OYSTER BOTTOMS IN MATAGORDA BAY. 37 



LIVE OAK BAY. 



The area regarded as embraced in this region lies east of a line 

 drawn from Dressing Point to the month of Live Oak Creek. It 

 contains a proportionately large area of oyster-bearing bottom, about 

 228 acres in all, divided into three general groups of beds — a scatter- 

 ing growth interspersed with a few dense patches lying in the south- 

 ern half of the bay, a rather dense bed southeast of the mouth of Live 

 Oak Creek, and several small beds near the islet north of Dressing 

 Island. 



The largest bed, with an area of about 160 acres, covers practically 

 the entire southeastern part of the bay and sends a long narrow 

 tongue down between Dressing Island and the mainland. Near the 

 center of the bay there is a small reef about 35 yards long and 20 

 yards wide, a large part of which is bare at low water. Here the 

 oysters are small and poor in shape and quality, and there is a great 

 preponderance of dead shells and shell debris. The bed is about 1 

 foot thick, superimposed on a substratum of soft mud about a foot 

 deep, beneath which hard bottom is found. From this reef the bed 

 scatters off in all directions excepting the north, the oysters improv- 

 ing somewhat in quality as they become fewer in numbers. In gen- 

 eral they lie in scattered patches surrounded by soft mud, but be- 

 tween Dressing Island and the mainland the bottom is hard and 

 shelly for a depth of 2 feet. In this place there is a fair growth of 

 single oysters of good shape and from 3J to 4 inches long, with a con- 

 siderable proportion of smaller ones. The best oysters found any- 

 where above Dressing Point were produced in this locality, but the 

 salinity of the water is so low that their flavor was insipid in the 

 extreme. 



The small patch north of Grassy Island, shown on the chart, is 

 practically a dead reef or shell heap, with very few , adults, but a 

 relatively larger number of small oysters than were found in other 

 sections examined. 



The long bed running westward from Grassy Island is composed 

 of about equal numbers of dead shells and clustered oysters about 3J 

 inches long, together with a considerable proportion of smaller ones. 

 Near the island the bed is practically a shell heap. The clustered 

 oysters are thin-shelled, long, and elliptical, and bear large numbers 

 of mussels, whose prolific growth is smothering the oysters. 



The bed south of the mouth of Live Oak Creek is a dense shelly 

 shoal near the shore, but at its outer edge becomes more scattering. 

 The oysters in general resemble those on the bed last described. 



Live Oak Bay was formerly a more or less prolific ground for the 

 oystermen, but the beds, in common with those in other parts of the 

 upper bay, have been much injured by the freshness of the water 

 since the closure of Mitchells Cut. At the time of the survey the 



