The Wichita daily eagle., 1891-09-09
OCEAN ENCROACHING.
THE VORACiOUS ATLANTIC EATING
ITS WAY WESTWARD.

L
That Have Occurred Along the Coast
in One Generation.
The Atlantic coast line from Cape Cod
| to Cape Hatteras is retreating with g
steady and alarming rapidity before the
waves of the ocean. Each average year the
waters advance one rod inland, where no
bluffs afford temporarily opposing bar
rier. Property owners at 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 expedients.
Nevertheless, the eating away of the
shore still proceeds, inexorable Neptune
devouring it inch by inch. Ocean avenue
at Long Branch only few years ago was
broad road. Now it is a narrow one COM
paratively, its width decreasing annually.
At other points the beaches of a genera
ton back are hundreds of yards out at sea.
The seaside cottage, with a broad lawn be-
fore it, has an expectation of life" of q
decade or so, perhaps, but it must go.
Not long since huge hotel at a popular
summer city had to be dragged by team
of locomotives considerable distance to
escape the waters which were undermin-
ing it.
Along the Gulf coast from Mobile bay to
the mouth of the Mississippi the same dire
full process is going on. Villas and orange
groves on the shore are swept away and in
undated by the advancing waves. Thirty
four years ago Last island, a health and
pleasure resort of New Orleans, was swal-
lowed up by the storm waters with most
of its transient population, and only tide
washed bank remains to mark its site.
THE DEveURING SEA.
More than once since then villages and
settlements on the margin of the gulf and
upon the delta islands of the Mississippi
have been wiped from the face of the land.
All these occurrences tell the same story
of ecroachment by the ocean upon the con-
tinent.
Comparison of maps shows that the At
lantic coast from Barnegat inlet twelve
miles southwark, known as Long Beach,
has in thirty-two years retreated 545 feet
more than one-eighth of mile. Surveys
of Cape May county demonstrate that
within the last century the shore along it
has receded three quarters of mile.
On the Carolina coast the advance of the
sea upon the rice plantations has been go
ing on steadily for three generations.
1.-THE sea is devouring the land" says Laf-
cadio Hearn. MANY and many a mile of
ground has yielded to the tireless charging
of oceans cavalry. Far out you can see
with good glass the porpoises at play
where of old the sugarcane shook out its
million bannerets, and shark fins are now
seen in water above a site where pigeons
used to COO"
One curious feature of these alterations
of the coast line by the encroachment ot
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 old cedar swamps,
and thus singular industry-actual min
ing for timber-has been created.
At several points in eastern New Jersey
enormous quantities of white cedar and
magnolia logs, sound and fit for use, are
found submerged In what have now be-
come 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 a diameter of
seven feet.
CAUSE OF THE RECEDING LINE.
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 seaward slope of the edge of the
continent is about six feet to the mile, so
that the sinking of each 100 years gives a
third of mile of lowland to the ocean.
This would seem to be rather less than the
rate of encroachment indicated by COM
parison 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
1t to another brings about elevation of the
portion from which the weight is removed
and produces corresponding depression
of the portion where it is added. The
rivers which empty into the Atlantic from
Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras and along the
shore of 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 a steadily
depression of the coast line.
II 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 the |
North American continent is not the pres
ent beach line at ell. You would see that
the continent itself extends far out into the |
ocean, distance varying from fifty to 100 |
miles.
CHANGES N THE EAST
Once upon a time this terrace was all 4
above the water; the east shore of the con-
tinent had a very different shape, there |
wss deep sea close to the coast, and the 1
localities where now are situated New /
York, Philadelphia and Boston, were far
inland
Gradually, owing 20 the causes [ have /
this great terrace has sunk so |
that ships are sailing over what was |
few thousands Of years ago dry land. So /
short time, from the geological point OF |
view, has been required to effect this |
change that the beds of the Hudson, the
Potomac and other great streams are still
deep channels cut out of the terrace, a suf.
5eient 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
farther westward BY an average distance
of rod. For each century there is a loss
Of one-third of mile 10 the edge of the
continent. How long is it going to be at /
his rate before the eastern coastal plain Of
he United States Is submerged beneath
The ocean, together with all its populous
titles aud fertile fiel6ss
These plains, originally fashioned by the
'ea, the ocean is reolaiming for its own.
rs octopus arms are seizing them in their
and day by day, month by month.
Tear by year, generation by generation, the