New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-04-02
An Unstable COAST.

The insecurity Of real estate along the
New-Jersey shore has always been
matter Of comment, but unusual inter
est in the subject has been excited since
the publication of the last Report of the
State GeologIst. The best authorities have
long held that the coast Nas slowly sinking,
but the natives have solaced themselves with
some comforting opinions tC the contrary, and
this year Professor Cook humanely classiiies
the unpleasant phenomena a encroachmcnte
of the sea- evidently because this phrase is
irihr less alarming than the "subsidcnce of the
land" That the Atlantic is gradually wear
ing away the beaches and shifting the coast
line to the worrirent of map-makers
is fact abundantly established. From The in
tcrcsiine notes Of Professor Cook # appears
that at Cape island the shore has been ear
rcd a ful mile inland since the Revolution.
I'm the compalatvcly short period OF twenty
eight years the 'readth Of tho land eaten
away yai $ in some place. from 200 to 800
feet, and at point near NewEnglaud Creek
il aDpear, from old surveys that the land line
which terminates ON the shore has been snort
cncd in ls7 years more than 1000 feet. 1t
may be- added that Sandy Hook offers a fine
example OF tluctuating geography. Rather
more than one hundred years ago the Hook
was fast to Middlctown Township. and then
the sea swept across the isthmus and left il an
island for years. In 1910 q great storm joined
the Hook to Shrewsbury Township 10y solid
sand-banh, although it still remained pOliti-
caly part Of Middletown. Through this con-
nection channel 10 feet deep was cut byanothcr
storm in ISIS, and the waterway, after shift
ing and changing its direction for twenty
years was at last closed again, and a railroad
now runs across it. Meantime the Hook itself
was or, wing more straight and nawoW, aud
stretching further to the north, until now its
point is more than a mile beyond its position
in the last century.
Changes Of this sort, however, would excite
no attention ii they were not examined IN con-
nccti0n WI other phenomena. The pounding
of me waves against the sand would not alone
suffice TO break the beach lire, and there is no
evidence that the sea while breakiG" over the
lars cXcrts greater force than Il did a hun
bred or Il Thousand years ago. But here are
other dis3grccahle facts. Everyone who
crosses the STATE has seen from car-Win
doys dead trees standing in tide marshes.
! They never could have grown there with the
salt water about their Ioots. ~ every salt
meadow, near the bordering upland, are stumps
Of trees with sound roots mbcdded in the soil,
where they have evidently grown, but which
is now below high-water mark. In many cases
large foress have been killed at once by some
encroaching tide, and cata,trophes of this sort
Withdraw attention from the gradual settling
of the earth The shore sinks slowly but con
siantly, until there come an exceptionally
high tide aud violent east wind together,
inland to a flood mark that it may not reach
again in a score of years. But when the next
conjunction Of fay0ring circumstances comes
the tide rushcs higher still, and another strip
Of land is added to the encrOaching
marsh. 1t is evident too, from stumps cut
with the axe and now under water that
some palpable encroachmeLts have been made
since the country was settled. IN De Laets
description, published about 1000, the author
states that he landed on what is now Cover
nol's Island, and he speaks of four others lying
over toward the Jersey shore. There are four
yet found on the map, but the Dutch historian
would hardly have made note of oyster
Island and Robins Reef, if they were then in
visible as they now are except at lew tide.
If il is admitted, then, that the shore is
steadily sinking beneath the sea, it is IA matter
Of some importance to landowners to know
how long it will be before their proper
ty is submerged. Unfortunately, the rate
of subsdence is not determined, nor
can it be with accuracy until longer and more
careful observations have furnished data for
calculation. The ocean level has been pretty
accurately fixed bytthc tide gauge at Sandy
Hook, which has been automatically register
ing the ups and downs of tie sea for the
Coast Survey during seven years. From this
mean tide level as Ii datum plane the New
Jersey Survey will set permanent bench
marks along the coast next summer, and by
referring to these hundred years or SO hence
the naughty Sand Spanard can estimate how
rapidly he is going under
Meanwhile the dwellers on the shore
can assure themselves that there is little
danger of being swallowed up by the
waves in the near future Professor Cook
has thought that the rate of subsistence might
be quarter of an inch year, but other au-
thOrities hold that it is less than one -eghth of
en- inch. There are evidences that since this
sinking began il has amounted to as much as
twenty feet But then this motion may cease
and be succeeded by general lifting Of the
same area. There is plain proof of this oscila-
tory motion of the earth's crust hereabout.
Along the borders of the upland is belt of
] alluvial soil. now lying eight OF ten feet above