3() OYSTER BOTTOMS IN MATAGORDA BAY. 



gradually more and more scattered as the margins of the bed are 

 approached, the small patches of clusters being separated by increas- 

 ing areas of the hard mud which in general forms the bottom on 

 which the bed reposes. The southern and western limits are rather 

 well defined by the change from hard to soft muddy bottom, but to 

 the northward the hard mud stretches away to the shore of the bay. 

 It is evident from the conditions obtaining here that the bed has been 

 extended beyond the limits of the original reef by the distribution 

 through the agency of the oystermen of shells and small oysters re- 

 jected in culling. The bed was formerly fished for the market, but 

 was untouched during the season of the survey. 



The oysters occur in clusters of 3 or 4 adults with small ones at- 

 tached. The larger oysters average about 4 to 4J inches in length, 

 are rather thin-shelled, and more or less narrow and elongate. Nearly 

 all clusters bear great masses of young mussels, which are rapidly 

 overgrowing the oysters, smothering them, appropriating their food, 

 and in general reducing them to an extremely poor and watery condi- 

 tion, totally unfit for market. The bed is commercially worthless in 

 its present condition, the effect, direct and indirect, of the low salin- 

 ity resulting from the closure of Mitchells cut. The density of the 

 water at the time of the survey (March, 1905) was between 1.0037 

 and 1.0061. The most promising fact in connection with the bed is 

 the preponderance of young oysters, those under 3 inches outnumber- 

 ing those over that length nearly two to one, indicating that if the 

 proper density conditions should be brought about the bed would 

 soon recover its former productiveness. The prolific growth of mus- 

 sels is evidently a recent development traceable to the low salinity. 



The south and middle Dressing Point beds have areas of about 190 

 and 15 acres, respectively. They differ from the north bed in the 

 fact that they have not old dense reefs as nuclei. They each consist 

 of scattered patches of clustered oysters lying on the soft mud which 

 forms the general bottom in this part of the bay. The growth is 

 more sparse than on the northern bed, and all circumstances point to 

 the conclusion that the beds are of comparatively recent origin. The 

 oyster pilot attached to the survey stated that there Avere practically 

 no oysters on either bed ten years ago. It is evident that we have 

 here another case of the founding of a bed on rather soft muddy 

 bottom through the medium of oysters and shells thrown overboard 

 by the oyster boats culling on their way to market, this area tying 

 directly in the course of vessels returning to Port Lavaca and Mata- 

 gorda from the beds above Dressing Point. In this case the prac- 

 tice results in an extension of the natural beds, but if the mud were 

 a little softer the oysters would be engulfed and lost. The oysters 

 on both beds in general resemble those of the northern bed, though 

 somewhat more elongate. 



