Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 49 
ST. MARYS COUNTY. 
The waters of St. Marys County in which oysters grow, 
include a part of those of the Patuxent River, the section of 
the Chesapeake Bay between the mouths of the Patuxent and 
Potomac rivers, and the following tributaries of the Potomac: 
Smith Creek, St. Marys River, St. Georges River, Bretons 
Bay, St. Clements Bay, St. Catherine Sound and the part 
of Wicomico River east of its deep-water channel. 
Dredging on the oyster bars located in the waters of the 
Potomac River is permitted to residents of both Maryland 
and Virginia but the bars in the tributaries of the Potomae 
from the Maryland side have been designated for the exclusive 
use of tongmen residing in Maryland. On this account dif- 
ferences of opinion between dredgers and tongmen have 
arisen as to the location of the lines marking the places where 
the waters of the tributaries end and those of the Potomac 
begin, and in order that the survey of the oyster grounds 
might be completed without delay and that charts might be 
constructed to show the natural oyster bars and all of the 
bottoms over which the State of Maryland has exclusive juris- 
diction under the Haman Oyster Culture Law, it became 
necessary for the Commission to establish definite boundary 
lines in each of these cases. The description of these lines 
are given in the text relating to the respective tributaries. 
Tonging only may be carried on in the Patuxent River but 
dredgers may work on all of the bottoms in the section of the 
Bay off St. Marys County. 
In the work of determining the status of the surveyed bot- 
toms, oysters grown in the part of Patuxent River above Point 
Patience were considered to have a value of one dollar per 
bushel; those below Point Patience and in the Bay, seventy- 
five cents per bushel and those grown in the tributaries of the 
Potomac, sixty cents per bushel. The tables used in finding 
the results of the examinations are reproduced on page 14. 
The number of lots leased for oyster culture under former 
law and retained by the lessees under the Haman Oyster Cul- 
ture Law, is 35, covering a total area of 124 31-75 acres. All of 
these lots were resurveyed and charted by the Commission 
during the survey of the public oyster grounds. 
