20 Geological Reports on the State of Neio YorTc. 



this amount. Nearly one half the matter coming from the degradation 

 of the land, is supposed to be swept coastwise in a westerly direction. 



"There are many evidences that the east end of Long Island was once 

 much larger than at present, and it is thought probable that it may have 

 been connected with Block Island, which lies in the direction of the pro- 

 longation of Long Island. From Culloden Point, a reef of loose blocks 

 of rocks projects similar to those points on Hog Island, Oak Neck, &lc. 

 w^here they are known to result from the degradation of the land. Jones' 

 Reef, N. W. of Montauk Point, is similar, and Shagwam Reef, a little 

 farther west, projects three miles from the shore. It is ascertained that 

 black fish (Labrus tautoga — Mitchill) are rarely found except about a 

 rocky bottom. It is also known that such a bottom of loose blocks of 

 rock is found wherever the natural soil of Long Island and the adjacent 

 islands, has been washed away by the sea. These facts, with the well 

 known extensive fishing grounds for black fish around Montauk Point, 

 and particularly on the south shore, and between Montauk Point and 

 Block Island, give much probability to the idea, that a great extent of 

 land has been washed away by the sea. 



"Even if these evidences were insufficient, the present rapid degrada- 

 tion of the coast in that vicinity, the constant transportation of matter 

 westward upon the Great Beach, and the extent of this beach, (more than 

 100 miles long, with a breadth of 100 to 1,000 yards,) which is the result 

 of this action, would by most minds be deemed conclusive." 



Erratic Blocks. 



They are the only wall and building stones on Long Island 

 and the contiguous islands, with the exception of a small tract of 

 gneiss in a place near Hurlgate. The boulders of Long Island 

 are rarely found south of the hills, but on the north side are found 

 both imbedded and on the surface. Many of them weigh 50 

 tons or more ; the fragments of Kidd's rock weigh 2,000 tons or 

 more ; a rock called Millstone near Plandome was estimated at 

 1,800 tons. Limestone blocks weighing from 1 to 5 tons, near 

 Sands' Point, are exactly like the limestone of Barnegat, on the 

 Hudson, in Dutchess county many miles to the N. W. 



On Staten Island a boulder, filled with fossil shells, was dug 

 from a well ; it resembled the limestone of Buroft's mountain, near 

 Hudson. A similar boulder from another well in the same isl- 

 and, was like the limestone of the Helderberg, west of Albany. 

 It appears, then, that the boulders came from the W. and N. W. 

 and some of them hundreds of miles. 



