167 
-and other crossing lines over the ground, with a view to dis- 
cover the location of the beds, and to mark these localities 
for a more thorough and exhaustive investigation in the fu- 
ture. 
As it was then your intention to continue the investigation 
and delineation of the beds, I thought it preferable and a 
saving of time and labor to search for them first and after- 
wards survey them. 
In accordance with this plan I dredged over the bottom of 
the Bay, from Tangier Island northward, running the lines 
sufficiently close to detect any beds of importance or the pres- 
ence of scattered oysters. 
The distance over which the dredge was dragged was always 
measured, and when the depth of water was not too great, the 
bottom was probed with a view of determining whether it 
was suitable for the oysters. 
By reference to the projections it will be seen that these 
areas occur quite frequently on the shoal ground making off in 
a southwesterly direction from Tangier Island. That between 
Tangier Island and Oheesman’s Islands there are, in the deep 
water, no oysters, and that from abreast Cheesman’s Islands as 
far north as the investigation extended, there were found large 
areas upon which oysters were living, and in some cases in 
great numbers. 
The depth of 'water does not appear to influence the forma- 
tion or growth of these beds, some of them lying on the shoals 
and others in deeper water. Generally speaking, here as in 
the Sounds, the original beds were formed on the side of the 
shoals and wherever there was a sudden change of bottom. 
Wherever the solid beds or “Bocks” were encountered 
they were found to be long and narrow ridges, extending gen- 
erally in a northerly and southerly direction, except when near 
Hedge’s Straits, where they ran more to the eastward and west- 
ward. 
We could, in standing across the beds, but rarely obtain 
more than one or two hauls of the dredge before we were off 
the “Bock.” The major axis appears here, as elsewhere, to 
lie in the direction of the current, and probably all natural 
