Griggs courier., 1897-01-15
ADVANCING WATERS
The Atlantic Csast Line Undergoing .
Change.

AOvAWCVCS0 WAJeHS
The Atlantic Csast Line Undereoiag q
| Change.
Once upon time the sites of New
York and Philadelphia were far inland
and there was dry land where now the
ships so sailing.
The sea is s.eadily encroaching upon
the land. In old maps, deeds and other
documents the shore lines recorded dc
not coincide with those of the present
day. Comparisons of Long Beach,
from Barnegat Inlet, 12 miles south
ward, on the United States coast sur
vey maps, of 1889 and 1871, shows that
during the intervening 32 years the
shore line retreated more than one.
tenth of mile. Each average year the
ocean advances rod on the coast OF
New Jersey. This gain by the sea
amounts in each century to a third of q
mile, the seward slope being about six
feet per mile. The seaside resorts all
the way from Sandy Hook to Cape May
have suffered immense losses by the
march of Father Neptune.
Only last summer great changes were
made in the ocean front at Rockaway
beach and various places along the Jer-
sey coast. Long Branch has suffered
very severely, and it was not SO very
long ago that u hotel at another great
seaside resort was dragged back by a
team of locomotives from the threat.
ening waves of the ocean. That the tides
now run higher than of old is proved by
submerged forests and meadows. In
the official report of the state geo1ogist
of New Jersey for 1882 there are ac-
counts of ancient meadows and forests
considerably below high water mark,
recently exposed by the wear of the
waves on the coast. Some of the trees
had been cut with the ak.
Prof. w. j. McGee told the writer of
buried cedar, ,swamps, which have given
rise to a singular industry-the literal
mining of timber. At several points OF
eastern New Jersey enormous quanti-
ties of white cedar and magnolia logs,
sound and fit for use, are found SUBJ
merged in the salt marshes, sometimes
SO near the surface that roots and
branches protrude. Many of the trees
thus overthrown and buried were for
est giants.
Along the Carolina coast, Prof. Nc
Gee said, the advance of the ocean upon
the rice-growing islands has been noted
by observing residents during three
generations. On the central gulf coast
the same thing is going on-the land is
steadily sinking. Forty years ago Lost
Island, a pleasure resort of New Or
leans, was swallowed by the storm
waves, with most of it's transient popu-
lation-"thc wealth and beauty of the
creole parishes" "-and naught but tide
washed bank remains to mark it's site.
More than once during later years viii
lagos and settlements on the gulf shores
and on the delta islands of the Missis-
sippi have been swept from the face of
the land and made the prey of the in
satiable waters.
The cause of this sinking of the At
lantic and gulf coasts is not far to seek.
The rivers which emptyinto 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. This matter is deposited
outside the oceans edge, and the weight
thus transferred causes steadily
progressive depression of the coast
line.
Geological science has ascertained
that the entire crust of the earth is in
such acondition of sensitive equilibrium
that the taking of weight from one part
of it to the other brings about elevation
of the portion from which the weight is
removed and produces corresponding
depression of the portion where it is
added. In q word, the earth's crust is
in condition of hydrostatic equifib-
rum, and relatively as sensitive to
changing pressure as the beam of the
assayer's balance.
If the water in the Atlantic ocean
were dried up you would perhaps be
surprised to observe that the eastern
edge of the great land mass called the
North American continent is not the
present beach line at all. You would
see that the continent itself extends far
out into the ocean distance varying
from so to $50 miles. Once upon a
time this terrace was all above the wa
ter; the east shore of the continent had
a very different shape, and there was
deep sea close to the coast. Gradually,
owing to the cause mentioned, this great
terrace has sunk, so that the whole
eastern edge Of the continent is over
flowed. Apparently, the entire eastern
coastal plain of the United States is des-
tined eventually to be submerged be-
meath the ocean, together with all it's
populous cities and fertile fields.
Prof. Arthur Hollack, of the geolog-
ical department of Columbia college,
smiled when his attention was called
to the SUBJECT Of the sinking of New
York.
ut is not very serious natter" he
said, "as centuries will be required to
make any level along this coast. But
that there is gradual subsistence going
on is quite we'll verified by careful ov-
servation along the Atlantic shore.
The United States coast survey hes
paid some attention to this matter, and
its reports show that there is settling