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Piney Island Bar.— This bed lies south of Little Island, on the eastern side of the channel and 

 on the western side of the shoal lying - between the main channel of the Sound and the channel into 

 the Manokiu River. It extends 1STNW. and SSE. 3 miles, and its greatest breadth, which is near 

 its southern extremity, is about one mile. The bed gradually diminishes in size to the northward, 

 and at that extremity is but one eighth of a mile wide. Its area is 6,975, 00i) square yards, and it 

 is unbroken, with the exception of a few sand spaces in the southern portion and a smaller number 

 of mud areas in the northern. About the extreme western border the oysters are in detached 

 groups, with mud sloughs between them, and to the eastward and southward the oysters are more 

 widely scattered and scarce, until they reach the sands or soft muddy bottoms of the channel, when 

 they entirely disappear. The depth of water is from 12 to 36 feet, and, generally speaking, the 

 deeper water will be found on the western and the shoaler on the eastern parts of the bed; there 

 are several holes and sloughs, however, about the middle of the bed. The. oysters are not very 

 evenly distributed, as will be seen by the lines on the chart, which indicate the positions of the 

 greatest number, and in the vicinity of the sand and mud areas a smaller number of oysters were 

 found than elsewhere. The bottom is haixl, except about the extreme western edge, in deep water, 

 and about the mud holes and sloughs situated in the northern portion. Owing to the depth of 

 water the observations of the character of the bottom were not as numerous as on other beds, but 

 those that were made showed the existence of a stratum of shells and oysters of from one-half foot 

 to 4 feet in thickness, and mixed with mud and sand, over a stratum of hard or soft sand, the 

 former predominating. West and south of the bed the bottom is mud or sticky sand, the latter 

 being found more frequently to the southward than westward. To the eastward the bottom is 

 hard sand. The oysters were single, of moderate size and ordinary quality. A very large propor- 

 tion — fully one-half — were young growth. Few drills and not many young were found, and both 

 young and drills were in greatest numbers about the extreme southern part, and iu least numbers 

 about the northern. A moderate amount of red and gray sponge was found on all parts of the 

 bed, and some of the sponge on the sandy bottoms south of it; where the young oysters were in 

 greatest numbers the amount of sponge was least. West of the bed very few oysters were found, 

 the "rock" rising abruptly from the chaunel. South and east of the bed the oysters were scarce, 

 and the amount of sponge and grass much increased. The number of oysters to the square yard, 

 the mean of forty-nine observations, was 0.69. The number to the square yard on the area occupied 

 by the scattered oysters was 0.04. 



Beds of the Manokin River.-The.se beds lie on each side of the chaunel of the Manokin River 

 and extend about 4£ miles from its mouth. The investigation extended as far as Saint Pierre 

 Island, above which point only a few small "rocks," of inconsiderable area, were found. The beds 

 are fifteen in number and comprise a total area of 6,142,000 square yards. Generally speaking, the 

 larger beds are on the northern side of the channel. By reference to the chart it will be seen that 

 beds of more or less area are distributed over the entire river bottom, being separated and inter- 

 sected by numerous mud sloughs. The character of the individual beds is similar, each being cut 

 up by mud sloughs aud divided into small groups and areas of oysters, thus on a small scale repro- 

 ducing the whole river bottom. The depth of water is from 8 and 10 feet on the upper beds to 27 

 feet on those off Hazzard's Point. In the channel the depth is 25 and 30 feet off Hazzard's Point, 

 shoaling gradually^ Saint Pierre Island, where there is about 13 feet, though there are many 

 deep holes and sloughs where the depth exceeds the average. On the beds the bottom is very 

 irregular, and the change from shoal to deep water sudden and frequent. Generally a thick 

 stratum of oysters and shells were found on the shoals, aud where the water deepened a large 

 amount of mud. The oysters appear to be in larger numbers on the beds about the mouth of the 

 river than elsewhere, are very thinly scattered in groups in the chaunel, and on the extreme 

 upper beds are very scarce. The bottom consists of a stratum of shells and oysters, from one-half 

 foot to 2 feet iu thickuess. On the northern side of the channel, near the sands, a stratum of hard 

 sand is found directly underneath the shells, but nearer the channel and on its southern side there 

 is an intervening stratum of mud from 1 to 4 feet thick. On the greater part of the beds the 

 oysters and shells are mixed with mud, but in the extreme southwestern portion soft sand is found 

 instead. Many of the beds in the upper part of the river are covered by a stratum of mud about 

 1 foot thick, and near the southwestern border the oysters aud shells were covered by 3 to 6 inches 



