THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 319 



a boat may be taken to Absecom on the one side, and to Cape May on 

 other, without going outside of the beach. The mouth of the river is 

 occupied by very extensive beds of oysters, which are celebrated for 

 their excellent flavor. The bottom of the bay is in some part hard 

 and shelly, in others sandy, or again, consists of a soft mud ; the latter 

 condition prevails near the shore, or wherever the current is of little 

 strength. 



There are numerous mud-flats or sand-bars in the bay, some of them 

 bare at low tide, or nearly so, and occupied by various species of water- 

 fowl. These flats, continuing to increase in height, and at length ac- 

 quire agrowthof grass which fixes still more the accumulating mud and 

 sand, so that in time what was formerly a bar becomes an island 

 elevated some feet above the water. 



This transition is, in fact, so rapid, that many of the inhabitants now 

 living have known islands several acres in extent to form within their 

 own recollection. 



The greater part of the bottom of the bay and of the thoroughfares, 

 generally, is a soft mud, rich inorganic matter, and covered with a pro- 

 fuse growth of Zostera marina and alga3 of various species. Mr. 

 Samuel Ashmead, who has been engaged for some years in studying 

 the sea- weeds of our coast, has Ibund a much greater variety of spe- 

 cies at Beesley's point than Professor Harvey allots to the New 

 Jersey coast. The water being generall}^ shallow except in the chan- 

 nels, the sub-marine vegetation can be seen to great advantage, while 

 sailing over the surface. The water becomes very warm during the 

 summer, and supplies all the conditions necessary for the development 

 of young fishes of many species. The young of all the large fish of 

 the bay may thus be tbund in greater or less numbers along or near 

 the shore. 



The ponds in the meadows, like the waters of the bay itself, are 

 generally muddy at the bottom, sometimes bare of vegetation, and 

 sometimes covered with a thick growth. The fishes tbund in these 

 ponds consist almost entirely of cyprinodonts of various species, with 

 occasional specimens of Atkerina, small mullet, or sticklebacks. The 

 creeks likewise contain cyprinodonts, generally of different species from 

 those of the ponds, with young fish of various kinds. Crabs and eels 

 are found everywhere. 



The line of beach is two or three miles from the mainland, and con- 

 sists of a clear white sand raised into hills ten to thirty feet high, a few 

 hundred feet from the water's edge. It is in the inlets at the ends of 

 is these beaches that the greatest variety of fish is to be found, particu- 

 I larly in the small indentations, protected from the roughness of the 

 ■i waves, and the bottom of which is covered with Ceramium or sea-cab- 

 *] bage. 



Corson's inlet, frequently mentioned in the following pages, is situa- 

 ted at the southern end of Peck's beach, which begins directly oppo- 

 site Beesley's point at the entrance to the harbor, and extends to this 

 inlet over a distance of about five miles. 



The only fresh water near Beesley's point is Cedar Swamp creek. 

 I This stream, rising in a cedar swamp, and flowing with a very slug- 

 gish current, (the water of a chocolate color,) is cut off from the tide 



