330 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



ward past High head into their excellent harbor. The records of 

 changes in the bar that connects Sandy hook with the Long Branch 

 cliffs give ground for this anxiety. The point that I wish here to 

 call attention to is that the only part of the northeast shore that is 

 liable to be broken through lies on the stretch, BFg, between the 

 point where the connecting bar springs northwest from the great cliff 

 and the point where the '' fulcrum " is at present located. Within 

 this stretch, the bar is generally retreating, being cut on the outer 

 side, and reconstructed on the inner side. 



Two safeguards may be suggested. One would cause the fulcrum 

 to migrate southeastward, thus diminishing the length of the narrow 

 and breakable bar, and at the same time increasing its breadth and 

 strengtli. This would be accomplished by the construction of bulk- 

 heads along the outside of the narrow bar, or wrist, so as to catch the 

 drifting sand instead of allowing it to pass by ; thus the bar might be 

 broadened and strengthened. Judging by the rapidity with which the 

 body of a wrecked vessel causes an accumulation of tand on its south- 

 eastern side, a significant addition to the narrow bar might soon be 

 made in this manner. Manifestly, the greatest economy in the use of 

 the drifting sand requires that the bulkheads should be continually 

 built out so as always to project a little beyond the aggrading shore 

 line. There are indications that this very result is at present being 

 accomplished by natural process, for the beach in the narrow stretch, 

 BFg, is now notably broadened in front of its former line at the base 

 of the surmounting dunes. 



A more economical and enduring protection of Provmcetown harbor 

 than the above plan suggests has been already secured by complet- 

 ing the extremity of the bar, QR, that some years ago almost en- 

 closed East harbor ; so that if storm waves should temporarily breach 

 the narrow connecting bar on tlie ocean side, — the " wrist " of the 

 " hand " of Provincetowu at the end of the " bended arm of Massa- 

 chusetts," — all the sand that was carried through the breach would 

 settle in East harbor, and thereby strengthen the embankment against 

 further encroachments. A second protecting dike has been built 

 across the marsh, northeastward from near High head. The fear that, 

 in case the narrow connecting bar or " wrist " should be breached, 

 the whole action of the Atlantic 'long-shore currents would thereafter 

 be directed through the breach into Provincetowu harbor, is ground- 

 less. The whole history of the growth of the peninsula demonstrates 

 that the 'long-shore currents must continue to swing in long curves 

 of large radius in the future, as in the jiast. 



