Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 115 



beds, bars and rocks, as established by said survey, and they shall 

 take true and accurate notes of said survey in writing, and make an 

 accurate report of said survey, setting forth such a description of 

 land marks as may be necessary to enable the said Board, or their 

 successors, to find and ascertain the boundary lines of the said nat- 

 ural oyster beds, bars and rocks, as shown by a delineation of the 

 maps and charts provided in this Act ; said report shall be com- 

 pleted and filed in the office of the Board in the City of Annapolis, 

 within ninety days after the completion of the survey of any 

 county. Said Commissioners shall cause the same to be published 

 in pamphlet form, and transmit copies of the same to the Clerk of 

 the Circuit Court for their respective counties, where the charts 

 have been filed or directed to be filed, as herinafter provided; the 

 said report to be filed by the Clerks of the several counties in a 

 book kept for that purpose. And the said survey and report, when 

 filed, subject to the right of appeal hereafter provided for in this 

 Act, shall be taken in all of the Courts of this State as conclusive 

 evidence of the boundaries and limits of all natural oyster beds, 

 bars and rocks, lying within the waters of the county wherein such 

 survey and report are filed, and shall be construed to mean in all of 

 the said Courts that there are no natural oyster beds, bars or rocks 

 lying within the waters of the counties wherein such report and 

 survey are filed, other than those embraced in the survey authorized 

 by this Act, and that all areas of the Chesapeake Bay and its 

 tributaries within the State of Maryland, not shown in the survey 

 to be natural oyster beds, bars or rocks, shall be construed in all 

 the Courts of the State to be barren bottoms, and open for dis- 

 posal by the State for the purpose of private planting or propaga- 

 tion of oysters thereon under the provisions of this Act; provided 

 that the said survey and report shall not be so construed as to affect 

 in any manner the holdings by citizens of this State in any lot 

 which may have been appropriated or taken up under the laws of 

 this State prior to the approval of this Act. 



Section 90. The said Board, in defining the natural beds and 

 bars, shall exercise its judgment liberally in favor of the natural 

 beds and bars, and allow a reasonable margin of the barren bot- 

 toms, rather than encroach on a natural bed or bar. The natural 

 beds or bars shall be bounded by straight lines, even though some 



