Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 65 



which it would be unwise to attempt to grow oysters. In the part 

 of the river below the mouth of Emory's creek, which is two miles 

 in length and about one-half mile in width, five natural oyster bars 

 covering 153 acres were charted and reserved to the Public 

 Oyster Fishery. Holt on Point bar also is situated partly on bottoms 

 in the mouth of Corsica river, but as more than two-thirds of the bar 

 lies in Chester river waters, it was credited to Chester river. The 

 three small bars in the upper part of the river, Possum Point, 

 Ship Point and Earl's Cove bar, are badly depleted, as may be seen 

 by reference to the table on page 73, and it is a question of a short 

 time only when they will be exhausted and fit only for the purposes 

 of oyster culture. The cultch with which they are poorly stocked 

 is not in a condition to collect spat and very few small oysters were 

 to be found. The stock on these bars consisted mainly in very 

 old oysters, deeply embedded in the bottom. Soft bottoms pre- 

 vail onPossum Point bar, but the greater part of the areas cov- 

 ered by Ship Point and Earl's Cove bars are sandy. Grass grows on 

 the in-shore part of Earl's Cove bar. The two larger bars situated 

 in the lower half of the river were found in good condition, both 

 as to their stock of cultch and small oysters. Their bottoms are 

 composed mainly of sticky and soft, sandy mud. 



On June 16, 1909, the water over the bars varied in density from 

 1.0046 to 1.006. 



The bottoms suitable and available for oyster culture in Corsica 

 river cover about thirty acres. 



CHESAPEAKE BAY. 

 GROUNDS DESIGNATED FOR THE USE OF DREDGERS. 



(Shown on charts of natural oyster bars Nos. 29 and 31.) 



The section of the Chesapeake bay situated adjacent to Queen 

 Anne's County which will be opened with the territorial waters of 

 Queen Anne's County for the purpose of leasing underlying bar- 

 ren bottoms for oyster culture, is included between the Kent Island 

 shore line and the line marking the mid-bay channel from the 

 Talbot-Queen Anne's County boundary line in Eastern bay, extended, 

 to the Queen Anne's-Kent County boundary line in Chester river, 



