JUM 



JOURNAL 



OF THE 



Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 



HISTORY OF THE ATLANTIC SHORE LINE.^ 



HUNTER L. HARRIS. 



The history of a shore line consists in an exposition 

 of the chang-es which have taken place in it; these 

 chang"es consisting chiefl}^ in its migration across the 

 land surface on which the body of water rests. If 

 this body of water be an ocean or in direct and open 

 communication with an ocean these chang^es of position 

 may be effected in two possible ways: (1) By an 

 actual depression or elevation of the water surface. 

 (2) By depession or elevation of the land mass along- 

 which the shore line occurs. 



Without discussing- the reasons for such a conclusion 

 we may say that in the g-reat majorit}^ of cases the 

 first of these two causes need not be considered as a 

 factor. Usually it is the oscillation of the crust about 



* This paper is a thesis prepared in the second course in Geolog-y 

 at Harvard College, and has been f urnishrd me by Mr. J. B. Wood- 

 worth, the instructor under whose direction the work was done. It 

 is an admirable compilation, and serves as an introduction to the 

 more extended work upon which Mr. Harris had entered at the time 

 of his death.— C. C. 



