FORM OF NANTASKFT BEACH 173 



berry Hill to the eastern end of White Head, and on which the County 

 Road is located for much of the distance between the two hills. Both 

 east and west of the County Road Beach are some fairly well-marked 

 beaches, more or less obscured by sand dunes, especially toward the 

 east. Two of the older beaches between White Head and Sagamore 

 Head are especially prominent, and are practically straight. Both 

 north and south of Strawberry Hill the beaches in the central areas, 

 midw^ay between the drumlin hills, are often so low and indistinct as 

 to be nearly or quite imperceptible. In places the detection of the 

 beaches is made easier by a difference in the grass and other vegetation 

 growing on the beach ridges and in the intervening depressions. 



THE INITIAL FORM 



In our attempt to reconstruct the initial form of Nantasket Beach, 

 we have appealed to three sources for information: (i) Some of the 

 older inhabitants who recall the appearance of the beach in earlier 

 days; (2) Old maps and charts of the region; (3) The principles of 

 shoreline development applied to the interpretation of the present 

 forms. 



Shoreline changes take place with comparative rapidity, and in 

 some cases a man may live to see profound alterations in the outline 

 of the coast on which he lives. Some residents of Nantasket speak 

 of a time when the sea used to come in to the present location of the 

 County Road. It must be remembered, however, that people are 

 apt to be impressed by the unusual, and that some long-past trans- 

 gression of exceptional storm waves far across the present beach may 

 be responsible for the impression that the sea is now farther removed 

 from the road than it was fifty years ago. As late as 1898, during 

 the "Portland Storm," breakers crossed the railroad track, which is 

 well back from the present beach. In regard to the former location 

 and general appearance of the remnant of Skull Head drumlin, now 

 completely lost, the descriptions of the older inhabitants agree fairly 

 well, and are corroborated by the physiographic evidence. 



The old maps and charts of the region afford some e^•idence as to 

 the general outline of the beach in earlier years, but prove to be too 

 inaccurate to justify any conclusions as to recent changes in outline. 

 A chart prepared by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 



