a scat- 

 tering growth of oysters over a large part of the bay to the westward 

 of the reefs just described, especially along the shores, and lying across 

 the narrowest part is a bed of clustered oysters of fair quality. The 

 best oysters, so far as flavor and condition are concerned, are found on 

 a small bed northeast of the entrance to Chimney Bay, but the growth 

 there is very scattered and the bed is apparently nearly exhausted. 



A dry shell-reef lying north of this bed is now extinct as an oyster- 

 ground, being composed entirely of dead shells, and it is stated that a 

 bed of excellent oysters formerly existed between the two islands to 

 the eastward, but that it was exterminated a number of years ago by 

 touging. No indication of it now remains. 



In Julius Pass, in some parts of Scow Pass, and in Chimney Bay 

 there are, according to the statements of the oystermen, a few scatter- 

 ing oysters, but except the former these waters were not examined. 

 There is a scattering growth in the two bays north of Drum Bay, where 

 the water is very shoal and the bottom muddy. The amount of young 

 growth in Drum Bay is fair. The clusters are overgrown to a slight 

 extent with algae, barnacles, and mussels. 



California Bay. — In the head of California Bay the depth varies from 

 3 to 5 feet and the bottom is composed almost entirely of hard mud. 

 Excepting at the mouth of Dead Man Bayou, there are no oysters, but 

 several beds of dead shells were found. At the mouth of the bayou 

 there is a scattering growth of fine, large, single oysters of excellent 

 flavor and fatness. Formerly such oysters were found throughout 

 the bayou, and we were informed that in the winter of 189C-97 about 

 2,000 barrels were carried away from this place, and our soundings and 

 examination showed that practically none are left. 



Fox Bay contains a few scattering oysters near its eastern end, and 

 there is a small bed in Redfish Bend near Elephant Pass. 



Indian Mound Bay. — This is the largest body of water in the Louisiana 

 Marsh and it contains more good, marketable oysters than any other 

 of the bays within the limits of this reconnaissance. It lies between 

 Crooked Island and Catfish Pass and between Mudgrass Island and 

 the long island forming the western side of Southwest Pass. Its area 

 is about 21 square miles and its depth averages about 4 feet and ranges 

 between 3 and 5 feet. Its density is least in the northwestern part 

 and greatest in its southern part, as may be seen from an inspection of 

 the chart; the average for the entire bay was about 1.0070, somewhat 

 greater than in West Karako Bay and less than in either East Karako 

 Bay or Southwest Pass, with all of which it is in communication. The 

 amount of oyster food in the water is large. 



