FISH-CULTURAL INVESTIGATIONS IN TEXAS. 
67 
This location is about 3 miles from the railroad station at Virginia Point. It 
would seem to me that such a composite station as is contemplated could, with 
reasonable safety, be established in the vicinity of Swan Lake. The cost of getting 
sufficient water, salt and fresh, the doubt as to whether the artesian water would 
prove satisfactory, and the danger of flooding and roiling from storms, are questions 
that would have to be carefully considered. 
The country in the vicinity of Moses Lake, Clear Creek, and Highland Bayou was 
also examined, but in no one of these places could the desired conditions be found, the 
danger of fresh-water flooding in each case being too great. 
A visit was also made to South Galveston, on the island 10 miles southwest from 
the city of Galveston. At this point the South Galveston Land Company has recently 
struck water that seems fairly fresh. The depth of the well is 800 feet. With a 
2-inch strainer the flow is 37 gallons per minute. The temperature of the water was 
79.5°, and the density was 1004.24. 
There is bnt, little, if any, saline taste to the water, and it might prove suited to 
fresh- water fishes. There is considerable gas (probably CH 4 ) dissolved in this water, 
as was evidenced by the fact that a slight explosion was obtained upon applying a 
burning match at the end of the horizontal pipe through which the water was led 
from the well. Upon issuing from the pipe the water is quite murky, but very soon 
clears by the escaping of the contained gas or gases. 
On the W est Bay side of the island, a short distance from this well, are two narrow 
bays extending obliquely into the island. Each of these contains approximately 40 
acres. The land adjacent to each is low, but probably high enough to prevent flood- 
ing, except during very heavy storms. Either of these small bays could be quite 
easily supplied with gates at the mouth and its water thus brought under control 
Ponds could be constructed near them that would probably answer fairly well for 
oyster-culture. Higher ground can be found near by, suitable for the fresh-water ponds. 
Mr. Gray, the president of the South Galveston Land Company, says the company will 
give the Commission one of these bays and all the land it may need. This location 
does not seem as desirable, however, as the one at Swan Lake — the land not lying so 
satisfactorily and the water being less fresh than that which could probably be gotten 
at Swan Lake. 
Mr. Fred Nichols offers a site near the mouth of Dickinson Bayou. The land there 
seems safe from overflow, and salt water could be gotten by pumping from the bayou. 
It is quite certain, however, that this bayou at times becomes too fresh for salt-water 
culture. Fresh water could be secured here, as elsewhere upon the mainland, by means 
of artesian wells. Mr. Nichols would no doubt donate all the land needed. 
Dickinson Bayou . — This bayou is about 18 miles long and empties into Galveston 
Bay about 15 miles north of Galveston. In its lower portion its waters are salt 
except at the time of heavy rains, and the water is more or less brackish nearly 
throughout the course of the stream. The depth probably ranges from 4 to 18 feet. 
The water is rather warm and is stained more or less by vegetable matter in the 
stream. The current is sluggish and the banks and bottom are of mud in most places. 
The shores are low and are well covered with vegetation. There is a heavy growth 
of timber, the principal trees being several species of oak, elm, liackberry, ash, box 
elder, etc. The most characteristic and striking feature of the timber along Dickin- 
