PLANTING OYSTERS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 
97 
fresh water. The bottom is said to be sand overlaid with mud, and to be covered with 
native oysters. 
With the possible exception of False Bay, near San Diego, which has not been 
reported on, the four bays above mentioned are probably the only ones in which the ex- 
periment of oyster-culture could be tried in southern California with any prospect of 
success. Of these, Alamitos and Newport Bays are the most easily accessible, and 
the conditions at Alamitos Bay seem on the whole the most favorable. Before making 
any practical experiments in this direction, it would seem advisable to obtain reports 
from these bays during the dry season, in order to test the amount of fresh water 
entering them at that time. 
THE OYSTER BEDS OF THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA. 
The edible oysters of the Gulf of California are found only along the eastern shore 
of the Gulf, south of Guaymas (see plate XXXIII). Here, in lagoons near the mouth 
of the Yaqui River, farther south in the vicinity of Agiabampo and Altata, and prob- 
ably at other points, extensive natural beds are found. 
Two lagoons north of the mouth of the Taqui River were explored by the writer 
March 31 and April 1, 1889, during the investigations of the steamer Albatross in the 
Gulf of California. Owing to the inaccuracies and incompleteness of the charts of this 
part of the coast, I was unable to ascertain whether or not the two lagoons were con- 
nected with each other, or even to make sure of their proper designation. They are 
referred to in this report as the Upper and the Lower Algodones Lagoons. The Upper 
Algodones, the northernmost of the two, is a broad sheet of water separated from 
the Gulf by a sand-spit, through which are one or more narrow tide- ways. The water 
is everywhere shallow, and the bottom is comjiosed of such a mixture of fine sand 
and mud as prevents extensive shifting by currents. 
The oyster beds are mostly in the form of hummocks with circular or oval outlines, 
each having usually in the center a heap of dead shells raised two or three feet above 
high-water mark (see plate XXXIV). The living oysters are almost wholly confined to 
the areas exposed at low water, the channels between the hummocks being bare, even 
when but 2 or 3 feet deep. The oysters are firmly grown together in masses of con- 
siderable size, the lowermost ones being usually dead and partly buried in sediment. 
Deeper within the banks other shells were found buried in the sand and mud, some 
of these having probably been smothered by the superimposed oysters and still retain- 
ing their vertical position and cohering in masses. 
The heaps of dead shells in the center of the beds I was unable to account for, 
unless indeed, as was suggested to me, they were merely heaps of refuse shells left 
by the Indians, who formerly found here an important source of food. This theory 
was sustained by the fact that the shells of the heap were all single valves, and of 
large size. 
A few other beds observed seemed newer than those described, and covered 
uniformly flats exposed at low water. These beds were sometimes of larger extent, 
were without definite shape, and did not contain the central heap of dead shells. 
Other exposed flats, lying side by side with the oyster-beds and apparently offering 
precisely the same conditions, were wholly bare. 
The Lower Algodones Lagoon, the opening to which lies but a few miles north 
of the Yaqui River, consists of numerous winding channels, running a long distance 
Bull. U. S. F. O. 89 7 
