Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1905-05-13

HioIc, "Ho 10 ttii cdSLcEH OioTcIfdH ny
birth, and who spends much of his time
cunning and fishing in this section,
wrote lengthy article for the Balti-
more San, which appeared in last Sun
days issue, describing the chain of bays
in Worcester County, the fishing at
Ocean City, and the result of not COM
pleting the Inland Waterway. We
herewith give a considerable extract
from Judge Dennis article.
Ocean City, in Worcester county, Md,
is on narrow strip of sand (or beach,,
bounded by the ocean on the east and
on the rest by the several bays or sounds
between it and the mainland. This strip
of beach runs without break from As
sateague on the south as far north as
the Indian river, in Delaware, a few
miles above the Maryland line, dis
tance of about 45 miles. 1t is nowhere
much, if any, above mile in width; for
the most part, considerably narrower,
and at Ocean City this strip is not over
a quarter of a mile wide. The bays or
sounds separating it from the mainland
vary greatly in width, although furnish
ing an uninterrupted waterway As
sateague and Isle of Wight bays are at
some places eight and ten miles wide,
while at Ocean City.in Sinepuxent bay,
which is the narrowest part of the en-
tire waterway, the width is only 2l5
yards, and it is over this that the rail-
road bridge is constructed.
The northernmost of these bays is
the Assawoman, or Little bay, in Della
ware, its southern waters being just
north of the Maryland line. 1t is a
picturesque little sheet of water, per-
haps two or three miles wide and very
shallow, but it is dotted over with sever
al little islands, upon which grow few
scrub oak, called "cat oaks" and which
furnish with their dense light-green
foliage pleasing prospect to the eye
in the almost entire absence of any trees
upon the entire strip of beach from
Fenwick's Island south to Assateague.
Assawoman, or Little bay, Is connect
ed with Isle of Wight bay on the south
by narrow, natural canal or waterway
about 200 yards in length and not over
Is yards in width and very deep ii. e.,
for the bays of which we are speaking),
averaging about Is to l8 feet. This
lsads into Isle of Wight at its head,
which is about 10 miles long Ito Ocean
City, and equally as broad Into it, two
or three miles south of the waterway
connecting it with Little bay, enters
from the west the broad waters of the
st. Martins river This is wholly fresh
water river, draining from the head
streams which feed the Pocomoke river
through the great cypress swamp and
the Burnt Swamp" in Delaware. At
it's rather lily defined mouth it is per-
haps two and half miles wide, and,
being fed in its course by several large
creeks, empties into the Isle of Wight
bay, a large volume of pure, fresh water
Isle of Wight bay extends in consider
able width until within about one and a
half miles north of Ocean City, where
it suddenly narrows to width of about
half mile, and from thence it becomes
Sinepuxent bay. From this point the
waterway continues to narrow until. at
Ocean City, it is only 2l5 yards wide
Thence southwark the waterway (now
Sinepuxent bay) again widens until it
reaches width of about two miles, a
short distance below, near Sandy Point,
and when it gets to South Point, about
10 miles south of Ocean City, it broad
ems out to from to 10 miles in width,
until, by no distinctly marked bound
aries. it mingles with the bays south
Assateague, Chincoteague, etc.
All of these inland waters are very
shallow, but narrow channels run through
them; few of the latter for any contin-
uous distance are over 7 or 8 feet in
depth. But these waters, from the
most northern Little bay to the south
ernmost Chincoteague bay-have no
connection with the ocean save only
through Chincoteague inlet, which is As
miles south of Ocean City.
From this it follows that the waters
of the northern portions of this long
waterway must be nearly fresh almost
wholly so in the winter and spring, but
modified in summer by the diminishing
fresh water supplies; and that as far
north as Ocean City, tides, as we
usually understand them flowing with
regularity twice a day do not distinct
ly exist. And so it is at Ocean City,
the tide proper amounts to nothing more
than the limited influence of the in
coming current through Chincoteague
inlet As miles below, over the broad
and shallow waterways; SO diminished
in its strong surge by distance and
obstructing shadows that its effect at
Ocean City is simply that made by
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