38 Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 



oyster-bearing bottoms on either side, thus reducing the number of 

 natural bars and simplifying the work of charting and buoying the 

 same. In both the east and west forks of the bay the productive 

 oyster grounds occupy the soft sandy, muddy bottoms in and near 

 the middle of the stream where the depths of water vary from 9 to 

 19 feet. 



In June the water over the oyster bars at the head waters of the 

 forks had a density of 1. 001 5-1. 0034, and 1. 0028-1. 004 in the part 

 of the bay below the forks. 



The bottoms in Lankfords bay available and suitable for the 

 purposes of oyster culture aggregate an area of about 275 acres 

 and are distributed as follows: about 100 acres in east fork, 90 

 acres in west fork and 85 acres in the bay proper. About 200 acres 

 of this planting bottom was once covered with productive oyster 

 bars. 



GRAYS INN CREEK. 



(Shown on chart of natural oyster bars No. 30.) 



Grays Inn creek is a small inlet from Chester river having a 

 width at its mouth of half a mile and a length of about three miles. 

 It is nowhere deep, the depths found over the oyster grounds 

 ranging from 18 to 5 feet. The supply of fresh water is very small 

 compared with the amount of brackish water brought into it from 

 Chester river by the tide, and until recent years it has been produc- 

 tive of oysters to a point two miles above its mouth. Bottoms of 

 soft and sticky mud prevail throughout the channel, and in many 

 places extend quite to the shore. The bottoms near shore are 

 sandy or gravelly and stony, and in some localities they were cov- 

 ered with grass. 



. Afthe time of the survey the water over the oyster grounds had 

 a density of 1.0046 to 1.006. 



One large oyster bar containing 93 acres occupies the bottoms of 

 the lower part of the creek and extends into Chester river where it 

 joins Willow Bottom bar. The four small grounds surveyed in the 

 upper part of the creek did not measure up to the adopted standard 

 of a natural oyster bar either in condition or in area and were not 

 charted. 



The amount of barren bottom in Grays Inn creek available and 

 suitable for the purposes of oyster culture is about 100 acres, one- 



