Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 51 
Above this line 571 acres of oyster ground was surveyed 
and examined, 393 acres of which has been charted and 
buoyed as five natural oyster bars.* 
Two of these bars are found in Smiths Creek proper; two 
in the waters of its western or main branch and one in its 
eastern branch. The two large vars in the lower part of the 
ereek extend from one shore to the other and cover the soft 
muddy bottoms of the channel as well as the hard bottoms 
on either side. The bars in the branches are confined to the 
hard bottoms in the shallow water between the channel and 
the shore. 
Oysters grow even to low water mark on the coarse sand, 
gravel and shell fragments which are found along a consider- 
able portion of the shore in this locality and it seemed neces- 
sary in thé cases of Jutland, Graves and a part of Smiths 
Creek bars to make the inshore boundaries coincide with the 
shore line. 
The maximum range of the tide at Miller’s Wharf from 
September 10th to September 18th was 1.7 feet; the mean 
range, 1.1 feet. Should observations have been continued 
over a longer period, the tide would probably have been found 
to have a range more nearly equal to that at Point Lookout 
Light, where the maximum range from September 14th to 
October 6th was found to be 2.8 feet; the mean range, 1.3 feet. 
The specimens of water collected from the oyster grounds 
near the mouth of the creek during the period occupied by the 
survey—September 10th to October 7th—showed a density 
of 1.0058-1.0082; those collected from the bars nearest the 
headwaters, 1.005-1.0078. 
The bottoms once productive of oysters but now so de- 
pleted as not to be classed as natural oyster bar, are located 
between Old Hare and Smiths Creek bars and east of Old 
Hare bar. The barren bottoms of the section, suitable for 
oyster culture, cover about 50 acres and are located in the 
eastern branch of the creek. Some of the barren bottoms in 
Calvert Bay are also valuable, but the sand of which they are 
mainly composed, is liable to be shifted during storms unless 
well covered with shells. 
1See table on page 61. 
