OYSTER CULTURE IN AMERICA. 843 



for license, but those surveys were rude in the extreme, 

 and it was the exception and not the rule when they would 

 plot. In many cases the description of the lot was radi- 

 cally in error in one case the metes and bounds given 

 being practically one straight line, and this lot was sup- 

 posed to contain 10 acres. In numbers of instances no 

 description at all was given beyond the statement that the 

 lot lay in such and such a creek or bay, and contained 10 

 acres. How the area of the lot was determined is im- 

 possible to conceive. Many lots were said to begin at 

 a "point," or opposite a "house" or "wharf," but the 

 general description was that the lot " begins at a stake." 

 A stake is a perishable object, and frequently disappears. 

 In such cases the owner sets up another, sometimes in the 

 same place and sometimes not ; but there was nothing to 

 .prevent his taking up an entirely new area, or infringing 

 upon other lots, and nothing to protect him from similar 

 infringement upon his own. 



Two examples of characteristic surveys are quoted : 

 " Begins at a stake, running N. 66 W., 30 poles ; thence 

 S. 66 C E. to the shore ; thence with the various courses to 

 the beginning, containing 10 acres. 



The two courses given here are one and the same, and 

 the description is utter nonsense. 



" This is a plan of an oyster-bed layed off for , 



in Creek, in said county, on Hunting Quarters, 



containing 10 acres on the east side of said creek, adjoin- 

 ing the lands of said ." 



A rough sketch without courses or distances accom- 

 panies this description, and naturally no plot can be made 

 nor its area determined. 



In addition, the law required good and substantial 

 stakes to be maintained, and also that free navigation 



