INTRODUCTION 



Hyde County is in the northeastern section of North Carolina, 

 situated in the Coastal Plain Province. The county is one of the 

 oldest in the state, formed in 1705 as a sub-unit of the earlier 

 Bath County, and having the name of Hyde since about 1712 (Powell, 

 1968). Hyde County has an area of about 1364 square miles, of 

 which 634 are land and 730 are water. The approximately 873,000 

 acres encompass a variety of habitats , ranging from open lakes , 

 brackish sounds and embayed rivers to freshwater marshes, pocosins 

 and wooded swamps and flats, with minor areas of upland mixed pine- 

 hardwood forests, as well as various maritime habitats on the outer 

 banks. 



The mainland part of the county, which is the subject of the 

 present study, is. located on the south side of the Pamlimarle 

 peninsula, and is adjoined by Beaufort, Washington, Tyrrell and 

 Dare Counties. Most of mainland Hyde County's boundaries also 

 follow natural features: the Pungo River on the west, the Al- 

 ligator River on much of the northern boundary, and Pamlico Sound 

 on the east and south. The embayed and non-embayed portions of 

 the Pungo and Alligator Rivers, and their tributaries, drain 

 about half the county, with the other half draining into Pamlico 

 Sound, either directly or through Lake Mattamuskeet. Many small 

 embayments dissect the Pamlico Sound shoreline, including the 

 Long Shoal River, Wyesocking Bay, Juniper Bay, Rose Bay and 

 others. Large natural lakes are a prominent feature of the 

 county , and include New Lake , part of the Pungo Lake , and Lake 

 Mattamuskeet, the largest natural lake in the state. Swan 

 Creek Lake, a much smaller blackwater lake, is located in the 

 northwest part of the county along the channel of Swan Creek. 

 Elevations on the mainland are 18 feet or less. 



SOILS AND RECENT GEOLOGY 



A modern soil survey of Hyde County has not been conducted, 

 but a General Soils Map and Interpretations (SCS, 1973) has been 

 produced, and is the source of the following soils data. Hyde 

 County has six recognized Soil Associations , as follows : 



a) Myatt-Bladen Association - poorly drained soils with 

 gray to dark gray fine sandy loam to loam sur- 

 face layers and friable sandy clay loam to very 

 firm clay subsoils. 



