124 Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners 

 STATE BUOYS. 



CONSTRUCTION. 



Provision is made in Section 86 of the Haman Oyster Culture 

 Law for marking the corners of all natural oyster bars with 

 buoys to enable oystermen to see, before the period has elapsed 

 during which appeals may be made to the Circuit Court, that 

 none of the natural bars have been missed by the survey party. 



Since the number of buoys required to mark the corners of 

 the natural oyster bars in the State will be very large, probably 

 not less than 3,000, the problem of constructing a buoy which 

 will be satisfactorily permanent and at the same time not too 

 expensive for practical use, has been difficult. 



The third and fourth class spar buoys used by the Light 

 House Board for marking channels were first considered as 

 types of buoys to be adopted for \ise in marking the corners of 

 the natural bars, but on account of the cost of such buoys 

 ($15.65 and $6.30) the adoption of a different type was found 

 necessary. 



The type of buoy used to mark the corners of the natural 

 oyster bars in Connecticut was also considered. This buoy 

 consists of a pine sapling, made fast just below its center, by 

 means of a rope, to a burlap bag filled with 150 pounds of sand. 

 Although simple in construction and reasonable in price this 

 buoy was not adopted by reason of its lack of durability. With 

 such a buoy marking the corners of the oyster bars in Mary- 

 land, the continuous services of a special engineer to replace the 

 buoys carried away by ice and storms would be found neces- 

 sary. 



The two types of buoys adopted by the Commission were 

 designed by the chief engineer. The plan of the construction of 

 the larger is shown in figure 9. 



The larger buoy (a), is composed of a spar and sinker and a 

 mechanism df iron for connecting the two. The spars, 20-50 



