PART I. 
Report of Investigations Made from August 2 1st 
to October lgth, 1878. 
TANGIER AND POCGMOKE SOUNDS. 
The charts showing the oyster beds and limits of oysters in 
these Sounds have been constructed from the data collected 
during the progress of the work. 
Only the natural beds are shown on them, and no attempt 
was made to carry the investigation beyond the Sounds, ex- 
cept in the cases of the Manokin and Big Annemessex Rivers, 
where the beds were large enough to make their delineation 
and study advisable. 
The beds have been named from the solid “ rocks ” which 
they surround, and are indicated on the charts by the darkest 
shades. In many cases it was a matter of some difficulty to 
determine the outlines of the beds proper, on account of their' 
peculiar formation. 
It would have given an erroneous impression to have con- 
sidered either the solid unbroken portions as the beds, or to 
have taken the entire area upon which oysters are found, and 
I have therefore adopted a proportion of 0.1 oysters to the 
square yard as the standard by which to determine the 
outlines, all positions where the proportion fell below that 
standard beiug excluded from the beds, unless other circum- 
stances have led me to a different decision. 
The light shades on the charts show the area covered by 
scattered oysters, and as already explained, must be consid- 
ered only approximate. The broken lines show areas where 
the oysters are very widely separated. The dark blue lines 
