380 LAWS OF MARYLAND.

for a lease of the area in question, or if no application has been
made for a lease of the area in question, then within five years
prior to the making of the resurvey under Section 94-A, or the
filing of a petition under Section 94-B of this Act, provided that
the actual condition of the area in question at any time within
said respective periods of five years or up to the date of hearing
shall be taken into consideration in determining whether or
not said area is a natural bed or bar, as above defined.

SEC. 84. The Board of Shell Fish Commissioners of Mary-
land is hereby created. The said Board shall consist of three
members, one of whom shall be a resident of one of the tidewater
Counties of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, another a resident
of one of the tidewater Counties of the Western Shore, and the
third a resident of the City of Baltimore, and one of whom shall
be a member of the minority party at the time of their appoint-
ment. The term of each of the members of said Board shall be
two years from the first Monday in May after his appointment.
They shall be appointed by the Board of Public Works of the
State of Maryland. No member of said Board of Shell Fish
Commissioners shall be or become in any manner interested in
any land leased or taken up for bedding, planting or cultivating
oysters. The acts and duties to be done and performed by said
Board under this Act may be done and performed by two of said
Commissioners, and in all cases the decision of a majority of the
Commissioners shall be binding. One of said Commissioners
shall be designated by the Board of Public Works of the State
of Maryland as President, and his salary shall be two thousand
dollars a year. The salary of each of the other Commissioners
shall be eighteen hundred dollars a year. The said Commis-
sioners shall be allowed to employ a Chief Clerk upon a salary
of twelve hundred dollars a year, and such assistants, not ex-
ceeding three in number, and not more than may be absolutely
needed for the performance of the work of the Board, at graded
salaries, to be paid by the Commissioners, not to exceed one thou-
sand dollars a year for any such assistants, as it may deem nec-
essary to aid it in the proper performance of its duties, as pre-
scribed in this Act. The said Commissioners shall employ a com-
petent surveyor, who shall also be a hydrographic engineer, upon
a salary to be named by said Commissioners not exceeding
twenty-five hundred dollars a year. If the Commissioners deem
it expedient to employ a hydrographic engineer, who is also a
biologist, capable of investigating oyster propagation, an engi-
neer of such qualification may, in their discretion, be employed.