156 Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners 



1878 being 1.0152 ; the minimum over the "Upper Beds," 1.0128. 

 The density of the water in all oyster-producing localities is 

 influenced by the quantity of rainfall and therefore varies from 

 season to season and from year to year. During the dry season 

 none of the eleven tributaries of the Manokin Kiver carries 

 fresh water in sufficient quantities to atfect the density over the 

 oyster beds perceptibly, but during the spring or when the 

 rainfall is heavy the discharge of fresh water from the marshes 

 is probably large enough to lower the density of the entire 

 river and the adjacent part of the sound. 



Currents having a velocity of from .71 to .62 mile per hour 

 were observed in the channel ove^ Drum Point and Georges 

 bars. Two series of observations made in the vicinity of Sandy 

 Point ~bar during the maximum flow of two tides show that 

 when the current runs with a velocity of .87 mile per hour in 

 the middle of the channel it runs but .28 mile per hour near the 

 edge of the channel and but .09 mile per hour over the mud 

 flats in a cove near shore. On the opposite side of the river 

 beyond the channel, but near a point of land which projects into 

 the river the water flowed with a velocity of .59 mile per hour. 



The bottoms which have been designated for crabbing aggre- 

 gate an area of about 6,058 acres. Beginning at Hazards 

 Point, on the south side of the river, they occupy a belt along 

 the shore line to a point just below the mouth of Drum 

 Point Creek, and a small area along the shore just above the 

 mouth of Teagues Creek. On the north side of the river, all 

 the bottom not occupied by natural oyster bars, from the mouth 

 of Geanquakin Creek to the mouth of the river are crabbing 

 grounds. 



The survey of the oyster grounds and crabbing bottoms of 

 Manokin Kiver has resulted in opening but a small quantity of 

 barren bottoms, adapted for oyster culture, for lease; much 

 smaller, indeed, than was desired by even the oystermen who 

 depend upon the public oyster grounds and crabbing bottoms 

 for a livelihood. In addition to the lots leased for oyster culture 

 under the former law and held under the present law, about 

 fifty-two in number, the bottoms available for oyster culture are 

 located ; between the crabbing ground, off the mouth of Cove 

 Creek, and Drum Point bar ; in a narrow belt extending from 



