OYSTER BEDS OF JAMES RIVER, VIRGINIA. 
23 
The depleted area, which constitutes the major portion of the bed 
as delineated on the chart, is principally on the western or upstream 
side, though a strip averaging about 100 yards in width extends 
around the outer end of the shoal and along its entire eastern side. 
This area will nowhere yield to the tonger more than about 2 \ bushels 
of oysters per day, and the average yield of all places examined would 
not be over 1 bushel. 
The growth of young oysters on the areas charted as dense and 
scattering and on the very scattering part closer to the ridge is pro- 
lific enough to yield a tonger from 8 to 25 bushels per day, the average 
of all places examined being about 17 bushels. Clean shells were 
abundant on the three productive areas and in the depleted area close 
to the ridge. 
The data on which the foregoing statements are based is as follows : 
Details of Examination of High Shoal Hock. 
Station 
num- 
Date of ex- 
amination. 
Mean 
depth 
of wa- 
ter. 
Character of growth 
of market oysters. 
Oysters caught per 
square yard. 
Estimated quantity oys- 
ters per acre. 
ber. 
Spat. 
Culls. 
Counts. 
Seed. 
Market. 
Total. 
68 
Aug. 13,1909 
Feet. 
7.0 
Dense 
3.6 
10.9 
7.8 
Bush. 
94 
Bush. 
94 
Bush. 
188 
70 
.....do....... 
7.5 
do............ 
10.0 
17.0 
10.3 
175 
125 
300 
473 
Sept. 7,1909 
5.5 
do 
3.2 
12.4 
2.6 
101 
32 
132 
474 
do 
6.0 
do...... 
3.2 
22.5 
8.4 
167 
102 
269 
67 
Aug. 13,1909 
6.0 
Scattering 
3.4 
26.4 
4.1 
194 
50 
244 
478 
Sept. 8, 1909 
6.0 
do 
2.9 
6.5 
3.9 
61 
47 
108 
476 
do 
8.0 
Very scattering. . . 
.0 
.3 
2.9 
2 
35 
37 
477 
..... do ... 
3.5 
.....do............ 
7.6 
10.1 
1.3 
115 
16 
131 
63 
Aug. 13,1909 
14.5 
Depleted 
.0 
.0 
.0 
0 
0 
0 
64 
do 
12.5 
do 
.0 
.2 
1.8 
1 
22 
23 
69 
do.....:. 
9.0 
.....do 
.0 
.0 
.0 
0 
0 
0 
71 
do....... 
7.5 
do 
.4 
2.2 
1.8 
17 
22 
39 
470 
Sept. 7,1909 
4.0 
do 
2.4 
1.8 
.2 
27 
2 
29 
471 
.....do. 
6.0 
do...... 
1.1 
1.4 
1.7 
16 
20 
36 
472 
do 
6.5 
do 
.0 
1.0 
1.7 
6 
20 
26 
479 
Sept. 8,1909 
7.5 
.....do 
.0 
.2 
.0 
1 
0 
1 
480 
do. 
9.5 
do. 
.0 
1.3 
.0 
8 
0 
8 
481 
do....... 
7.0 
do 
.0 
.0 
.0 
0 
0 
0 
TROUT SHOAL ROCK. 
This bed occupies the southeastern part of Naseway Shoal. In 
its depleted area it is continuous with Dog Shoal Rock, which occu- 
pies the upper part of the same shoal, but is separated from the adja- 
cent Fishing Point and High Shoal Rocks by swash channels in which 
there is an abrupt deepening of the water. The depth ranges from 
low-water mark to 10 or 11 feet, the greater depths being found in a 
pocket of deep water which extends far into Naseway Shoal from the 
westward. 
