Albemarle Sound, a body of shallow water on the coast of North Carolina. It is separated from the Atlantic by sandbars, grown into low islands. The sound extends about sixty miles in an east and west direction. It is traversed by the thirty-sixth parallel of north latitude. The sound is not over eighteen feet deep, and does not afford draft for large ships. The discharge of numerous rivers, including the Chowan and the Roanoke, keeps the waters fresh. Tides and oceanic tempests are not felt within the shelter of the bars.