328 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
unsafe bottom of quick and shifting sands, with some soft ground in the coves. At 
its most northern part, near its junction with Cook Creek, it widens out into a mud flat 
which is called Sea Creek Bay, and which is studded with patches of small raccoon 
oysters, left bare by the ebb tide, as are the ledges along the shores. The specific 
gravity of the water at one-third ebb, in the lower mouth during a period of freshet in 
the Peedee Biver, was 1.0166 surface and 1.0194 bottom, and in the mouth of Blythe 
Creek 1.0198 surface and 1.0197 bottom. 
Cook Creek is that part of Old-Man Creek which lies between the mouth of Crab- 
Hall Creek and De Bordieu Creek. It is a shallow stream whose bed is generally a 
shifting bottom of quicksands. This evil limits the available ground to a very small 
area. The usual growth of raccoon oysters is found along the shores, but the few 
oysters which have dropped away from the ledges into deeper water are taken up as 
rapidly as they assume a favorable shape and quality. 
Blytlie Creek heads in the marshes near the mainland, and, flowing in an easterly 
direction, enters Old- Man Creek about 400 yards north of its mouth. Near its head it 
embraces a series of marsh islands, and is connected by numerous drains with Crab- 
Hall Creek, which also heads in the same locality. The greater part of the bottom 
consists of very soft mud, which, brought down from the flats by the strong ebb tides, 
is being constantly deposited. Near its mouth a shifting bottom of quicksand is found. 
No natural oyster beds are found here in deep water. 
Crab-Rail Creek rises in the same locality and has the same characteristic features 
as Blythe Creek, flowing like it in an easterly direction and entering Old-Man Creek 
at its junction with Cook Creek. Much soft bottom occurs in its upper part and a 
quicksand bottom near its mouth. 
Childrens Creek connects Crab-Hall Creek with De Bordieu Creek and takes a 
northerly direction between the two. The main part of this creek is a muddy flat, 
unsuitable for oyster cultivation. A small area near its mouth at Crab-Hall Creek 
appears favorable. 
De Bordieu Creek is the last and most northern of this system, and has the greatest 
length. It takes its rise near a fresh- water lake in the mainland, and flows in a south- 
erly direction, entering North Inlet below its northern point. Another branch of it 
heads in the marshes near the head of Crab-Hall Creek. The only bottom found avail- 
able for oyster planting is below the junction of this branch with the main creek, and 
lies along both shores near its mouth in narrow strips. A quicksand bottom is the 
most serious obstacle encountered, as nearly all of the area between the fork and 
mouth is of this character. Raccoon oysters of a fine type occur along the shores, and 
where they have fallen below low-water mark and have been allowed to remain long 
enough to lose their raccoon features, they produce a good marketable oyster. This 
limited area, however,, has been exhausted by overfishing. An examination of the 
narrow strip of bottom in deeper water adjacent to the ledges occasionally discovers a 
fine oyster, and shows what might be accomplished in the main body of the creek 
wherever the bottom is sufficiently stable and hard. The density of the water in this 
system of creeks or tributaries of North Inlet is necessarily high, having no large 
source of fresh water like the creeks which flow into it from the southward; the water 
is therefore not subject to the rapid and radical changes in specific gravity peculiar to 
the creeks between the South and North inlets. The total area of all the creeks 
between Muddy Bay and North Inlet is about 1,200 acres; area of suitable oyster 
ground, about 173 acres. 
