Survey of Oyster Bars, Somerset County, Md. 115 



Sue. 89. As soon as practicable after the first day of April, igo6, the said commissioners shall 

 organize, and shall at once proceed, with the assistance of such person or persons as may be detailed by 

 the United States coast and geodetic survey, and the United States Fish Commissioner, to aid them 

 in their work, and of such persons as may be appointed under the preceding section, to have laid out, 

 surveyed and designated on the said charts, the natural beds and bars, and shall cause to be marked 

 and defined as accurately as practicable, the limits and boundaries of the natural beds, bars and rocks, 

 as established by said survey, and they shall take true and accurate notes of said survey in writing, 

 and make an accurate report of said survey, setting forth such a description of landmarks as may be 

 necessary to enable the said board, or their successors, to find and ascertain the boundary lines of the 

 said natural oyster beds, bars and rocks, as shown by a delineation on the maps and charts provided 

 in this Act; said report shall lie completed and filed in the office of the board in the city of Annapolis 

 within ninety days after the completion of the survey of any county. Said commissioners shall cause 

 the same to be published in pamphlet form, and transmit copies of the same to the clerks of the Circuit 

 Court for the respective counties, where the charts have been filed or directed to be filed as hereinafter 

 provided; the said report to be filed by the clerks of the several counties in a book kept for that purpose. 

 And the said survey and report, when filed, subject to the right of appeal hereafter provided for in this 

 Act, shall be taken in all of the courts of this State as conclusive evidence of the boundaries and limits 

 of all natural oyster beds, bars and rocks, lying within the waters of the county wherein such survey 

 and report are filed, and shall be construed to mean in all of the said courts that there are no natural 

 oyster beds, bars or rocks lying within the waters of the counties wherein such report and survey are 

 filed, other than those embraced in the survey authorized by this Act, and that all areas of the Chesapeake 

 Bay and its tributaries within the State of Maryland, not shown in the survey to be natural oyster beds, 

 bars or rocks, shall be construed in all the courts of the State to be barren bottoms, and open for disposal 

 by the State for the purpose of private planting or propagation of oysters thereon under the provisions 

 of this Act; provided, that the said survey and report shall not be so construed as to affect in any manner 

 the holdings by citizens of this State in any lot which may have been appropriated or taken up under 

 the laws of this State prior to the approval of this Act. * * * 



The law of the State of Maryland, passed March 9, 1842, authorizing officers of the United States 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey to enter upon the lands within the State limits for the purposes of the Survey, 

 is as follows: 



An Act Concerning the Survey of the Coast of Maryland. 



Section i. Be it enacted by the General . 1 isembly of Maryland, That it shall and may be lawful for any 

 person or persons employed under and by virtue of an act of the Congress of the United States, * * * 

 at any time hereafter to enter upon lands within this State for the purpose of exploring, surveying, 

 triangulating, or levelling, or doing any other matter or thing which may be necessary to effect the 

 objects of said act, and to erect any works, stations, buildings, or appendages requisite for that purpose, 

 doing no unnecessary injury to private or other property. 



Sec. 2." And be it enacted, That in case the person or persons employed under the act of Congress 

 aforesaid, can not agree with the owners or possessors of the land so entered upon and used as to the 

 amount of damage done thereto by reason of the removal of fences, cutting of trees or injury to the 

 crop or crops growing on the same, it shall and may be lawful for the said parties or either of them to 

 apply to the chief justice for the time being or one of the associate judges of the judicial district in 

 which such land may be situated, who shall thereupon appoint three disinterested and judicious free- 

 holders, residents of the same judicial district, to proceed with as much despatch as possible to the 

 examination of the matter in question, and the faithful assessment of the damages sustained by the 

 owners or possessors aforesaid, and the said freeholders or a majority of them, having first taken and 

 subscribed an oath or affirmation before the chief or associate justice aforesaid or other person duly 

 authorized to administer the same, that they will well and truly examine and assess as aforesaid, and 

 having given five days' notice to both parties of the time of their meeting, shall proceed to the spot, 

 and then and there upon their own view and if required, upon the evidence of witnesses, (to be by 



a Under the rulings of the Comptroller of the Treasury no damages can be collected except through the United 

 States Court of Claims unless an agreement has been made in advance. 



