Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-04-05

never could have grown there with the salt
water about their roots. In every salt meadow
near the bordering upland are stumps OF
trees with sound roots imbeddcd In the SOIL
where they have evidently grown. but which Ia
now below high-water mark. In many cases
large forests have been killed at once by some
encroaching tide. and catastrophes of this sort
withdraw attention from the gradual settling Of
the earsh The shore sinks slowly but con-
Stantiy. ugtu there come an exceptionally high
tide and violent east wind together. when the
sea breaks Its barriers aud sweeps inland TO a
Hood mark that IL may not reach again in a
score OF years. But when the next conjunction.
OF fayoring circumstances comes the tide rushes
higher stu. and another strip OF land Is added
10 the encroaching marsh. Ii Is evident. too,
rom stumps cut with the axe, and now under
water, that some palpable encroachments have
been made since the country was settled. In
DE Laet description, published about 1850 the
author states that he landed on what is now
Gcrerhors Island, aud he speaks of four others
lying ever toward the Jersey shore There are
four yet found on the map but the Dutch
historian would hardly have made a note of
Oyster Island and Robins Reef IL they were
then invisible, as they now are except at low
tide.
II is admitted. then that the shore In stead
lily sinking beneath the sea. 1t Is matter of
some Importance to landowners to know how
long it will be before their property is sub
merged. Unfortunately, the rate Of subsistence
Is not determined, nor can Ii be with accuracy
until longer and more careful observations have
furnished data for calculation. The ocean level
has been pretty accurately fixed 10y the tide
gauge at Sandy Hook, which has been auto
matically registering the ups and downs Of the
sea for the Coast Survey during seyen years.
From this mean tide level as datum Ilane the
New Jersey survey will set permanent bench
marks along the coast next summer, and by re-
ferring to these hundred years or so hence the
naughty Sand Spaniard can estimate how rap
idly he Is going under.
Meanwhile the jewellers on the shore can as
sure themselves that there is little danger OF
being swallowed up by the waves I'm the near
future. Prof. Cook has thought that the rate OF
subsistence might he quarter of an inch year,
but other authorities hold that il In less than
one eighth of an inch. There are evidences that
since this sinking began il has amounted to as
much as twenty feet. But then this motion NAV
the same area There is plain proof Of this oscll-
latory motion f the earth's crust hereabout.
Along the borders Of the upland is a belt of
alluvial soil, now lying eight or ten feet above
the water line. When formed IL was evidently
at the waters edge, and I'm il are mbedded the
shells OF clans and oysters and the other species
now common in the adjoining shadows. This
means that since the age OF man, or within
three or four thousand years. more or less the
Jersey shore has been considerably lower. as
compared with the sea level. than IL now il.
Within recent time then, there must have been
an uplifting of the coast before the present sub
sidence began and another rise can be predicted
with much assurance. This probability ought
to insure buoyant real estate market, for the
shore owner Of the future, instead Of looking
on with anguish while the waves devour his
acres, Will joyfully watch the increase of his
property as the sea recedes