Geological Reports on the State of New York. 17 



mond counties. Hog Island, as it has been called, or Middle Island, 

 the name given by the coast surveyors, is gradually wrearing away in 

 many places by the action of the waves during storms and high tides ; 

 but the N. N. E. and N. W. parts, are exposed to the waves of Long 

 Island Sound, and are wearing away more rapidly. The materials of 

 which this peninsula, as well as nearly the whole of Long Island, is com- 

 posed, is a series of beds of sand, gravel, loam, and clay. Boulders and 

 erratic blocks occur in one of the beds in great numbers, and as the surf 

 undermines the cliffs, they tumble down, and all the finer materials are 

 swept away by the tidal currents, and the oblique action of the surf on the 

 shore. The headlands, generally, of the north shore of Queens county, 

 are washing away. The blocks of rock which were once imbedded in 

 the loose soil of the island are seen on the beach, extending out far be- 

 yond low water mark." 



" Sands' Point, on which a lighthouse has been long built, was wash- 

 ing away so rapidly some years since, that it became necessary to protect 

 it by building a strong sea-wall along the shore. A reef of rocks, (the 

 remains of ancient lands,) extends out some distance from the. shore. 

 The wall has afforded a protection against the encroachment of the sea, 

 and about an acre of land has been added to that belonging to the United 

 States, in consequence of the alluvial action of the surf depositing the 

 sand and shingle in the eddy on the south side of the point. Mr. Mason, 

 the keeper of the lighthouse, communicated these facts, and many others 

 of much interest. The broad and extensive sand beach, south of Sands' 

 Point, a mile or more in length, was, since his remembrance, a salt 

 marsh, covered with grass. Mr. Mason is nearly eighty years of age. 

 The materials swept from Sands' Point and deposited on the edge of the 

 marsh, have been drifted and washed over its surface. 



" At and near Kidd's Rock, three quarters of a mile eastward of Sands' 

 Point, the wasting of the cliffs from the effects of the waves is very evi- 

 dent. The cliffs present mural escarpments towards the Sound, but the 

 hills slope down gradually on the other side towards the salt marsh. This 

 elevated land was formerly an island, but alluvial causes have formed a 

 salt marsh where the water was sheltered from the sea. The wasting of 

 the cliffs has caused the formation of long beaches, one connecting Kidd's 

 Point with Sands' Point, and the other connecting with the high grounds 

 S. E. of the marsh on the W. side of Hempstead Harbor. A small inlet 

 through the N. end of this beach allows the tide to communicate with 

 the marsh. Boulders and blocks are seen imbedded in the strata form- 

 ing the mural escarpments, and the shore below is also strewed with 

 them. They also extend some distance from the coast, indicating that a 

 considerable breadth of land has been washed away. The boulders pro- 

 tect the shore for a time, but the smaller ones and the shingle are gradu- 

 ally ground up by the action of the surf, and washed away, and during 



Vol. xxxvi. No. 1.— Jan.-April, 1839. 3 



