OYSTER-CULTURE IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 
827 
Jones Greek is the longest and one of the largest of this system of creeks, and flows 
entirely through the marshes between Muddy Bay and North Inlet. It has two out- 
lets into the bay, its own .mouth, and a second through Sign Creek, which is a short 
branch of Jones Creek and enters Muddy Bay farther to the westward. In the lower 
or southern part, between its month and Divide Creek, the water is too fresh and 
muddy and the bottom too soft for successful cultivation. The tides meet and divide 
near Divide Creek, which derives its name from this fact; but the exact point of the 
division is dependent on the prevailing winds and the freshets in the Peedee Biver. 
These conditions affect this part of the creek as they do No Man’s Friend Creek, 
Oyster Bay, and in a lesser degree Sawmill Creek. This is shown at several places 
where many dead shells and a few live oysters are found. The type of shell is fine, 
being deep and cup-shaped. These oysters grew during long periods of drought, to 
be destroyed subsequently by freshets. Nature does all she can here, but man’s hand 
must assist in cutting off the supply of fresh and muddy water, by closing the mouths 
of Jones and Sign creeks with flood-gates, before oysters can be raised successfully. 
To the northward and above Divide Creek there is found an area which corre- 
sponds with Sawmill Creek and presents the same conditions and features. Oysters 
are found there in deep water among many dead shells and much rubbish, covered 
with barnacles and mussels. The living individuals are poor; the older, having con- 
tended against adverse circumstances in a crowded community, have reached old age 
with sponge-bored shells and covered with barnacles, stunted in growth, and unfit for 
market. The water is too muddy in this locality to rely with certainty on a catch of 
spat; the deposit of sediment is constantly going on and would very quickly foul the 
shells or cultch. In approaching North Inlet the conditions become more favorable, 
as they do in Town Creek, the greatest obstacle being the quicksands or shifting bot- 
tom, which limit the available ground to a small proportion of the entire area. 
No oysters are found in deep water in the bed of the stream, except in the local- 
ity above mentioned and in those areas of suitable bottom which have been planted; 
but raccoon oysters are found along both shores. The water at the lower mouth of 
Jones Creek is practically fresh, both at the surface and at the bottom. Near the 
mouth of Divide Creek, while in January the specific gravity was 1.0171 surface and 
1.0173 bottom, in March the water had become approximately fresh. At the mouth 
of Duck Creek the specific gravity was 1.0238 surface and 1.0239 bottom; and near its 
mouth at North Inlet on the last of the flood, 1.0247 surface and 1.0249 bottom. 
Old-Man Greek is a short, wide arm which connects Town Creek, through its upper 
part called Cook Creek, with De Bordieu Creek. The average specific gravity of 
the water is higher than in the creeks heretofore mentioned, because this creek is 
nearer to the inlet and is cut off from the main volume of fresh water which pours 
through Town Creek into North Inlet on the ebb tide, only a part being forced back 
by the flood tide and finding its way through the side issue of its mouth into Old- 
Man Creek. The latter ebbs and flows with Town Creek, the divide of the tides 
taking place in that part of the creek called Cook Creek, which in turn ebbs and 
flows with De Bordieu Creek. The conditions of the water are thus rendered more 
favorable, inasmuch as Old-Man Creek is not subject to the rapid and radical changes 
in density which we have found in other places. It is also less charged with mud in 
suspension, but the proximity of the inlet and the strong tides give rise generally to an 
