147 
only those vessels dredging on such beds as were known to have 
a large proportion of young upon them have been considered, 
and even then the estimate reaches the astonishing figure of 
1,238,790. These oysters are those of from two to five months 
growth, and may be said to have survived the most precarious 
portion of their existence, their shells having become hard 
enough to resist the drills to a certain extent, and they being 
firmly attached to the mature oyster, and in no danger of de- 
struction from any cause to which it would not be equally ex- 
posed. Still many of them would doubtless perish even if 
undisturbed, for though all oysters on the beds mature, or 
others, would suffer if exposed to unfavorable conditions, 
yet many of those conditions would affect the young and 
young growth to a greater degree than the mature and more 
hardy oysters. I will, therefore, suppose that fifty per cent, 
of the young taken up would never have reached maturity, 
and will also make another and very liberal supposition that 
by the first of April the young would have reached such a size 
as would make it profitable to open them. That would make 
the working season, so far as the young were concerned, 104 
days, and the number of young removed would amount jn 
that time to 128,834,000, of which about 64,417,000 would 
probably have attained their full growth. 
These young are a total sacrifice* never seeing the water 
again after their removal and generally perishing on distant 
or adjacent shell heaps. Many more are probably destroyed 
by carelessness in disposing of the old shells brought up by 
the dredge. The dredging is usually across the bed, and the 
shoal hard ridges noticed along the edges of the beds on the 
western , side of Tangier Sound and on all edges adjacent to 
muddy bottoms, are, no doubt, caused by the dredgers who, 
as they approach the edge of the bed, having dragged across 
it, haul in their dredges just before getting over the muddy 
bottoms. They then stand on tack or “wear” and as soon as 
on the bed drop the dredges again. 
In the meantime the crews have been busily “ culling” the 
oysters, and, as likely as not, have thrown over on the soft 
mud a far larger number of young attached to the shells than 
