VOLUME LVI | NUMBER 6 
tHe 
BOTANICAL Giga 
DECEMBER 1913 
BOTANICAL PHENOMENA AND THE PROBLEM OF 
RECENT COASTAL SUBSIDENCE’! 
DOUGLAS WILSON JOHNSON 
: (WITH NINE FIGURES) 
Fifty-five years ago GrorcE H. Cook? published his important 
paper on the subsidence of the land along the coasts of New Jersey 
and Long Island, in which he cited much evidence to prove that 
these coasts were gradually sinking at a rate of more than half a 
meter per century. Before this time a number of writers had 
called attention to certain phenomena which seemed to them to 
indicate a progressive subsidence of the coast; and since the 
publication of Coox’s article, many reports upon this interesting 
subject have appeared. A few of these authors have argued in 
favor of the recent elevation of certain parts of the coast; a few 
others have maintained that the evidence of recent changes of level 
were not convincing; but by far the greater number have supported 
the theory of recent subsidence, and have described indications of 
a sinking of the land for almost all parts of the coast between 
Prince Edward Island and Florida. It is today generally accepted 
as a well established fact that the Atlantic coast of North America 
is gradually subsiding, at a rate which is variously estimated from 
20 to 75 cm. per century. 
* The substance of a portion of this paper formed 
the Annales de Géographie, May 1912, under the title 
de l’Amérique du Nord.” 
Cook, G. H., On a subsidence of the land on the seacoast of New Jersey and 
Long Island. Amer. Jour. Sci. IT. 24:341-354- 1857- 
449 
part of an article published in 
“Fixité de la céte Atlantique 


