OYSTER BEDS OF JAMES RIVER, VIRGINIA. 
57 
The public grounds are officially designated by numbers and the 
name of the county within which they are supposed to lie, and on 
the accompanying charts their boundaries, accurately platted from 
the charts of the Baylor survey, are indicated by broken black lines. 
The boundaries of the natural rocks, as determined by the present 
survey, are shown in solid red lines, within which the varying density 
of oyster growth is shown by the relative density of the shading. 
An inspection of the charts will show that the natural rocks are more 
or less scattered, between and about them lying barren bottoms, 
shown as unshaded areas, within the boundaries of the Baylor survey. 
At various places it was found that certain private grounds, as 
indicated by the boundary stakes, encroached more or less on the 
public grounds, though from the flimsy character of the marks it was 
difficult in many cases to determine the real facts. This apparent 
encroachment of private interests on the public domain was observed 
at various places in Nansemond River, between Fishing Point and 
Ballards Marsh, about Creek Channel Shoal and Aaron Shoal rocks, 
in the vicinity of Browns Shoal rocks, at the inshore edges of Kettle 
Hole and Blunt Point rocks, and at various places between Jail Island 
and Mulberry Point. 
Whatever may have been the conditions under which this en- 
croachment was originally permitted, it was undoubtedly aided by 
the latter-day uncertainty as to the Baylor boundaries. Apparently 
but little effort has been made to maintain or replace the shore 
marks to which the corners of the Baylor survey were referred, and 
a number of them appear to be now unavailable for reference. The 
irregularity of the boundaries has also made the maintenance of the 
lines more difficult, and the same conditions have made it almost 
impossible for the oyster police to prevent the planters from depre- 
dating the public beds beyond their staked boundaries. 
These reasons have made it important to both “natural growthers” 
and planters that an examination should be made into the actual 
location of the productive areas or those which, though at present 
more or less unproductive, may be reasonably expected to recuperate 
under proper natural conditions. 
To assist to an understanding of the conditions on the public 
beds as a whole the following discussion is offered. The several 
public beds in the region surveyed are considered with regard to the 
relative areas of dense, scattered, very scattered, and depleted 
growths, and barren bottom. The first four are measured from the 
results of the present survey, while the barren bottom is regarded 
as the difference between the sum of these areas and the areas of the 
public beds according to Baylor’s computations, the data being ex- 
hibited in tabular form for each of the several public grounds. For 
each public ground or for each fraction or combination considered as 
an entity in the following pages, there are furnished tables and 
