2 NANTUCKET TREES 



eastern North America has been high in the air, afford- 

 ing an essentially continuous line of migration across 

 the mouth of the Gulf of Maine to Nova Scotia, thence 

 to Nevfoundland, the evidence is now abundantly at 

 hand." 13 



Hollick has made calculations for the rate of 

 subsidence during the era of depression vhich followed. 

 He estimates that "...6000 years ago the area included 

 within the present 20 fathoms line -would have been dry 

 land." 21 Since island formation by a subsidence of the 

 coast is not a cataclysmic event like a volcanic up- 

 heaval, and since a few thousand years more or less 

 matter little in geologic time tables, we are free to 

 use Hollick' s measuring rod of time and estimate that 

 the irregular North Atlantic coast line of today vith 

 its bordering islands, Long Island, the Elizabeth Is- 

 lands, Marthas Vineyard, Nantucket, Mount Desert, and 

 Newfoundland, is presumably not more than 6000 years old. 



The above data afford some evidence that there 

 •were forests on Nantucket in the long past of geologic 

 time. Nantucket Island may veil have been forested as 

 a direct heritage from that post-glacial coastal plain 

 of which it was once a part, but a windswept island of- 

 fers a hard life for trees. When once reduced or re- 

 moved, forests would grow again with difficulty. Cer- 

 tainly such stands as the virgin forests of the main- 

 land vould seem to be impossible. 



Apparently the wind always blows on Nantucket 

 but the summer visitor who enjoys its freshness has 

 little idea of the force of the occasional . summer hur- 

 ricane or of the winter storms. In Starbuck's history 

 the New Bedford Mercury quotes a letter from Nantucket 

 of March 9, 177 2 *. It tells of a great gust of wind 

 which, lasting but a minute, destroyed the Brant Point 

 Lighthouse and several shops and barns: "Had it con- 

 tinued 15 minutes more not more than half the buildings 

 in its wake could have stood. " 43 



The Nantucket Weather Bureau gives the following 

 figures, corrected for the standard anemometer. "Nov. 

 27, I898, NE, a maximum wind velocity of 62 MPH; an 

 extreme of 69 MPH. January 24, 1908, NE, a maximum wind 



