PREFACE. 
On February 3, 1909, the Bureau of Fisheries received from Hon. 
Claude A. Swanson, governor of Virginia, a communication inclosing 
the following resolution of the Commissioners of Fisheries of the 
State : 
Resolved , That the governor be requested to enlist the services of the United States 
Bureau of Fisheries in determining and defining the fertile and the barren areas in 
James River, marking and platting same, provided it can be done without expendi- 
ture by the State. 
At the urgent solicitation of Governor Swanson, and upon the con- 
viction that the work would prove of value as a guide for contem- 
plated legislation by the State in respect to the future administration 
of the public oyster grounds, the request for the survey was acceded 
to, the steamer Fish Hawk and civilian assistants were detailed for 
the work, and Dr. H. F. Moore, assistant in the Bureau of Fisheries? 
was directed to assume charge. 
The erection of signals was begun early in July and completed by 
August 7. The actual examination of the oyster beds commenced 
on August 9 and extended, with only such interruptions as were due 
to the weather, to September 14, the survey thus covering the period 
just prior to the opening of the oyster season, when the beds were in 
their optimum condition. Under the terms of the resolution quoted 
above, the Bureau has not felt justified in offering advice as to the 
future treatment of the beds, and the following report is therefore 
confined to statements of fact and a short discussion of their several 
obvious avenues of application. 
George M. Bowers, 
Commissioner. 
United States Bureau of Fisheries, 
Washington, D. C., December 1, 1909. 
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