OYSTEB BOTTOMS IN MATAGORDA BAY. 61 



they were accompanied by much lower densities. It will be ob- 

 served, however, that the tides, though higher than they were in 

 February, were much lower than they were at the beginning of 

 April, and that consequently the upper part of the bay was discharg- 

 ing the water which it held at the beginning of the month: in other 

 words, the currents were setting from the fresher parts of the hay. 

 Of course, in the long run the density is dependent upon the pre- 

 cipitation and drainage, and in April the streams were discharging 

 into the bay a vastly greater volume of water than -they carried in 

 February. The greater the discharge of fresh water into the upper 

 hay the lower will be the average density of the w^ater during that 

 time and for a longer or shorter period succeeding. 



As a density of at least 1.0100 is generally regarded as essential to 

 the production of oysters of good flavor it will be seen that, other 

 things being equal, the region below Dog Island Reef has in respect 

 to salinity an advantage over localities above the reef, and that be- 

 tween Dog Island and Mad Island reefs the southeast side of the 

 hay is distinctly superior to the opposite shore and the middle. 

 These facts are significant to the prospective oyster growers desirous 

 of producing the best stock. The saltness of the oysters is less im- 

 portant to the shipper of shucked oysters than to the dealer in 

 shell stock, as washing and icing, to which the former are subjected, 

 tend in any case to deprive them of much of the original flavor. 

 With the growth of the country in population and wealth, however, 

 the shell trade invariably increases, a condition eventually to be 

 expected on the Texas coast. 



STORMS, FRESHETS, AND SILTING. 



These factors are all concerned mainly with destructive action on 

 the beds through the deposit of materials which stifle the oysters 

 already existing and so cover the shells as to unfit them, for longer 

 or shorter periods, for cultch. 



The gulf is subject to the visitation of storms of great violence and 

 destructiveness, which not only wreak great damage to the frailer 

 works of man, but also cause marked changes in the topography and 

 hydrography of the coast. Within the past thirty years two such 

 gales, accompanied by extraordinarily high seas and tides, have been 

 experienced in Matagorda Bay. During the great gale of 1875 the 

 sea swept over the peninsula in many places, greatly changing the 

 topograph}^ of that sandy strip of land and carrying large quantities 

 of shore material into the neighboring portion of the bay. As has 

 been before mentioned, Forked Bayou Reef was partially over- 

 whelmed with sand at that time and nearly destroyed as a productive 

 bed, and there is reason to believe that some of the other minor beds 



