Even loaded, the sledge slid as easily through the bottom muck once it was started as if through a thick layer of grease.

One was a torpedo sticking out of bottom muck at a 45-degree angle.

But the vehicle they used to sniff around saw footprints in the bottom muck.

She tried to stop it with the pole, but the thing caught in the bottom muck and was twisted out of her grasp.

The damp air was thick with the smell of brine, fish and bottom muck.

There was no current; the bottom muck, though unpleasant, slid off her skin like thick oil instead of gripping her.

"Downward pointing fins, I think, to stilt over the bottom muck," Don said.

Mr. Campbell, a lawyer by training, dismissed any lasting threat from stirring the bottom muck.

In the cold Arctic waters outside the Ram, pumps turned, hose nozzles sought out bottom muck for ballast.

For the better part of fifteen minutes, they slid forward on their bellies, crawling through bottom muck, sliding over fallen trees and rocks.