The bay contains only a few small islands but an abundance of reefs of shell, from one inch to two feet below the surface. The water is not deep at any place but is supported by soft mud which is of unfathomable depth. Into this bay empties the Nueces River, and at the junction of the two is a mud flat, miles in extent. The river is deep and narrow, but at its mouth spreads out, as it were, to cover this great surface with an inch or two of water. The amount of water over the flat depends in a great measure upon the wind; a breeze from the east sending the water from the bay over the shoals, while a strong current of air from the west will have an opposite effect and leave the crest of the flat above the water's edge.
From various sources I learned that years ago the bay had extended several miles further back than now, and that the boggy soil on the sides of the river was at that time just such a flat as the one I have described. If this is true there is no reason why the whole bay may not in time be replaced by land. Such a radical change as this is to be hoped for, for if there are seventy-five square miles on this earth that disgrace it, those seventy-five square miles may be found here, Nueces Bay being one big slimy slough, only fit for the habitation of alligators and mud-snakes.
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