438 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
Seining and fishing parties were sent at daylight next morning with 
the expectation of finding rich working ground, but to our surprise 
very little life was found in the bay. Scattering specimens only were 
taken in the seine, and the line fishermen met with no success. Long- 
shelled oysters have been reported, but we found none, and the inhabi- 
tants knew nothing of their existence. 
Carmen Island is justly celebrated for its salt pond, which is one of 
the most remarkable formations of its kind on the continent and is 
profitably worked notwithstanding high freights to San Francisco 
and the duty imposed by the United States Government. The pond is 
oblong in form, covering an area of about 5 square miles, its nearest 
approach to the sea being a third of a mile. It has no surface con- 
nection with the gulf, but at high tide sufficient water percolates 
through the sand and shingle barrier to maintain the general level. 
Standing on the shores one sees before him a solid mass of pure white 
salt, its myriads of shining crystals glistening like a field of diamonds 
under the rays of a semi-tropical sun. The salt is deposited in strata 
from 4 to 6 inches in thickness at the “surface, increasing to 12 inches 
at 15 feet, the greatest depth to which the bed has been examined. 
Between the strata are spaces of 1 to 2 inches, filled with water and 
black mud, which is doubtless the earthy impurity precipitated during 
the process of evaporation. The method of collecting the salt is sim- 
ple and inexpensive. Men with crowbars break from the surface 
pieces of convenient size, which are loaded into mule carts, transported 
to the shore, and piled in large masses to dry, after which it is ready 
for shipment. * The space from which salt is taken fills with water, and 
the process of evaporation begins at once, a few weeks only being re- 
quired to replace the quantity extracted. In fact, so rapid is the work 
of reproduction carried on under the cloudless skies of the gulf that, 
although thousands of tons are removed annually, a small portion only 
of the surface is ever disturbed. 
Carmen Island to Conception Bay and Guaymas . — We were underway 
at 3:10 p. in., and an hour later cast the trawl in 306 fathoms, soft green 
mud. An enormous load of mud was brought up in which was found 
quite a number of deep-sea cusk, but no other life. It had the same 
offensive odor before mentioned. 
At daylight the following morning, March 19, we entered Conception 
Bay, and at 7:15 anchored off the north part of Coyote Bay. Seining 
and fishing parties were sent out among the islands, but fish were scarce 
and the few seen about the rocks would not take the hook. The region 
was so unpromising that we got under way at 1:45 p. m. for Mulege, 
anchoring off that place at 2:50. A seining party met with good suc- 
cess in the mouth of the river, returning with a boat load of fine fish 
of various species. It was the first place on the west shores of the 
gulf where we found fish in large numbers, and the Mulege River being 
the only fresh water encountered the natural inference was that fish 
