352 Siihsldence along the Sea-coast of New Jersey, 



h 



The first settlement in Cape May county was made at this spot, 

 but the site of the buildings, and a grave yard which was back 

 of them have been entirely worn away* The light house at the 

 Cape has been moved inland considerably, on account of the 

 wearing away of the shore. At Cape Island about the year 

 1780, what is now the bathing ground and on the ocean shore, 

 was a mile inland, and the space between the houses and the 

 shore was cultivated ground. Poverty Beach, now a short sand 

 bank, was then Four mile Beach and extended from Cold Spring 



Inlet to the point of Cape May. 



The beaches farther up the shore which are*exposed to the 

 direct action of the sea wear away rapidly, and where they are 

 narrow and not covered with timber they drift in towards the 

 land. In some cases they have moved in their entire breadth 

 and now rest on the salt marsh which formerly was behind or to 

 the west of them. This wear is common along the whole of the 

 Jersey shore. Capt. J. W. Herbert a very intelligent wreck mas- 

 ter at Keyport has a number of marks on the beaches set to de- 

 termine the location of sunken vessels, and from these he is able ■ 

 to measure the wear from year to year, and the average which 

 he deduces from these is not less than twelve feet a year along 

 the whole shore. He verifies these measurements further hj 

 the position of the vessels themselves; some of them were buried 

 in sand in the bar Avhich is outside of the shore and parallel 

 with it, and others were inside of this. After a few years these 

 vessels are found outside of the bar, in deep water and clear of 

 sand; the shore has worn away and the bar has followed it m.^ 



At Long Branch, which is hard upland, the wear is very seri- 

 ous. The spot where the first boarding house was located, 

 thirty years since, together with the road which ran behind it, is 

 now all worn away, and the shore line is to the west of it. The 

 wear is irregular ; last year it was from twelve to twenty feet. 

 Along the shore of Sandy Hook and Karitan Bays the wearis 

 equally rapid. At the Highlands enormous slides have been the* 

 result of this wear. At Union the washing away has averaged 

 three or four feet a year for three years past. At the mouth ot 

 Chcesequakes the channel is now where there were cultivated 

 fields sixty or seventy years ago. The elm tree, formerly a 

 prominent land-mark on the south shore of Staten Island, is 

 one and it is said the water is of some depth where it stood. 



n Long Island the wear of the beaches is not so uniform, but 

 is perceptible. On the east end of the Island the wear is verr 

 great and has attracted attention ever since the first settlement ot 

 the country, for details of which reference may be made to 

 Mather's Geol. Eep. in Nat. Hist, of New York. ^ ^ 



In regard to the rate at which this snhsidence is going on^ I 

 may state a few facte. On Oldman's Creek is a tide meadow 



