13 



bottom is lirm, except on the mud tiats, ou either side of the 

 channel. 



The salinity of the water is very stable, being between 

 i.OlOO and 1.013 even when the water in some of the neighbor- 

 ing bays was absolutely fresh during the freshets of April, 1907. 

 The food supply is abundant and very stable. 



There is a scattering growth of coon oysters all along the 

 banks, for the greater part of the length of the bayou, and in 

 a few instances the reefs extend for a considerable distance to- 

 ward the middle of the bayou. 



MUD HOLE BAYOU AND MUD HOLE BAY. 



Mud Hole Bayou empties into Taylor s iiayou at the point 

 where the latter makes the abrupt bend to the easi.vvard. It is- 

 about two miles in length, and cornes from the southwestern 

 part of Mud Hole Bay. Near its lower end there is a pass into 

 Bay Junup. The depth of the water in this bayou is very 

 irregular, being only about two feet over some of the reefs in 

 the lower part of the bayou; while a short distance above this 

 point there are reefs in fifteen feet of water. The bottom is 

 rather soft outside of the areas occupied by living or extinct 

 reefs. 



The \\ater is less saline than in Taylor's Bayou, being influ- 

 enced by the flow through the pass from Bay Junup. The food 

 supply is usually abundant, but rather unstable. The oysters on 

 the reefs in the lower part of the bayou are of rather poor 

 quality and are used mostly for bedding. 



Mud Hole Bay is a body of water composed of two arms : 

 one of which runs north for about one mile from the entrance 

 to Mud Hole Bayou, the^ other nearly east for some two miles. 

 The western arm of this bay is separated from Buckskin Bay 

 and Bay Junup by a narrow strip of marsh scarcely fifty yards 

 wide. At the eastern end there is a cut connecting this bay 

 with King Lake. There is about three feet of water over all 

 the bay. and the bottom is made up of rather soft mud with 

 some finely broken shell mixed with it. 



The salinity of the water varied from 1.008 to 1.012 at dif- 

 ferent times between March and July, 1907, but it was always. 



