10 
succession, for the labor of gathering them, there is such a natural 
oyster bed as the law recognizes and protects. This is substantially 
the idea of those who have labored on these beds for many years. In 
their testimony before the Commissioners, a natural oyster bed with 
them was an uncultivated bed where they could find oysters ‘‘in 
paying quantities,”—where they could do ‘‘a fair day’s work,”—and 
this view is sustained by legal authority. By the laws of Maryland, 
no natural bar or bed of oysters can be designated. A case arose in 
Dorchester County involving the construction of the term ‘‘natural 
bed.” After an able discussion by counsel, Judge Charles F. Golds- 
borough decided as follows: ‘‘There are large and numerous 
tracts where oysters of moderate growth may be found in moderate 
numbers, but not in quantities sufficient to make it profitable to catch 
them, and yet where oysters may be successfully planted and propa- 
gated. In my opinion, these cannot be called natural bars or beds 
of oysters within the meaning of the acts of the Assembly, and it is 
just such lands as these that the State meant to allow to be taken up 
under the provisions of the act. But there is still another class of 
lands where oysters grow naturally and in large quantities, and to 
which the public are now, and have been for many years, in the 
habit of resorting with a view to earning a livelihood by catching this 
natural growth, and here, I think, is the true test of the whole ques- 
tion. Land cannot be said to be a natural oyster bar or bed merely 
because oysters are scattered here and there upon it, and because, if 
planted, they will readily live and thrive there; du¢ wherever the natural 
growth ts so thick and abundant that the public resort to tt for a livelihood, 
wt ts a natural bar or bed, and comes within the above quoted restrichon in 
the law, and cannot be located or appropriated by an individual.” The 
last lines are italicized as comprehending the true legal definition of 
a natural bed. 
And yet to determine at any given time what grounds are to be 
considered as fairly embraced within a natural bed is not an easy 
matter. If they were uniformly productive throughout their entire 
surface, and this without variations from year to year, there would 
be no difficulty in determining and mapping their outlines. But 
this is far from being the fact. The oysters grow in patches and 
streaks on the natural beds, with intervening bare spots of larger or 
smaller area. What are barren spaces this year may be covered with 
oysters the next, and so the bed may be continually changing. Still 
the changes are always within certain limits, so that the general area 
and outline of the bed is preserved. To ascertain this general area 
