Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 5d 
Potomac. At its mouth and for more than half its course, it 
has a width of one mile and it is seven miles in length. 
A straight line connecting Higgins Point with C. & G. 8. 
triangulation station ‘‘Kaywood’’ on Kaywood Point, is con- 
sidered by the Commission to separate the waters of Bretons 
Bay trom those of Heron Island Sound. 
The oyster-producing part of the Bay extends to within 
two wiles of its headwaters and covers a total area of 1,600 
acres. In this section nine natural oyster bars, covering 924 
acres, have been charted and buoyed. (See table on page 64.) 
On seven of these bars oysters were found to grow to low 
water mark and in these cases the shore line was used to 
limit the inshore boundaries. The inshore limits of the two 
remaining bars were found to be near the six-foot curve. 
The bottoms are composed almost exclusively of very soft 
mud, those made up of hard sand or sticky mud being confined 
to very narrow strips along parts of the shore. The sub- 
stratum of the oyster bars is as soft as the barren bottoms 
beyond and, as is usual in such cases, the oysters grow in 
lumps. 
From December 8-11 the observed density of the water 
over the bars near the mouth of the Bay was 1.011-1.0134; 
near the head of the Bay, 1.0098-1.011. 
The barren and depleted bottoms which occur along the 
shore are valuable for oyster culture. Such bottoms aggre- 
gate about 250 acres. 
ST. CLEMENT BAY. 
(Shown on Chart of Natural Oyster Bars, No, 25.) 
The waters of St. Clement Bay are separated from those 
of Heron Island Sound by a straight line, one and one-quarter 
miles in length, connecting C. & G. S. triangulation station 
‘““St. Clement’’ situated on the southwestern extremity of 
Newtown Neck, with the point just below the mouth of Pat- 
rick’s Creek on the opposite shore. The distance from this 
line to the head of the bay is about six miles. 
The section of the bay which produces oysters extends to 
within one mile of the head of the bay and has a total area 
of a trifle more than 2,000 acres. The productive oyster 
ground which was found to cover 1,225 acres has been charted 
and buoyed as ten natural oyster bars.* 
1 See table on page 64. 
