400 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Aug. , 



of plant formation to another and the original salt marsh conditions 

 are restored. This reversal may be sudden, if the sand barrier is 

 destroyed in a single storm, or it may be gradual, if by a shifting of 

 the ocean currents the sand is removed slowly away from the outlet 

 of the stream or lake, as has happened within the past two years at 

 the mouth of Shark River, which was a few years ago almost closed from 

 the sea, and closed completely by a southeast storm on July 23, 1909. 



In the sudden reversal by a heavy storm, all of the fresh water plant 

 formations would be destroyed and the shore line would be made barren 

 for a number of years, until by the usual methods of plant dispersal 

 and invasion the salt marsh plants again take possession of the river 

 banks, or line the shores of the bays and estuaries that may have been 

 formed. If by the second method the reversal has taken place, then 

 by the water becoming gradually brackish and finally salt, the fresh 

 water plants will slowly lose their hold as the soil which they have 

 occupied is invaded by the typic salt marsh plants. 



Man, however, has worked greater changes in the original vegetation 

 of northern coastal New Jersey than all of the agencies previously 

 outlined have produced. He has cut down the forests, spanned the 

 rivers with bridges so as to disturb their natural flow, built railroads 

 and wagon roads, constructed jetties and stone revetments, filled in 

 ponds and ditches, spread kerosene over marshes to kill mosquitoes, 

 and altered the drainage areas until in some places no trace of the 

 original vegetation is left. 



