The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-19
THE LAND SINKING.
And the Sea Steadily Encroach-
ing ON Atlantic Coast.
BEACH RAPIDLY RETREATrNo.
Porpoises ut Play where Sugar. Cana
Used to Grow-The Fierce Charge -
Oceans Tireless Cavalry.
Washington City star.


The Atlantic coast line from Cape Cod
to Cape Hatteras, which at this season Of
the year is fringed with merry bathers, Is
retreating with steady and alarming rap
idity before the waves Of the ocean. Each
average year the waters advance one rod
inland where no bluffs afford temporar-
lily opposing barrier Property owners &C
summer resorts all along the shore view
with dread the encroachment of the sea,
trying their best TO oppose its progress
with breakwaters and other feeble expedi-
ents. Nevertheless, the eating away Of
the shore still proceeds, memorable Sep-
tune devouring il inch by inch. Ocean
avenue at Long Branch only q few
years ago was broad road; now il ID
q narrow one comparatively, its width
decreasing annually, At other points
the beaches of generation back
are hundreds of yards out at sea-
The seaside cottage, with broad lawn
before il, has an expectation OF life" of q
decade or so perhaps, but it must 60. Not
long since huge hotel at a popular sum-
mer city had TO be dragged by team Of
locomotives q considerable distance to es-
cape the waters which were undermin-
ing it.
Along the gulf coast from Mobile bay to
the mouth of the Mississippi the same
direful process is going on. Villas and
orange groves on the shore are swept away
and inundated by the advancing waves.
Thirty-four years ago Last island, health
and pleasure resort of New Orleans, was
swallowed up by the storm waters, with
most OF its transient population, and only
tide-washed bank remains to mark its
site. More than once since then villages
and settlements on the margin of the gulf
and upon the delta islands of the Missls-
sippi have been wiped from the face of the
land. All these occurrences tell the same
story OF encroachment by the ocean upon
the continent.
Comparison of maps shows that the At
lantic coast, from Bernegat inlet twelve
miles southwark, known as Long Beach,
has in thirty-two years retreated 54S feet
more than one-tenth of a mile. Surveys
of Cape May county demonstrate that
within the last century the shore along it
has receded three-guarters of mile. On
the Carolina coast the advance of the sea
upon the rice plantations has been going
on steadily for three generations. "The
sea is deyouring the land, /" saws Lafcadio
Hearn MANY and manya mile of ground
has yielded to the tireiess charging of
oceans cavalry. Far out you can see with
good glass the porpoises at play where
banEerets. and shark Ans are now seen in
water above site where pigeons used to
COO"
One curious feature of these alterations
of the coast line by the encroachment OF
the seas is found in the exposure by the
advancing waters of ancient meadows and
forests long buried. In this manner have
been disclosed TO view nd cedar swamps,
and thus a singular industry-actual min
ing for timber-hss been created. At sew
eral points in Eastern New Jersey enor-
nous quantities of white cedar and mag
nolia logs, sound and lit for use, are found
submerged in what have now become salt
marshes. Many of the trees thus exhumed
were forest giants. In the Great cedar
swamp, on the creek of the same name,
the trunks reach diameter of seven feet.
The cause of all this is that the Atlantic
and Gulf coasts are actually sinking, and
the rate at which they are going down is
estimated by the official geologist of New
Jersey at two feet per century. Now, the
general seward slope of the edge of the
continent is about six feet TO the mile, SO
that the sinking of each 100 years gives
third of mile of lowland TO the ocean.
This would seem To be rather less than the
rate of enroachment indicated by compar-
ison of maps made at successive periods.
Modern geologic science has ascertained
that the entire crust of the earth is in a
condition of such sensitive equilibrium
that the taking of weight from one part Of
il to another brings about elevation of the
portion from which the weight is removed
and produces corresponding depression
of the portion where il is added. The
rivers which empty into the Atlantic from
Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras and along the
shore to the gulf carry out into the ocean
each year billions of tons of material.
which is thus deposited outside the oceans
edge. The weight transferred causes .
n Of ha aN
line.
If all the water in the Atlantic ocean
were dried up You would perhaps be sur
prised to observe that the eastern edge of
the great land mass which We call tbs
North American continent Is not the
present beach line at all. You would see
that the continent itself extends Tar out
into the ocean, a distance varying from
fifty to $50 miles. Once upon time this
terrace was all above the water; the east
shore of the continent had q very different
shape. There was deep sea close TO the
coast, and the localities where now are sit
uated New York, Philadelphia and Boston
are far inland. Gradually, owing TO the
causes / have mentioned, this great ter
race has sunk so that ships are sailing over
what was few thousand years ago, dry
land. So short q time, from the geological
point of view, has been required 10 effect
this change that the beds of the Hudson,
deep channels cut out of the terrace, a SUI
heient period not having elapsed for filing
them up with detritus.
The process by which this was accom-
plished is steadily and progressively going
on. Each year the Atlantic shore line
and the same is true of the Gulf coasts
further westward by an average distance
of rod. For each century there Is loss
of one-third of mile 10 the edge OF the
continent. How long is il going TO De at
this rate before the eastern coastal plain OF
the United States is submerged beneath
the ocean. together with all its populous
cities and fertile fields? These plains,
originally fashioned by the sea, the ocean
is retaining for its own. It's octopus
arms are selling them In their embrace,
and day by day, month by month, year by
year, generation by generation, the mon
ster is creeping further and further in
land Its power is too great for puny man
to oppose successfully; he can only slowly
retreat before the invasion.