162 Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners 



Wingate bar is situated in and near the channel just above 

 the mouth of the river on a bottom composed of soft sand and 

 mud. It is covered with water 7 to 12 feet in depth. Mt. 

 Vernon Wharf bar occupies a position in the river similar to 

 that of Wingate bar, but the bottom is composed chiefly of hard 

 sand upon which there is a thin layer of soft sediment. The 

 depth of water over the bar varies from 10 to 18 feet. 



Currents having a velocity of 1.2 miles per hour flow in the 

 channel of the river at certain stages of the tides. The density 

 of the water over Wingate bar, when the tide was high, was 

 1.0088. A series of hourly observations of the density of the 

 water over Mt. Vernon Wharf bar made on September 5th and 

 6th covering two tides shows a wide difference between the 

 density at low tide and high tide, due to the fresh water brought 

 down with the ebb. At high tide the density was 1.005, at low 

 tide, 1.0028. 



Some of the barren bottoms in the lower part of the river are 

 adapted for the growth of oysters, but those in the upper part 

 which were leased for oyster culture under the former oyster 

 culture law have not been found sufficiently profitable to induce 

 the owners to retain them. The growth of oysters in water as 

 fresh as that in the upper part of Wicomico Eiver is extremely 

 slow. 



Tangier Sound. 



All waters situated north of th,e Maryland- Virginia boundary 

 line, between Cedar Straits and Horse Hammock, and east of 

 Smiths Island and South Marsh, including the waters of Kedge 

 and Holland Straits, east of the Somerset County boundary 

 line, but excluding the waters of the rivers, Sound and Bay 

 previously described, have been designated by the County for 

 scraping operations and are therefore considered in this report 

 as the waters of Tangier Sound. 



The oyster bars in this section, 13 in number, aggregate an 

 area of 12,922 acres. By reference to the table on page 177 it 

 will be seen that the condition of the natural oyster bars in 

 Tangier Sound gradually improves as the distance between the 

 bars and the Maryland- Virginia boundary line increases. The 

 conditions of some of the bars near the State line is such that 



