26 Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 



REPORT OF SURVEYS AND EXAMINATIONS OF 

 OYSTER GROUNDS. 



FOREWORD. 



As in the former report, the survey of the oyster grounds is de- 

 scribed herein as having proceeded from north to south in the 

 •counties on the Western Shore, and from south to north in the 

 counties on the Eastern Shore. Grounds located in sections desig- 

 nated by law for the exclusive use of tongmen in each county are 

 •described first, the descriptions of grounds on which scrapers or 

 dredgers may work following. 



All facts relating to natural oyster bars which lend themselves 

 to a statistical form of presentation, such as names, dates, areas, 

 numbers of corners, conditions as represented by number of oysters 

 per square yard or bushels of oysters per acre, are included in 

 tables, one set for each county, placed after the text in each case 

 Subject-matter which can not be satisfactorily reported by the 

 statistical method is given in the text. 



The feature of the Maryland Survey which distinguishes it from 

 former surveys of oyster grounds, and which gives it its right to be 

 considered a real investigation of the oyster grounds of Maryland, 

 is that of the series of examinations carried on in connection with 

 the lines of soundings and chain-wire readings. The results of these 

 examinations constitute the basis upon which the status of the 

 grounds, whether natural oyster bar or leasable bottoms, is deter- 

 mined by the Commission. It was very early realized that the 

 accuracy of the final results of the survey depends not only upon the 

 accuracy of the method by which the examinations of the oyster 

 producing bottoms are carried on, but to a very large extent also 

 upon the number and proper location of the stations at which exami- 

 nations are made. The Commission has, therefore, endeavored to 

 increase the number of these examinations to the fullest capacity 

 of the equipment for this work and to perfect the methods by which 

 the examinations are carried on. The following statement of the 

 number of examinations of the surveyed bottoms made during the 



