310 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
mouth during low water, it reaches a maximum at its upper mouth, during high water, 
ot 1.0225 at surface and bottom. No difference between surface and bottom density 
was observed anywhere in this creek. Raccoon oysters not only extend along the 
shores but are found also in patches on the mud flats. The character of the bottom 
for the first 3 miles above the lower mouth is favorable, being generally hard and 
sticky, when it becomes very soft for 2 miles, and then hard and sticky again to the 
upper mouth. The total area of the creek is about 904 acres; area of natural oyster 
beds, about 14.5 acres. 
Skull Greek is a series of shallow flats, through which runs a winding channel. It , 
separates Pinckney Island from Hilton Head Island and enters Port Royal Sound 1\ 
miles below the upper mouth of Mackay Creek, while the lower mouth enters this 
creek near its lower mouth (Mackay) and completes the circulation of the creeks 
between Port Royal and Calibogue Sound. The bottom is favorable and agrees closely 
with the Coast Survey soundings. No natural oyster beds occur in the channel, but 
raccoon oysters of a fine type are found not only along the shores but around the 
numerous islands and on the mud flats. The ledges are about 10 feet wide and are 
exposed at low water. At the outer edge of these ledges some fair single oysters 
which have fallen away frond them may be taken, but local oystermen glean this nar- 
row strip, the demand being greater than nature can supply in her slow way. The 
possibilities for oyster cultivation here, and in other localities of the same character 
and conditions, where the oysters are not subject to rapid and radical changes of den- 
sity, seem good, and I know of no better plan than removing the best of these raccoon 
oysters, which are left bare at low tide, to deeper water and more favorable environ- 
ments. The specific gravity of the water at the lower mouth at one-sixth flood was 
1.0213 surface and 1.0219 bottom; 2 miles above the lower mouth it was 1.0219 at both 
the surface and bottom; and one-half mile below. the upper mouth at the first of the 
flood tide, 1.0221 at both surface and bottom. The total area of the creek is about 720 
acres ; area of natural oyster beds, about 13.4 acres. 
Port Royal Sound separates St. Helena Island on the north from Hilton Head 
Island on the south. It has an average width of 2£ miles, and, from its mouth to its 
head, at Daws Island, a length of 6 miles. It is formed by the confluence of three 
large tributaries, the Chechessee, Broad, and Beaufort rivers. The inlet is broad and 
open, and the density of the water high, being 1.0231 surface and 1.0233 bottom at the 
mouth of Beaufort River, two-thirds ebb ; 1.0224 surface and 1.0226 bottom at the mouth 
of Broad River, early flood; and 1.0224 surface, 1.0227 bottom, one-half ebb, at the mouth 
of the Chechessee River. The bottom is generally hard and the depth ranges from 17 
to 40 feet, but a strong current and exposure to the open sea, with shifting sands, 
render the sound unsuitable for oyster-culture. On the west shore, between the mouth 
of Skull and Mackay creeks, and on the east shore from Paris Island Spit to a, point 
2 miles above, narrow ledges of raccoon oysters are found, but no oysters are found in 
deep water. Area of natural oyster beds, about 3.6 acres. 
Chechessee River takes its rise near the northern point of Lemon Island, and flow- 
ing in a southeasterly direction a distance of 9 miles enters Port Royal Sound at the 
southern end of Daws Island. For the first 4 miles it has an average width of one- 
fourth mile, when it becomes a broad, bold stream, seven-eighths of a mile wide. The 
specific gravity at the mouth during the last of the ebb tide was 1.0224 surface and 
1.0227 bottom ; and near the mouth of the Colleton River, early flood, 1.0221 surface 
