SHORELINE TOPOGRAPHY.* 



By F. p. (iULLIVER. 



Presented by W. M. Davis, October 12, 1898. 

 Received October 2'J, 1898. 



" When I have seen the hungry ocean gain 

 Advantage on the kingdom of the shore, 

 And the firm soil win of the watery main, 

 Increasing store witli loss and loss with store ; 

 When I have seen sucii interchange of state, 

 Or state itself confounded to decay ; 

 Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate." 



Shakespeare, Sonnet LXIV. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Physiographic Standpoint. — The present paper deals with the devel- 

 opment of coasts from a geographic standpoint, and attempts to workout 

 the criteria by which we may determine whether a given coastal area 

 stands now at a relatively higher or lower level with reference to the 

 level of the sea than it did in some previous cycle or portion of a cycle. 

 Particular emphasis will be laid upon the stages of development, which 

 follow each other according to dynamic laws in a systematic succession, 

 both after uplift and after depression. The time since the beo-iuuino- of 

 the cycle or epicycle t is found to have a very important bearing upon 

 the question of continental oscillation. The dynamic forces of nature do 

 not leave the initial forms produced by uplift or depression, but produce 

 a successive series of sequential forms, which may be used, when the 

 order of the normal succession is apprehended, as criteria to determine 

 the time since the cycle began. 



Omitted Phases of the Subject. — The shoreline, the line formed by 

 the intersection of the plane of the sea with the land, is in a geographic 

 sense a most inconstant line. Though for the geographic minute, a 



* This paper was written for the Doctorate of Philosophy at Harvard Uni- 

 versity, and was presented in June, 1806. It lias been condensed and slightly 

 revised for publication. September, 1898. 



t See p. 154. 



