Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 59 



The following table gives the results of observations of the tides 



made during the survey : 



Maximum Mean 



Locality. Period of Observation. Range. Range. 



Claiborne Wbarf Aug. 17-31, Oct. 19, Nov. 29.. 3.55 feet 1.29 feet 



Bloody Point L. H Aug. 30 to Oct. 5 2.70 feet 1.01 feet 



St. Michaels Dec. 3-17 3.57 feet 1.12 feet 



The results of the survey indicate that about all of the bottoms 

 suited to the production of oysters in this section are, 01* have been 

 until recently, occupied by natural oyster bars. The bottoms not re- 

 served to the public fishery which are or can be made valuable for 

 oyster culture, aggregate about 550 acres. They are located along 

 the Kent Island shore at three places and along the inner edge of 

 Coffee bar. 



PROSPECT BAY AND KENT ISLAND NARROWS. 



(Shown on charts of natural oyster bars, Nos. 29 and 32.) 



The waters of Prospect bay and Kent Island Narrows separate 

 the mainland of Queen Anne's County from Kent Island and connect 

 the waters of Eastern bay with those of Chester river. The limits 

 of Prospect bay on the south are considered in this report to be 

 formed by a line connecting the southernmost part of Piney Neck 

 at the mouth of Greenwood creek, with the southernmost point of 

 Parsons Island. The line then continues across Parsons Island 

 Narrows to the Kent Island Shore, where it ends at Normans 

 Point. Kent Island Narrows is the name in general use for the 

 short narrow channel which runs through the marsh between the 

 waters of Prospect bay and Chester river. Within these waters 

 seventeen natural oyster bars, covering 4,041 acres of bottom, have 

 been charted and reserved to the Public Oyster Fishery, fifteen of 

 which are credited to Prospect bay and two to the narrows. Oys- 

 ters were found during the survey on almost the entire area of the 

 section, the exceptions being the narrow beach of hard, shifting 

 sand found along the greater part of the shore line; patches of the 

 same material which cap a few shoals and sand bars, and the small 

 areas occupied by the short mid-stream channels in which the 

 bottoms are too soft to support oysters. In some localities the 

 character of the bottom is such that oysters grow entirely to low 

 water mark, and at such places mean low-water mark has been 

 made the limit of the natural bars. Continuous deep water channels 



