16 SHELL-FISH COMMISSIONERS’ REPORT. [Jan., 
could be surveyed and mapped upon the commissioners’ 
maps and the town maps, a vast deal of expensive prelimi- 
nary work had to be done in establishing base lines, in 
fixing general land-marks, and ascertaining their relative 
distances; and in a great amount of other engineering 
work common to the whole area of the State grounds. 
The simple act of measuring a lot and drawing its outline 
in its proper place on the maps is the final inconsiderable 
portion of the necessary work of surveying and mapping 
the lot. The actual cost therefore was not easy to deter- 
mine; and only the approximate cost could be attempted. 
After a careful examination the commissioners concluded 
that ten cents an acre was the nearest approximation to 
the actual cost that could be made; and they so charged 
applicants for grounds. As some objection has been made 
to this charge, it is recommended that the law be amended, 
establishing this as the proper charge. 
It is further recommended that a law be passed com- 
pelling the owner of every sail vessel and steamer pursuing 
business on the Connecticut oyster grounds to register 
its name, tonnage, and home port with the commissioners, 
that it may receive a number which shall be conspicuously 
painted in black figures at least eighteen inches long and 
proportionately wide upon the sail or such other place as 
the commissioners may designate. Only by this means 
can the oyster fleet be kept under proper control. A large 
amount of private property in oysters lies under water, 
covering an immense extent of territory—a great portion 
in distant and isolated places, far from the shore and the 
sreater part of the time unattended and unprotected. The 
beds are visibly marked only by buoys set at long inter- 
vals, and are not easily identified, except by the owners 
and their employees. ew or none can tell whether a ves- 
sel at work on a bed is rightfully there; and even when 
known to be plundering it is not easy to ascertain who 
the crew are before they get beyond reach. If all oyster 
vessels are compelled to carry distinguishing numbers 
while at work on the oyster grounds, a strange vessel 
without a number would be readily recognized and driven 
