44 REV. GEORGE PATTEESON 



For some time after the formation of the government establishment on the island this 

 lake was fifteen miles long, and, though gradually becoming shoal from the material drift- 

 ing into it, it atibrded a very convenient means of transport by lioat. The residents largely 

 used it in conveying supplies to the east end, in bringing wood from the same quarter, and 

 wrecked materials to the main station. But during the winter of 1881 a severe gale opened 

 a gulch near the east end, which has so drained it that it is now only eight miles long, and 

 so shallow as to be useless for transport. 



The destructive agency of the sea appears farther in the ridge which separates the lake 

 from the sea on the south. Originally it was half a mile wide, with hills upwards of fifty 

 feet in height, now it is a narrow beach in some places not more than a hundred yards wide 

 and so reduced in height that the sea breaks over it in stormy weather. Should this 

 barrier be removed, the work of demolition will go on more rapidly- than ever. 



But the sea is not the only agency that is producing changes on the surface of this 

 island. At ordinary times a brisk west wind is almost as constant as the trade winds, 

 wliich must be continually shifting the particles of sand eastward. This may account to a 

 large extent for the diminished height of the island. The first superintendent, soon after 

 his arrival in 1801, estimated one hill at the east end to be two hundred feet high, and 

 others one hundred and fifty feet, but there is now none over eighty. While this regular 

 process is going on, there is a more irregular but violent action, often more noticeable, by 

 the storms. At one place they will scoop out the loose sand, when not confined by the 

 roots of the grass, into bowl-like hollows, wdiich afterward form those fresh-water ponds so 

 frequent. Hence it requires great vigilance at the stations to guard against any breach in 

 the sod and repair it in time, otherwise the foundations of the buildings would be overturned. 

 Again, they will heap the sand in hummocks, and at another remove them entirely ; while 

 again they will spread a covering of sand over a large part of the land in the interior. In 

 such a storm, in 1816, hills that had formed landmarks were carried into the ocean, and as 

 high elevations formed in other places. Thousands of tons of sand were carried from both 

 sides into tlie interior, so covering the mowing-grounds connected with the establisliment as 

 to threaten the loss of their stock. In other parts of the island such was the destruction of 

 vegetation that multitudes of horses perished for want of food. Recent wrecks disappeared, 

 and others, entirely unknown, were brought to view. 



But still, with the prevailing winds, the eastward motion must be important, and it is 

 supposed that the whole island has been moving in that direction, and thus might be carried 

 over the edge of the bank, unless, as is supposed liy some, the whole bank is moving east- 

 ward. In this way they would account for the difference of longitude of the island in 

 ancient charts and as determined by modern surveys. While there must be this movement 

 eastward, it is not enough to account for the whole changes described, and the facts abund- 

 ■ antly show a wasting of the island and the submergence of its materials. 



Wliile such changes are going on upon the island, similar processes are going on amid 

 the shoals and bars which surround it, though, from their Ijeing submerged, it is more 

 difficult to trace them. But an eastward movement is ajiparent. C^apt. Darby, writing in 

 1832, says that he had known the island for twenty-eight years, that during that time the 

 west end had decreased seven miles, but the outer breakers of the northwest bar bad the 

 same bearings from the west point. 



