1902.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 653 



some five hundred feet wider than at present, and by the relentless, 

 unrestrained activity of the drifting sand it has been slowly, but 

 surely, engulfed. It is a peculiar scene from the top of this dune: 

 on the land side there is a dense mass of dark-green foliage, beyond 

 which there is the broad expanse of green salt meadows with their 

 bays and thoroughfares.* The sand which has formed these dunes 

 comes fresh from the great ocean mill, ascends the surface of the 

 dune and falls over its crest into the forest. When a stiff breeze is 

 blowing it skims along like drifting snow, sufficiently strong to 

 lacerate the skin, trimming the tops of the trees as flat as though 

 shorn with shears The writer is of the opinion that the shapes of 

 the trees along our coast is due more to the sand blast than to the 

 direct action of the Avind. 



Gifford" describes the formation of these dunes: ** If the forests 

 are what cause the dunes, by preventing the west wind from blowing 

 back the sand, how did the forests form ? Single trees here and 

 there, or groups of trees, which are clean underneath, so that the 

 west wind sweeps through without serious interruption, do not cause 

 the formation of dunes. In the course of time, however, a thicket 

 forms under these trees. They become covered with grapevines, 

 Virginia creepers and greenbriers. The birds and the wind scat- 

 ter the seeds of many sorts of shrubs and bushes, such as Prunus 

 marifimn, sweet gale, Baecharis halvmiJoUa, vie, until a dense 

 forest is formed through which the west wind cannot penetrate, the 

 consequence of which, in the course of time, is a dune, which in 

 turn finally engulfs and kills the forest that had caused it." The 

 forest which is being destroyed consists of the red cedar, Juniperus 

 virginiana L., holly, Ilex opaca Ait., black gum, Nyssa sylvatica 

 Marsh, wild cherry, Prunus serotina'Ehvh., Quercus lyrata Walt., 

 hackberry, Celtis occidentalis L., willow oak, Quercus phellos L., 

 swamp maple, Acer ruhrum L., persimmon, Diospyros virginiana 

 L., pitch pine, Pinus rigida Mill., red mulberry, Morm rubra L., 

 while as lianes may be mentioned Parthenocissus (Ampelopsis) 

 quinquefolia (L. ) Planch., Vitis lahrusca L., Viti'i aestivalis 

 Michx., Tecoma radicans (L. ) D.C., which reminds one of the 

 dunes of the seashore of eastern Virginia, where the trumpet 



* A thor<m,^hfare is a waterway or channel from one bay to another 

 along the New Jersey coast. 



^GiFFORD, Annual liep. State Geologist of New Jersey, 185)9, "Report 

 on Forests," p. 251. 



