Sharp County record., 1888-09-13
THE UNSUITABLE WAVES.
Steadily Gnawing Their Way Into Long
Islands Southern Coast.

1uG SHOfeS Ol JnG southern Long
island coast are constantly changing.
Nowhere is this more manifest than at
COney Island. Henry Freyenhagen,
one of the Oldest residents on the island,
says that within his memory fully a
mile of the south and west shores of
the island have been eaten up by the
inroads of the sea.
The visitor to the low sandy beach OF
Coney Island at the present day can
form but little idea of the appearance
Of COney Island Of 1850 or 1900,
Said Mr. Freyenhagen; I'm no place
along the south shore have such extra
ordinary changes been made by the
ocean as here. When | was a boy, my
uncle, Court Lake, told me that in his
younger days he cut a lot of red cedar
posts, six inches in diameter, at
the butt on a part of COney Island
which is now two miles at sea under
the Atlantic ocean. He said that the
island had been cut away more than a
half in his time. Any of the old set
tiers here will tell you, and the State
surveys will bear them out, that the
COney Island beach in the last century
was composed Of high and extensive
sand hills where now all is fiat beach
or else under water. | have cut grass
on part of the island just west of the
point from which the Brighton Beach
Hotel was recently moved. That
meadow is a half mile from the shore
under water now, and is also the site
of little wood off West Brighton,
where my father used to cut fuel. Be-
tween that wood and the shore used
to stand a dwelling house known
as the "Old Suydam Place. which
was washed away shortly before | was
born. My father could recollect when
there was long reef of rocks in plain
sight off shore toward Rockaway. The
:eef disappeared years ago.
The island is being blown away as
ell. You may laugh at this notion,
but it is true, nevertheless. There is
more sand on Conoy Island now than
there used to be. The sea has not been
pounding and grinding the pebbles all
hese years for nothing. 1t makes
sand as fine and light as dust The
easterly gales blow this sand inland,
moving it along in little hillOcks, one
particle rolling over another as it does
so. Hills are cut down and built up
by the operation. The blizzard last
winter did much work of this kind.
Ponds inland are filed up and
converted into meadows. Look at the
little creek which barely separates
Coney Island from the Long Island
shore. 1t used to be a big arm of the
sea- Now it is nearly flied up by
these driving sand storms which block
the channels, causing the sluggish
currents to make additional deposits
and so create land,
"The sea tides, too, are cNtting the
coast away terribly, Take, for in
stance, Hog Island Inlet. Many go
down there just to see the tide rush.
The inlet is working westward all the
time, and will ultimately carve Rock
away to pieces. The surf is RESPONSE
bic for this 1t piles sand and debris
into the channel of the inlet
on the eastern border of it.
This deposit tends to Obstruct
the tide, which cuts away and washes
into the east end Of Roclaway Beach
to make room for itself. This cutting
goes on just as rapidly as the formation
from the surf is heayed upon the other
side of the inlet. The inlet is thus
kept OPEN 1t has Travelled to the
westward more than two miles since |
was born, in 1925.
"Con5equcntly, ROckaway Beach is
being eaten up and COney Island is
crawling toward New York, you see.
The outer shore Of the latter is disap-
pearing under the water, and its inner
one is on the move before the wind.
In fifty years hence | predict that the
island will have been swallowed up in
the nav of the ocean. With both
that and Rockaway gone, where will
the people go then for sport, | Won
der?'-N T. Commercial AdrcrtlScr.