located about 1,200 feet south of Absecon Inlet. This site has been sub- 

 ject to repeated erosion; the larger sand size at this profile may be 

 attributed to a lag deposit caused by erosion of the fine material or to 

 sand nourishment from a source in Absecon Inlet 5 years before sample set 

 A was collected (Everts, DeWall, and Czerniak, 1975). Absecon Inlet, in 

 the neighborhood of profile line 2, if offset 2,900 feet seaward, with 

 respect to the north side of the inlet. This offset is among the largest 

 seaward offsets found at 127 inlets on the Atlantic coast, and it may 

 affect the sand size in ways not yet understood. 



3. Size versus Elevation . 



The general southward decrease in size contains interesting variations 

 along the profiles (Figs. 16 and 17). Across the beach, size varies with 

 elevation, coarser landward on the coarsest beach and finer landward on 

 the two finer beaches. 



This trend of landward increase in size across beaches already coarser 

 than average, and landward decrease in size across relatively finer beaches 

 is also evident in data collected by Bascom (1951) from the Pacific coast. 

 Except for some data from Fort Ord and Seabright (with median diameters 

 of 1.47 and 1.74 phi (0.36 and 0.30 millimeter), respectively), Bascom's 

 data showed that beaches with median grain diameters of 2.40 to 1.51 phi 

 (0.19 to 0.35 millimeter) had sand which became finer going landward from 

 MSL, while coarser beaches with median grain diameters of 1.25 to 1.12 

 phi (0.42 to 0.46 millimeter) had sand which became coarser going landward 

 from MSL. Duane (1970, p. 15) studied beaches with average mean sizes 

 between 1.30 and 1.76 phi (0.41 and 0.30 millimeter), and found that the 

 sand on these beaches became finer from MSL. Although the grain size is 

 not the same in an absolute sense, these same trends are exhibited in 

 CERC's data. All west coast beaches studied by both Bascom and Duane 

 became coarser from berm to dune. 



The increase in size landward across Long Beach Island and across the 

 beaches studied by Bascom (1951) does not conform to the usual assumption 

 that the beach is a lag deposit containing a residue left after winnowing 

 by waves and currents (Friedman, 1967). This assumption requires that the 

 coarsest material on beaches should occur where the most wave and current 

 action is, presumably around MLW on the profile; whereas, these data suggest 

 an opposite relation on a significant fraction of open ocean beaches. 

 However, the observed data are consistent with winnowing of fine sand on 

 the subaerial beach by wind action. 



4. Size versus Month . 



The monthly distribution of sand sizes at the three localities is shown 

 in Figure 18. Here, as in the variation across the profile (Figs. 16 and 

 17), Atlantic City and Ludlam Island vary in the same way, and Long Beach 

 Island varies in the opposite sense. Figure 18 exhibits the correlation 

 among the three beaches for sample average versus month data (circles). 



44 



