REPORT OF DIRECTOR AND STATE GEOLOGIST 1900 r225 



has, been dredged. In some places this part of the harbor is 100 

 feet in depth. At the upper end of the harbor 3 miles inland 

 another sand bar cuts off about 150 acres of harbor surface. The 

 tide rushes through a natural passage called the Gut, at the 

 eastern end of this bar, and fills and empties the basin back of 

 it. This basin receives several small streams and at its upper 

 end is a waterfall by which the water from the fresh-water lakes 

 enters the basin, reaching it through a passageway to the upper 

 end of which only the high tides reach. 



For a few hours each day at low tide the surface of the basin 

 is quite bare so that the plants in it are exposed to air and 

 direct light. At high tide the w^ater in the basin is from 6 to 8 

 feet in depth. Owing to the small outlet the movement of the 

 water is very slow and the silt coming in with th-e streams is 

 gradually and evenly filling the basin. The bottom has an upper 

 firmer layer but once through this a pole can be thrust in places 

 over 10 feet. 



A great diversity of plant and animal forms is found in and 

 contiguous to the basin and a careful examination was made 

 to discover if possible, any relation between the fauna and flora 

 and the presence of fish. The ftresh water continually entering 

 affects the plant growth. At high tide the fresh water flows 

 for some distance on the surface of the salt water before ming- 

 ling with it. But at low tide there is in the tidal passageway 

 a swiftly running brook of a few inches in depth from the lake 

 above. Attached to the pebbles of its bed is a form related to 

 Ulva enteromorpha, tesselated because of adaptation 

 to the swift running water. A blue green alga is also found 

 in the same place and the ordinary Ulva occurs over the whole 

 basin. 



Just out of reach of the fresh water grow the salt-water reed 

 grasses, Spartina juncea and Spartina poly- 

 s t a c h y a , and higher up than these with its roots bathed in 

 salt water but the plant itself out of the water except at the 

 higher tides, is the wiry salt-water meadow grass. 



The three grasses here mentioned grow in the same relative 

 position around the whole basin forming plant zones. Along 



