Lagoon - A bay extending roughly parallel to the coast and separated 
from the open ocean by elongate marine deposits such as barrier islands. 
Open sound = A bay similar to a lagoon but with large openings between 
the protecting islands. 
Bottleneck bay - A pay with a narrow entrance which is guarded from waves 
by features other than barrier islands. 
Inlet - The narrow channel leading into a bay. 
Distributary - One of the channels formed by the dividing of the lower 
course of a river. 
River delta marsh = A marsh with brackish or fresh water found adjacent 
to the mouths of river distributaries. 
Tidal delta marsh - A salt marsh found around distributary patterns of 
tidal streams inside an inlet. 
Barrier islend marsh - A salt or brackish marsh found on the low inner 
margin of a barrier island. 
Open coast marsh - A salt marsh found along the open coast. 
Mangrove swamp - A salt or brackish marsh along the coast where there 
are abundant mangrove trees. This type could be further subdivided according 
to the type of mangrove. 
In the preceding definitions no attempt has been made to cover all cases 
and it is realized that many features will be borderline cases and thus hard 
to fit into the list which has been presented. The latter can always be given 
special descriptions to show that they lie between two types. Furthermore, 
it is important to add to the physiographic description of both bays and swamps 
the typical salinity and turbidity of the water. 
Using the definitions one can qualify a confusing local name as follows: 
"Cedar Bayou, an inlet into Mesquite Bay"; "Baptiste Collette Bayou, a small 
distributary of the Mississippi River",; "Graveline Bayou, an estuary along 
the Mississippi coast"; "Aransas Bay, a barrier bay inside St. Joseph Island"; 
Mississippi Sound, a barrier bay with rather large gaps between barrier islands;" 
"Blind Bay, a bottleneck bay in the lower Mississippi Delta"; and "Apalachee 
Bay, an open bay along the northwest coast of Florida". 
1. Note that "barrier island" is used rather than "offshore bar" which has 
unfortunate connotations since it implies that the feature is submerged. 
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