24 FOURTH REPORT OF SHELL FISH COMMISSIONERS 
Engineers Report. 
To the Commissioners of Shell Fisheries of the State of Connecticut: 
GENTLEMEN:—The principal features of the work performed in the 
Engineering Department during the first four months of the fiscal 
year were as follows: 
The making of a new general map of the oyster grounds of the 
State, to be used in the Committee room at Hartford, and also a like 
map for use at your office. 
The finishing of the maps which are prepared in the field, during 
the summer and fall, to check the surveys made during that period. 
The plotting on the permanent, or working, maps of the office, of 
surveys made the previous season. ‘The preparation, for the Tax De- 
partment, of a series of tracings by towns, on a scale of 1 in 20,000, 
for assessment purposes. ‘The tracing, by record, of transfers of prop- 
erty. The mapping of applications and drawing descriptions, mathe- 
matical in character, for deeds of the same. Preparing a set of 
tracings for use in connection with the setting of buoys. ‘Taking off 
angles for probable buoy work during the field season. Making a 
complete copy, in ink, of the buoy records of the office and indexing 
the same, and also of other records. The making of computations 
and tracings, on demand, for private use, and for which a charge was 
in all cases made. The careful reviewing and comparing of notes 
and maps. Clerical work in connection with the tax bills. 
The basis of the map for use at Hartford was formed by jointing 
together the three sections of the coast survey chart of Long Island 
Sound. The maps of the office were reduced, by the use of a panto- 
graph, from their large scale to the small scale of this combined chart 
and then transferred on to the same. The reductions and transfers 
were executed with much skill by Mr. D. C. Sanford. ‘The map was 
then colored and lettered, the State and town lines added, and also 
various squares giving the size, to scale, of certain areas, as 50 acres, 
100 acres. 
The companion map at your office is of much use, as it shows at a 
