OYSTER BOTTOMS IN MATAGORDA BAY. 85 



areas of soft mud being doomed to inevitable destruction. The loss 

 of oyster life from this cause alone is beyond computation. Any 

 salvage of these infant oysters means just so much added to the 

 resources of the region, and nature herself has shown how it may be 

 encompassed. Shells thrown upon the mud serve as the most ready 

 agent. Large quantities of them are to be found at the oyster houses 

 at Port Lavaca, Palacios. and Matagorda, and their value as they 

 lie is slight. It is estimated that at Matagorda in 1905 there were 

 80,000 bushels of shells, enough to plant 200 to 400 acres of bottom, 

 all accumulated within from one to three years. If these were 

 planted and yielded but a moderate product, they would be more 

 than sufficient to supply Matagorda with all the oysters required in 

 her present trade. They would cover, with sufficient density for the 

 best results, an firea of barren bottom greater than the actually pro- 

 ductive area of Dog Island Reef (including Tiger Island), and once 

 established such beds could, with proper care, be maintained as self- 

 perpetuating. At Palacios there is a smaller but still considerable 

 quantity of shells, while at Port Lavaca, the center of the largest and 

 oldest established oyster trade of the region, the shell heaps are very 

 much more extensive. It is the confident belief of the writer that, 

 judiciously planted, there are more than enough oyster shells on the 

 shores of Matagorda Bay to double the present available supply of 

 marketable oysters within two years, and that the product could be 

 made to excel in shape and condition, and consequently in value, any 

 now existing there. 



It is not known to the writer that there are any other cultch 

 materials available in the vicinity of Matagorda Bay, but it is not 

 improbable that there are. Shells of clams and related mollusks, 

 broken stone, bricks, gravel, bones, brush, and old tarred netting 

 are all employed in one place or another on our coasts. Any clean 

 firm body that will not become engulfed in the mud will serve the 

 purpose. In Matagorda Bay, crushed stone and gravel would prob- 

 ably fail, as the particles are so small and the specific gravity so 

 high that the cultch would become buried almost as soon as de- 

 posited, excepting on the small areas of fixed sand found in places 

 near the peninsula shore. 



SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 



The following is offered as a brief summary of the observations 

 made by the survey and deductions therefrom. 



1. The natural oyster beds of Matagorda Bay above Half Moon 

 Reef embrace an area of about 3,108 acres and contain about 445,900 

 barrels of oysters over 3 inches in length. The oysters on the beds 

 above Dog Island Reef were, at the time of the survey, practically 

 valueless, except for steaming, owing to the freshness of the water. 



