IHE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST 
Vor. XXXIV. May, 1900. No. 401. 
MARINE BIOLOGY AT BEAUFORT. 
H. V. WILSON. 
THE sandy strip of land which extends along the North Caro- 
lina coast, separating the ocean on one side from the system 
of sounds on the other, is interrupted at intervals. The breaks 
or inlets thus convert the strip into a series of long, narrow 
islands, known as banks. On the mainland, opposite the 
inlet between Shackelford and Bogue banks, is the town of 
Beaufort, some 350 miles south of Baltimore and 250 north- 
east of Charleston. The coast line here runs nearly east and 
west, and Beaufort is at the end of a little peninsula which juts 
out from the mainland toward the south, and is nearly sur- 
rounded by water. Beaufort inlet is a mile and a half.in width, 
and it is about the same distance, in a straight line across the 
harbor, from the town to Fort Macon, at the extreme end of 
Bogue bank. The harbor occupies an area some four or five 
miles wide, passing to the east and west into the shallower 
waters of Back (opening into Core, thence into Pamlico) and 
Bogue sounds, respectively. 
The harbor is diversified with numerous sand shoals, mud 
flats, salt marshes, all more or less submerged at high water ; 
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