144 Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 
OPINIONS RENDERED BY HON. THOMAS H. ROBIN- 
SON, COUNSEL TO THE BOARD OF SHELL 
FISH COMMISSIONERS. 
1. Jurisdiction. 
| Chapter 711 of the Acts of 1906 has no application to the 
| natural oyster beds and bars located in the waters of the State 
of Maryland, except to provide for their survey and delinea- 
tion upon maps and charts of the United States Coast and 
Geodetic Survey of the largest scale and providing a copy for 
each of the counties of this State in the waters of which 
natural beds, bars and rocks are located as set forth with 
great detail in said Act and subject to the right of appeal as 
therein provided, the action of the Shell Fish Commission 
shall be conclusive evidence of the boundaries of all natural 
oyster beds, bars and rocks. All the areas of the Chesapeake 
Bay and its tributaries and the waters of the State within 
the State of Maryland not shown in said survey to be natural 
oyster beds, bars or rocks shall be construed in all the courts 
. of the State to be barren bottoms, and it is with this part of 
the land owned by the State and covered with water that the 
Act above referred to applies as well as to land lawfully ap- 
propriated or taken up for the purpose of planting, bedding 
or cultivating oysters thereon as provided in Section 108 of 
the Act. 
2. Private Ownership and Riparian Rights. 
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One of the questions of considerable interest to land owners 
bordering on the waters of the State is as to the extent of 
their rights on the shore. Section 107 of this Act provides 
that it is not intended to apply to any lands owned by private 
persons the bounds of which extend below low water into and 
beneath the waters of the State, it being the intention of the 
Act to protect the rights of land owners under old grants from 
the State prior to 1862 who may have acquired the right from 
the State to any land covered by navigable water. It is be- 
lieved that the extent of this private ownership is very small, 
but whenever it does exist and the title can be established, 
the rights of the owner are exempt from the operation of this 
