3) 
In the discharge of their duty of exploring and mapping natural 
beds, the Commissioners have experienced no little difficulty. Great 
difference of opinion exists as to what constitutes a natural bed; 
while the testimony as to their size and shape is conflicting and 
largely untrustworthy. No pains have been spared to secure all the 
information about the beds that was possible. When a hearing was 
agreed upon due public notice of the time and place was given, so 
that all who desiréd could be heard. The place for the hearing was 
selected with a view to the convenience of the witnesses rather than 
of the Commissioners. Parties appeared not only in person, but by 
counsel, and an exhaustive examination was had in every case. The 
witnesses were generally divided into two classes, one consisting | 
mainly of those whose work was confined to the natural beds, and 
the other who may be classed as oyster growers. The former sought 
to make the natural beds as large in extent as possible, while it was 
for the interest of the latter to so restrict them as to leave portions 
thereof open for designation and cultivation, for which purpose these 
and adjacent grounds are very valuable. 
It is the obvious design of the law that the natural beds shall be 
preserved in their entirety for the use of the public; hence the law 
makes the Commissioners liable to severe penalties if they knowingly 
make grants which encroach upon them, and such grants are abso- 
lutely void. 
Such being the fact, it becomes an important preliminary question, 
what,-according to the intent of the law, is a natural bed ? 
Various definitions have been attempted. In one sense, all 
oyster beds, whether the result of cultivation or of accident, are 
natural beds. But it is not in this sense that the term is com- 
monly used and understood. To quote from last year’s Report, ‘‘all 
grounds of any considerable extent, under water, which are found 
overspread with growing oysters, are generally called oyster beds. 
They are artificial or natural. Those designed and planted by man 
are artificial beds; all others are natural beds, and they are formed by 
spat from other: beds, drifted by winds and tides and deposited upon 
a bottom suitable for its adhesion and growth.” This definition is 
correct in a general sense, but it does not accurately describe the 
natural bed which.the law designs to recognize and protect. Small 
isolated patches of natural growth oysters cannot be deemed natural 
beds within the meaning of the law; but when such patches are 
found scattered over an extent of ground in sufficient abundance to 
remunerate the oystermen, a greater or less number of years in 
