Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 63 



entirely displaced by soft bottoms. At a few points oysters were 

 found to grow quite to the low-water mark, but usually the produc- 

 tive grounds ended at the 3 to 5 foot depth curve. The greatest 

 depths of water observed over the oyster bars varied from 18 feet, 

 near the mouth of the creek, to 10 feet in the upper part. A channel 

 practically disappears from the creek opposite the mouth of Ware- 

 house creek, and depths of water greater than 8 feet were not ob- 

 served at the examination stations on Pond Marsh bar. The bot- 

 toms in the lower portions of Thompsons and Warehouse creeks 

 which have been included within the limits of Thompsons and 

 Island Cove bars are practically all sticky or soft, and considerable 

 portions of them are barren, the oysters growing chiefly in lumps. 

 In the part of Cox creek just south and west of Batts Neck a con- 

 siderable area of hard, sandy bottom is found, but the part along 

 the Kent Island shore where oysters were found is sticky. 



During the period occupied by the survey of these grounds, 

 October and November, very little if any fresh water was finding its 

 way into Cox creek from the land and the density of the water over 

 the oyster beds was uniform and the variation in density due to the 

 rise and fall of the tide was small — 1. 01 36-1. 0144. 



By reference to the table of oyster bars on page 71 it may be 

 seen that the bars found to be in the most productive condition are 

 those over which the best circulation of water is maintained, and 

 that the bars situated on bottoms where good currents are not 

 present were invariably poorly stocked. 



Two pieces of bottom suitable for the purposes of oyster culture 

 of about 50 acres each will be subject to lease. 



CHESTER RIVER. 



(Shown on charts of natural oyster bars Nos. 29 and 30.) 



Practically all of the bottoms situated between the 6-foot depth 

 curve and the edge of the deep water channel on the Queen Anne's 

 County side of Chester river, from Love Point to the mouth of 

 Southeast creek, a stretch of nearly twenty-five miles, were pointed 

 out to the Commission by the local assistant for survey and exami- 

 nation. Two breaks only were conceded by oystermen to exist in 

 this long belt of oyster bottoms; one near the Kent Island Narrows, 

 the other near the head of the river. The average width of this 

 belt from Love Point to the mouth of Corsica river is fully one- 



