33 



POCOMOKE SOUND. 



Pocoinoke Sound extends from Watts' Island in a north-northeasterly direction 12J miles. 



The main channel is narrow with a varying depth of water, the main body of the Sound being 

 covered by shoals with from 7 to 18 feet of water over them. Long sand-spits make off from most 

 of the points and islands and separate the channels into the different creeks from each other. The 

 Sound is about 9^ miles broad from shore to shore about its middle, but the channel occupies only 

 1^ miles of this space. 



The change of depth is gradual, except between Watts' and Beach Islands, near the southern 

 extremity of the Sound, where the change from deep to shoal water is sudden. About the upper 

 and northeastern portion the depth is more uuiform, the deep channel shoaling to about 12 feet, 

 and that depth being but slightly diminished close to the shores. 



The beds do not, as in Tangier Sound, cover the shoals on each side of the channel, the majoi-ity 

 being found on the eastern side, and only two beds to the westward of that part of the channel 

 where the water is deeper than three or four fathoms. 



The total area covered by oysters, to a greater or lesser extent, in this Sound is 34.12 square 

 nautical miles. This area is that inclosed on the chart by the boundaries of scattered oysters, and 

 is but approximate, as previously explained. The solid beds, comprising all parts of the Sound 

 where oysters were found in a greater number than 0.1 to the square yard, or where the bed was 

 found to be to all intents solid " oyster-rock," or comparatively unbroken, embrace a total area of 

 4.52 square nautical miles. The groups or rocks are not always contiguous, being frequently sepa- 

 rated by the channels into the different creeks and rivers and by mud sloughs and spaces, and in 

 only one case have the beds extended across a channel, and peculiar circumstances account for that 

 exception. Generally speaking, they will be found to lie on each side of the main channel in the 

 Sound and on each side of the channels into the rivers. Taking them in order from the mouth of 

 the Pocomoke River to the entrance of the Sound, there are seventeen of a sufficient size to justify 

 a separate consideration and name; and I have called them by the names given by the local oyster- 

 men to the solid " oyster-rock," which was probably the origin of the bed. 



They are: The Old Eocks and New Plantation Eocks, Buoy Eock, Potter's Eock, Slatestone 

 Flat Eock, Dog Fish Bed, Drum Bay Point Bed, Trevise's Bed, Shell Bed, Buoy Spit Bed, Muddy 

 Marsh Bed, Bird Bed, Hern Island Bed, Beach Island Bed, Parker's Bed, and Brig Bed. 



In considering and describing the beds I shall separate the first ten from the others, and, as 

 they are subjected to very similar conditions of bottom, current, and density of water, shall treat 

 them under one head, as the Pocomoke beds. 



SCATTERED OYSTERS IN POCOMOKE SOUND. 



The area covered by scattered oysters is determined only approximately, it being very difficult 

 to accurately define the limits. Generally speaking, the one-fathom curve will nearly mark the 

 inshore limit, while the soft muddy bottom of the main channel will define the outer one. The 

 depth of water over the scattered oysters and the character of the bottom can be ascertained by 

 reference to the chart. No oysters were found in the deep channels nor on the shoal sand-spits. 



The oysters are scattered singly and in groups, but usually grow singly, though numbers 

 of small beds of a few hundred yards area are included within the limits of scattered oysters. 

 In the vicinity of the Messougo and Guilford Creeks the oysters seem to be scattered in that 

 manner, the spaces between the groups being proportional to their sizes. Yery few oysters were 

 found along the edge of the shoal on the western side of the channel south of the Muddy Marsh. 

 In the channel itself no oysters were found. Opposite Beach Island, in from thirteen to fourteen 

 fathoms, a few clams and shells were brought up. In this case, however, the bottom was of hard 

 sand. The area covered, to a greater or less extent, by the scattered oysters comprises 122,117,000 

 square yards, or 29.60 square nautical miles. The number of oysters over this area, as nearly as I 

 could ascertain, was about 0.12 to the square yard. 



Pocomolie Beds. — Across the mouth of the Pocomoke Eiver lie the "Old Eocks," comprising 

 an area of 1,057,000 square yards, and marking the limit to which the oysters of the Sound extend, 

 only few small rocks being found in the river. Below the "Old Eocks," on the western side of the 

 App. 11 5 



