80 Survey of Oyster Bars, Somerset County, Md. 



crab bottoms, but the same system of straight lines and numbered corners used to delin- 

 eate the oyster bars has been retained for defining the offshore water boundaries. 



There are 54 individual "crab bottoms" in Somerset County exempt from leasing 

 for oyster culture which have been surveyed and delineated under separate names by 

 the Commission, and their total area as determined by the hydrographic engineer of 

 the Commission is 32,108 acres. The largest of these bottoms is 2,182 acres and the 

 smallest 23 acres. 



The boundaries of the crab bottoms of Somerset County as established by the 

 Shell Fish Commission and shown on the Coast and Geodetic Survey charts and pro- 

 jections and on the "leasing charts" of the Commission are technically defined and 

 described by a method but little different from that used for the description of the 

 boundaries of oyster bars. 



The descriptions have been arranged in tabular form, thus avoiding many hundred 

 repetitions of the same words by making one explanation of the tables sufficient for all 

 crabbing bottoms in the county. 



At the top of each tabular form is given the legal name of the crab bottom to be 

 described, its general locality, and the serial numbers of the "Charts of Oyster Bars" 

 of Maryland on which its boundaries are shown. 



The first column, under the heading of "Corner of bottom," gives the number 

 corresponding to the corner of the boundary as shown on the charts. These numbers 

 have been assigned to the corners of the crab bottoms in a slightly different manner 

 from that used in describing the oyster bars, although both proceed in a clockwise 

 direction around their boundaries. In delineating the crab bottoms it was generally 

 planned to have both the first and last corners fall on land, thus making the mean 

 low- water line of the shore between these two corners form the connecting boundary, as 

 is always stated in such cases in a note at the bottom of the tabular descriptions. Where 

 a corner of one bottom is identical with the corners of one or more other crab bottoms, 

 oyster bars, or clam beds, only the number of the crab bottom being described in the 

 table is given in this column. 



The second and third columns, under the headings of " Latitude" and " Longitude, " 

 give the geographic positions of the corners. These positions have been adopted by 

 the Commission as the primary technical definitions of the corners, and should be 

 considered as final in case of a dispute arising from discrepancies caused by other means 

 of location. The latitudes and longitudes given in these columns are based on the 

 United States standard datum of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the points thus 

 defined can be relocated from distant triangulation stations of the Survey, even though 

 all the landmarks and buoys used for their original location have been destroyed. 



The fourth and fifth columns, under the general heading of "True bearing" a and 

 the specific headings of "Forward" and "Back," give bearings measured from a true 

 north and south line. The three "Forward" bearings are from the corner of the 

 boundary designated in the first column to the triangulation stations named on the 

 corresponding lines in the last column, and the three "Back" bearings are from these 

 same stations in the last column to the corresponding corner of boundary in the first 

 column. 



o The mean magnetic variation of Somerset County for 1908 was 5° 30' west of north and increasing 

 at the rate of 3' yearly. 



