133 
CONCLUSIONS. 
The foregoing pages with the record and charts, contain 
all the data collected during the season for the study of the 
beds and the conditions affecting the animals upon them. 
Not regarding it as within my province and not possessing 
sufficient knowledge of the subject, I have not attempted any 
study of the biology of the oysters but have confined my re- 
port to as concise a description as possible of the beds and con- 
ditions surrounding the various forms of life upon them. The 
following remarks are simply the conclusions drawn from cer- 
tain peculiar features and facts established by the investiga- 
tion and testimony and an attempt to account for them. In 
reviewing the remarks upon the different beds, it will be seen 
that there is a marked absence of oysters classed as “young , 57 
or those supposed to be of the last brood on all beds above 
Kedge’s Straits in Tangier Sound, and above the Bird Rock in 
Pocomoke Sound. In Tangier, the young first appeared in 
considerable quantities on the middle of Muscle Hole Bed 
and Piney Island Bar. There were none in either the Mano- 
kin or Big Annemessex Rivers or on the northern part of 
Harris Rock, though large numbers were found on the cen- 
tral and southern portions of the latter. The southern beds 
of both Sounds were plentifully supplied. Again, on the 
southern beds there was a like absence of the class termed by 
us “young growth , 55 or oysters apparently spawned during 
the previous season, while on the northern beds of both Sounds 
the proportion of this class was very large. Over these differ- 
ent beds the change of density is too slight to enter into the 
question and the currents too nearly similar, both in direc- 
tion and strength, to have influenced the difference in produc- 
tion. On nearly all of the northern beds in both Sounds, the 
bottom is muddy or the beds in close proximity to muddy 
bottoms. To the southward, however, the bottom is hard 
and the beds surrounded by sand or gravel, except on the edges 
nearest the channels. Again, all the northern beds in both 
Sounds are in comparatively shoal water and those in the 
southern parts in deep water. 
