OYSTER-CULTURE IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 
325 
mouth of the Santee River and through the inlet of Winyah Bay, and which is un- 
doubtedly an important factor in the discoloration of the water for many miles south, 
accounting in part, perhaps, for the variation of the specific gravity observed. The 
extent of its distribution is, no doubt, dependent on long-continued northeast gales. 
Winyah Bay and vicinity . — This territory was granted or leased to Messrs. Haz- 
ard, Alexander, and Donaldson by the State legislature of 1889, for the purposes of 
oyster cultivation, and was surveyed in detail by the writer before the examination by 
the Fish Commission. Additional observations have been made, however, and are 
included. in the following descriptions. 
Winyah Bay , formed by the junction of the Peedee, Black, and Waccamaw rivers, 
is totally unsuitable for oyster cultivation, on account of the quantity of fresh water 
flowing into it from these rivers. 
Muddy Bay is a part of Winyah Bay and lies between Marsh Islands and the 
marshes to the northward and eastward. It is a shallow bay or cove, and receives 
through the Peedee River a large volume of fresh and muddy water, which is constantly 
making a deposit of exceedingly soft material on the bottom. The water of this bay 
is entirely too fresh for the cultivation of oysters, to say nothing of the unsuitable 
character of the bottom. This limits the ground to that portion of the various creeks 
which flow through the marshes between the bay and North Inlet, where favorable 
conditions maybe found. North Inlet, on the other hand, presents a very salt condition 
of the water, and its bottom is covered by quick and shifting sands blown in by fresh 
northeast winds. This character of bottom is even more dangerous to the oyster than 
soft mud, which may be remedied by throwing a sufficient quantity of shells up on it 
to give it the proper consistency for bearing up the weight of oysters. 
Within this large area two separate and distinct features present themselves: 
(1) Soft, muddy bottom, over which flows fresh and muddy water in the more southern 
and western portions of the creeks; (2) saltwater flowing over quicksands in their 
most northern and eastern parts. In the former there is the accompanying evil of 
those conditions producing organisms which not only lessen the supply of food by 
sharing it with the oyster, but clog and foul the shells themselves, and by making 
them unsightly render them unfit for the raw-box trade, or to be opened on the shell. 
Notwithstanding the unfavorable character of the place, a small area of oysters is 
found in Muddy Bay off the mouth of No Man’s Friend Creek. The conditions barely 
enable the hardiest to live, and those which survive constitute a very small proportion 
of the bulk of the shells whose tenants have succumbed. The conditions, already 
unfavorable, are rendered even more so by heavy freshets in the Peedee River, which, 
coupled with prolonged southwest winds, destroy large quantities of oysters in the 
more southern portions of the creeks by forcing the fresh and muddy water through 
the several outlets of Muddy Bay, toward North Inlet. Two of these outlets connect 
Muddy Bay with Oyster Bay. One, small and insignificant, called the Haulover 
Creek, has been produced artificially by cutting through the marshes between the 
bays. The other, No Man’s Friend Creek, is a bold stream through which the tides 
ebb and flow swiftly. These two creeks furnish the supply of fresh water to Town 
Creek and its tributaries. The other two outlets into Muddy Bay are the lower mouths 
of Jones and Sign creeks, which enter Muddy Bay south of Oyster Bay. 
Oyster Bay , lying to the northward and eastward of Muddy Bay, is a shallow mud 
flat of considerable area. Being nearer to the supply of salt water from North Inlet, 
