24 
ment decided to fix the rental at one dollar per acre for the 
first ten years of the lease and then to adopt a sliding scale, 
which, at the end of the twenty-year period would bring the 
rental up to five dollars per acre. ‘This concession acted as a 
tremendous stimulus, so that by November 30, 1913, 5,666 
acres had been placed under lease and leases for 7,483 addi- 
tional acres had been written and were then outstanding await- 
ing signature. By the 23rd of February, 1914, these outstand- 
ing leases awaiting signature had increased to over 9,529 acres 
and in addition to this there were upon the books applications 
not yet adjusted, covering 22,705 acres. ‘Together with the 
applications for oyster bottom, came serious protests against 
their granting, practically all of them based upon the claim 
that the ground which was now being applied for was in fact 
natural and not barren bottom. 
The summer and fall of 1913 found the Commission in 
rather a peculiar position. The flood of protests which reached 
it was too great to be ignored. A few were found to be justi- 
fied by the fact that the local men selected by the County Com- 
missioners had failed to point out to the surveying party 
natural-rock areas, which had, therefore, entirely escaped ex- 
amination and been classified as barren bottom open to lease. 
Other protests were found to rest upon a misapprehension as 
to the locations of the areas applied for. Others were found 
to be justified by the fact that there was at the time of protest 
a marketable crop of oysters upon the ground in question. It 
was also true that applicants were urging the Commission to 
make a speedy survey, in order that they might “protect the 
land” for which they had applied. ‘This meant that there were 
on this supposedly barren land sufficient oysters to make it 
worth while for an oysterman to work it, as otherwise there 
would be nothing in connection with it to protect. 
The Commission was therefore forced to the conclusion that 
while many of the protests were based on errors of location, 
others based on a false definition of natural bar and still others 
insincere, there were some which rested upon the failure of 
the local men to point out all the natural rock and others which 
rested upon the fact that ground so depleted as to be far be- 
low the standard at the time of the survey had in the inter- 
