Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-01-17
DECLARES JERSEY
COAST NOT SINKING
Professor Johnson, of COlum=
bia, Says Sea Is Merely Re-
claiming Its Own.
SEABRIGHT DEVASTATION
LAID TO WATER EROSION
Says indications of Subsistence
of Atlantic Coast Is Due
to Tidal Changes.

The New Jersey coast is not sinking
or diminishing, despite popular opinion
to the contrary. and the apparent
evidence of subsistence furnished by
the recent devastation at Seabright.
That, in brief, is the verdict of Pro-
lessor Douglas Wilson johnson, of
Columbia University, a national au-
thority on the question.
He explained his reasons for believ-
ing the Atlantic coast line is prac-
tically stable In a lecture before the
nineteenth annual meeting of the
American Scenic and Historical Pres
ervation Society IN the American
Museum of National History this
week.
Commenting in number of lantern
slides of the Seabright disaster. he
said that the phenomenal invasion
of the sea signifled erosion rather
than the sinking of the coast.
THE recent storm at Seabright does
not indicate a sinking of the land"
he said. 1.-THE sea is merely reclaim
ing land that it had previously built
up and probably will build up again.
Other phenomena that have been
taken to indicate subsistence can be
explained by the fact that generally
they are found in bays and have been
caused by the sea breaking through
the protecting barrier and bringing
the water inside the barrier to a
higher level than before, but only to
the level of the water outside
Gives Reason for Statements.
DR.. Johnson amplified his reasons
for deciding against the probability
of the coasts sinking in an interview
with an Evening Star reporter today.
1.-THE precise leveling recently COM
pleted in New Jersey and New York,
he said, throws some light on the
question as to whether or not this
part Of the Atlantic coast is under
going progressive subsistence.
''The work in southern New Jersey
shows that there has been no differ
entail fitting or warping of the coast
during the twenty-five years from
1885 to 1911. Similar Investigations in
the vicinity of New York city also
show a total absence of any differen-
tial movement during twenty-four
years from 1887 to 1911. The surveys
further show that the position of
mean sea level has remained the same
for twenty-four years at least. Taken
together, these facts prove remark
able stability of the portion of our
coast supposed to show the most pro-
nounced evidences of continued SUBJ
sidence, and corroborate the physio-
graphic evidence of long-continued
stability.
yet 1t is today generally accepted
as well established fact that the
Atlantic coast Of this continent is
gradually subsiding at a rate vari-
ously estimated at from 20 to rs en-.
a century.
AT many points on the Atlantic
coast one may observe large numbers
of trees killed by salt water so re-
Gently that they still stand erect,
and even retain their branches. These
trees have often been cited as con-
vincing proof of the recent progress
sive subsistence of the land
1.-THE dead forests along the coasts
of New Jersey. the Carolinas. and
Georgia. many of which 1 have eX-
amined. are most frequently to be ex-
planned as the result of such local
of high tide level. 1 have
seen no case where the killing of the
trees could safely be ascribed to a
of the coast.
Sea Cuts Through to Marsh.
along the New Jersey coast the
general surface of the marsh slopes
the Delaware Bay section of this |
shore the waves are cutting rapid
ly into the marsh, which is unpro-
tected by barrier beaches. As a
result of the consequent shortening
of the meandering tidal creeks, the
tides rise progressively higher and
higher towards the heads of the
creeks; the salt marsh builds grad
ually up to the new level of high
tide, encroaching on the upland, kill
ing the trees, and producing other
evidence of progressive subsistence
of the land. In the sea islands of
South Carolina and Georgia we OBJ
served a number of more or less re-
stricted localities where forests had
been killed by a rise of high tide
level following changes in size and
position of tidal channels and bars,
and one place where the death of
the trees is dated from the cutting
of a canal between two tidal chan
nels.
when critically examined, neither
the botanical nor other evidence of
recent coastal subsistence seems to
me conclusive. On the other hand,
the photographic evidence, so far as
have been able to analyze it, in
dicates a long period of coastal sta
bility."