52. Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 
ST. MARYS RIVER. 
(Shown on Chart of Natural Oyster Bars, No. 24.) 
The waters of St. Marys River are considered by the Com- — 
mission to enter the Potomac along the line connecting Iitts _ 
Point with the southern end of the small island lying to the — 
east of St. George Island. | 
Oysters grow as far up the river as Martin Point, situated 
about eight miles above the mouth, but they are confined to | 
the comparatively narrow shelves of hard sandy and gravelly — 
bottoms which extend along both shores. 4 
The water covering these shelves of hard bottom is shallow, — 
depths exceeding ten feet having been found in but few places, 
but beyond them it deepens abruptly to about twenty feet. — 
The bottoms covered by the deep water between the shelves — 
is, as a rule, very soft and in but two ecomparafively small 
areas was it found to be sufficiently well stocked with oysters — 
to be considered natural oyster bar. 4 
St. Marys River receives one tributary from the east, St. 
Inigoes Creek, and two from the west, Carthagina Creek and — 
St. George River. The last, on account of its peculiar location — 
and character has been made the subject of a separate section. — 
No oyster grounds were designated by the local assistant for ~ 
survey in Carthagina Creek. In St. Inigoes Creek and St. — 
Marys River proper, however, the grounds which were sur- | 
veyed and shown by examination to be well stocked with — 
oysters aggregate an area of 1,589 acres. 
Along a considerable portion of the shores of this entire 
section oysters become attached and grow in abundance to — 
low water mark and, in order that these oyster-producing bot- 
toms should all be included within the limits of natural bars, 
it was necessary to use the shore line as all or part of the | 
inshore boundary to twenty of the twenty-six natural bars — 
which have been charted and buoyed. 
From September 10th to October 27th, the period during 
which the survey of the oyster grounds in St. Marys River 
was carried on, the water increased in density about .002. — 
Samples taken from the oyster bars near the mouth of the | 
river during the entire period showed a density of 1.006- — 
1.009; from the head of St. Inigoeés Creek, 1.006-1.010; from 
the head of the river, 1.0054-1.0098. a 
1 See table on pages 61 and 62. 
