212 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 



put in the channel where the tide was very strong, but no results were 

 obtained. 



The experiment from which I obtained the most favorable results 

 was that I tried in the channel of the creek. Sowing down about 40 

 bushels of shells, I put on them two or three bushels of oysters during 

 the spawning season, and most of the shells have some spat on them. 



By the 1st of June the water from the well in the cottage became so 

 brackish that it was deemed necessary to make an effort to get better, 

 so we determined to try and complete the artesian well that had been 

 started the year previous. Lynch, with the launch's crew and two col- 

 ored laborers, worked several days at the pipe, which had been sunk 

 over 100 feet; but finding it impossible to sink it any deeper or get it 

 up, sunk another alougside of it, to the depth of 80 feet, when it became 

 so tightly fastened that even with two Jiiore laborers they could get no 

 further. I had it all taken up and 2i-inch pipe put down in its place^ 

 and had sunk about 90 feet when the steamer Fish Hawk arrived, bring- 

 ing ice and coal for the station, and carrying with her the machinery 

 barge and launch and crew to Havre de Grace. While here the Fish 

 Hawk crew hauled up and painted with copper paint the small scow 

 and seine-boat, but the paint being put on before they were allowed to 

 dry soon came off, and did no good. She returned from Havre de Grace 

 on July 8, with steam launch No. 55 and crew of four men. The work 

 on the well was now resumed, the 00 feet of 2i-inch pipe being used as 

 a casing for the Iv^-iucli, and a force of four laborers being regularly 

 employed to assist the launch's crew. 



The men worked regularly, some days putting down as much as 40 

 feet of pii)ing, others only 1 or 2 feet, according to the material we were 

 boring through. On the 2Gth of July I found they could get the 1^-inch 

 l)il)e no farther, being then down 321 feet, sol determined to sink the 

 drill attached to the |-iuch pipe until 1 struck water. On the 1st of 

 August, having gone down 381 feet, I attached the steam-pumj) to the 

 ^-inch pipe and got good water, and in abundance, rising to within 1 

 or 2 feet of the surface. I then took up the 2^-inch pipe, and tried to 

 get up the 1^ inch pipe, but failed. Finding I had a steady stream of 

 good water, after trying it several days, I attached a hand-pump to the 

 f-inch pipe, and have since had no difiticulty in the supply and quality 

 of the water. The well was sunk through layers of red clay and gravel, 

 blue clay and sand alternating after that, and I had samples of the water 

 sent to the Smithsonian Institution for analysis. The cost of well for 

 outside labor was $210. 



Tolbert, assisted l)y D. W. Kenly, who was sent down here on the 18th 

 of July, completed the east and west rooms in the cottage. I had 10 feet 

 added to the kitchen, to make a passage between cottage and kitchen, 

 and a linen closet built in second story of cottage. Upon looking over 

 the old lumber here I found there was enough to put up a stable, with 

 the exception of the weatherboarding and a few shingles, which I got 



