io Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 



leased in any part of the State until the natural bars of that region 

 had been surveyed, charted and marked with buoys. 



DEFINITION OF A NATURAL OYSTER BAR. 



NATURAL BAR NOT DEFINED. 



The Shell Fish Commission is instructed by Section 90 of the 

 Haman Oyster Culture Law to exercise its judgment liberally in 

 favor of the natural bars when surveying, chartering and buoying 

 the same, but other than this the Commission is uninstructed in this 

 important matter. The responsibility of defining a natural bar is 

 placed upon the Commission. 



DIVERSITY OF OPINION. 



No definition of a natural oyster bar could be formulated by any 

 man or body of men which would meet with the approval of all the 

 parties concerned. Oystermen, as a rule, hold that all bottoms 

 where oysters grow or have grown naturally, even though now 

 practically barren of oysters should be considered natural bars. 

 Other citzens of the State who are not directly interested in the 

 oyster business, but interested in the oyster industry from the stand- 

 point of revenue, hold, as a rule, that no bottoms should be excluded 

 from leasing for oyster culture which, by methods known to oyster 

 culturalists, may be made to yield a greater number of oysters than 

 they now produce. 



It should be evident to every one that neither of these definitions 

 could be adopted by the Commission as a basis for determining 

 which of the grounds surveyed are natural bars. 



THE GOLDSBOROUGH DEFINITION. 



The definition of a natural oyster bar which very nearly ap- 

 proaches a reasonable and satisfactory compromise between the 

 views of the subject held by oystermen on one hand and by oyster 

 culturalists on the other is that contained in an opinion rendered by 

 Judge Chas. F. Goldsborough in the Circuit Court for Dorchester 

 County in the July term, 1881, in the case of William T. Windsor 

 and George R. Todd vs. Job T. Moore. 



This definition has been adopted by the Shell Fish Commission 

 as the basis for the determination of the status of the various oyster 

 bottoms surveyed, and is as follows : 



