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mud for several feet and of such a number and character,, 
being old and discolored, as to forbid the supposition that they 
had recently sunk in the mud or been covered by it. 
The Pocomoke River, draining an extensive tract of* the 
Peninsula, would bring down, a large amount of sediment, 
which the strong ebb current would carry directly over the 
beds in the upper part of the Sound. The set of the ebb is 
east, and as will be seen by the chart, the deeper water lies 
nearest the southern shore of the upper Sound, and those beds 
lying to the southward of the channel are the hardest and 
least broken. 
The shores are low and marshy and probably add somewhat 
to any sediment held by the main current before it enters the 
Sound. 
I infer that there is a deposit going on of maximum amount 
over the Old Rocks and those to the northward of the channel 
and decreasing as the entrance to the Sound is approached. 
The amount in any given period of time would be difficult to 
ascertain but the character will be shown to some extent by an 
examination of the specimens of bottom. Whether the amount 
of matter deposited is sufficient in quantity to seriously affect 
the beds is a matter of conjecture. I should judge that it wa& 
not and my opinion coincides with that of all the oystermen 
I was able to interrogate. 
That it must have some effect cannot be doubted and the 
evident deterioration of the, beds in Pocomoke Sound may be 
accounted for, to some extent, by the supposition that the 
effect is injurious ; but so many other and more direct causes- 
exist for the deterioration that it is difficult to eliminate their 
influence. The fact that the beds have existed and have been 
worked since the first settlement of the country, would lead 
to an inference that the effect, if prejudicial, was very slight- 
ly so. 
The scattered oysters lying on the sands and those beds in 
the vicinity of sand-shoals and in shallow water, the Muddy 
Marsh and Beach Island Rocks particularly, are exposed to 
damage by “ sanding ” in a manner similar to certain beds in 
Tangier Sound and which has already been described. The 
