Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners 171 



bottoms on the eastern side of the main channel of the Sound 

 but they extend to and include some of the soft bottoms in deep 

 water. The depth of water over their eastern boundary varies 

 from 6 feet to 12 feet, their western limits being covered 20 to 

 40 feet. 



Mussel Hole, Turtle Egg Island and Mud 50 bars extend in a 



broad continuous belt on the western side of the Sound from 



i 



a point opposite Solomon's Lump Light in Kedge Straits to the 

 line dividing the waters of Somerset and Dorchester Counties. 



The productive area of these bars seems to have been consid- 

 erably more than doubled since the survey by Winslow in 1878. 

 The limits of each have been greatly extended both on the 

 west on the east. The bottom on the middle of the bars 

 with the exception of a few sloughs is hard and sandy, but 

 the oysters on the edges both east and west are scattered in 

 lumps on soft mud. 



Old Orchard and Haines Point 51 beds occupy an area on the 

 eastern side of the Sound from a point just above Deals Island 

 wharf to the line marking the boundary between Tangier and 

 Nanticoke Sounds. These beds also have been about doubled in 

 area since 1878, the process probably having been the same as 

 that which has so greatly increased the productive area of the 

 beds on the opposite side of the Sound; scrapers carry shells 

 and oysters beyond the limits of the bars as they dredge back 

 and forth over them. The character of the bottom does not 

 differ from that of the bars on the opposite side of the Sound. 

 The -depth of water over the inner boundary is from 6 to 12 feet; 

 that over the outer boundary 20 to 27 feet. 



The following tables show the density of the water observed 

 from June 4th to September 12th, 1907, over each of, the bars: 



accordance with information given by the local assistants the 

 names of Turtle Egg Island and Mud bars are reversed from Winslow's 

 Report, the name Turtle Egg Island being given to the bar called Mud 

 by Winslow and vice versa. 



siThe names by which Old Orchard and Haines Point bars are desig- 

 nated in Winslow's Report are Cedar and Drumming Shoal. 



