58 Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 



ing the waters of Eastern bay from those of its four large tribu- 

 taries, namely, Miles river, Prospect bay, Crab Alley bay and Cox 

 creek, are described in the parts of this report dealing with the 

 survey of the oyster grounds of these tributaries. 



In this section of Eastern bay twelve natural oyster bars, charted 

 to contain 4,680 acres, have been reserved to the Public Oyster Fish- 

 ery. Parts of two other bars extend into Eastern bay, namely, Bald 

 Eagle and Parsons Island, but they are credited to Prospect bay and 

 Crab Alley bay, in which parts of their areas lie. The two largest 

 bars of the section, Bugby and Bodkin Shoals, extend to the County 

 boundary line in the mid-channel and on account of the large supply 

 of food made available by the swift tidal currents which regularly 

 sweep over them, they are most favorably situated, and exami- 

 nations showed both bars to be unusually well stocked with oysters 

 in excellent condition, although they have been subject to frequent 

 raids by the serapers from the Talbot County side. The first named 

 bar occupies the greater part of the extensive sandy shoal formed 

 between the mouths of Miles river and Prospect bay, while the latter, 

 together with three other large oyster bars, from which it has been 

 distinguished arbitrarily by name only, has been developed upon a 

 similar and more extensive sandy shoal situated between the mouths 

 of Crab Alley bay and Cox creek. Each of these shoals is pene- 

 trated by a deep slough, the beds and sides of which are soft or 

 sticky, and on which oysters are not continuous. The bars on which 

 soft bottoms predominate are Prospect Point and Greenwood, in 

 the Greenwood creek channel, and Pine Tree, Bunker Hill and 

 Brick House Hill bars, in the channel to Cox creek. Patches of 

 hard bottom in each of these cases form the more prolific parts, 

 however, and are probably the centers from which the bars have 

 originated. Long Point bar occupies the narrow strip of bottom 

 situated above the mouth of Long Point creek, between Kent 

 Island and the Cox creek channel, of which the part next to the 

 channel at the lower end only is soft. The bottoms in this section 

 on which oysters were found as a continuous bar, were seldom cov- 

 ered by water to depths greater than 18 feet, but oysters were found 

 in lumps beyond the edges of the shoals on the muddy bottoms at 

 depths as great as 35 feet. 



Observations on the density of the water at examination stations 

 indicate that it varied between 1.0136 and 1.0144 during the Fall 

 and earlv Winter months. 



