1S8J.] ^^^ [Ilaupt. 



was laid down as a fundamental principle, that the deposits on the ocean 

 border are only made by the current of the flood tide. * * * 



" The mode of operation of the flood is essentially accumulative. Its ten- 

 dency, also, is continually to carry onward the deposit in the course of its 

 current, so that it performs the double office of increasing the collection 

 at every successive tide, and of advancing from place to place the matter 

 at its disposal. This process, and the law by which it was produced, were 

 proved by the manner in whicli the materials of wrecks were conveyed 

 along the shore, and the direction (always that of flood) in which the 

 various forms of deposits are increased. Many well-authenticated in- 

 stances of the transportation of wrecked matter were adduced. " He adds, 

 "It is difficult, if not impossible, to make these inquiries through another 

 person with a perfectly intelligible result, * * * it has not, therefore, 

 been possible to add many facts to those already collected. The follow- 

 ing statements are well attested." 



Mr. J. H. Skillman, Inspector of the Port at Greenport, L. I., stated that 

 in October, 1842, the whale-ship Plato was wrecked on the south side of 

 Long Island, and he took part in the purchase of the wreck. "After 

 removing the oil, the upper frame separated from the lower timbers and 

 drifted to the westward. The wreck masters built a house on the beach, 

 in which they lived two weeks, employed in rescuing the cargo and ma- 

 terials of the vessel. During this time bricks (spare ones for the 'try- 

 works') and wood drifted to the westward, and were collected on the 

 beach in that direction only. Nothing was carried to the eastward. The 

 top frame that had separated was heavy, water-logged, and weighed 

 down with iron fastenings, it floated deep ; and at the time of its drifting 

 to the westward, the wind was blowing from the west. The bricks and 

 fire wood constantly advanced in a westerly direction. During three of 

 the fourteen days passed by the wreckers on the beach, the wind was 

 from the northwest and one day very strong ; at no time did it blow from 

 the east. After the hull was lightened it began to work to the westward, 

 so that it was necessary to secure it by ropes, made fast to stakes driven 

 into the sand." 



Mr. Bishop, speaking of the British sloopofwar SylpJi, lost on the south 

 side of Long Island in 1814-15, said that: "The materials of this wreck 

 were also taken up to the westward, some of them beyond Fire Island 

 beacli during the three weeks following her destruction. And, curious to 

 relate, her rudder was found seven years afterwards, twenty miles to the 

 westward of the place of her loss. It was known by its size and the king's 

 arrow on the copper." Other cases are cited, and the statement is made 

 that the tlood current on that part of the Long Island shore runs to the 

 westward. 



Lieut. Com'd'g J. N. Maffltt, U. S. Coast Survey, says : " Cape Ilafteras 

 is a point of divergence of the tide wave, or, in other words, a split of the 

 tides lakes place there ; in consequence of which the advancing flood 

 that supplies the harbor of Charleston flows along the coast from the 



PKOC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXVI. 139. V. PRINTED APRIL 1, 1889. 



