LOBECK, NEW YORK CITY, A PHYSIOGRAPHIC CENTER i ;, 



the early stages of youth along the coast of New England where wave 

 work has had but little effect, and the outline of the shore is extremely 

 irregular. The New Jersey coa'st also comes under this class as well as 

 under that of emergence, but the region is one of low relief and is made 

 up of non-resistant formations more readily influenced by wave action, 

 so that bars have been built across the . estuaries and a smooth, sinuous 

 outline has been attained, representing a further advance in the youthful 

 stage over that of New England. 



The activity of waves in cutting cliffs, destroying islands, tying islands 

 to each other or to the mainland by throwing up sand bars, the building 

 of cobblestone beaches and other features, finds splendid illustrations in 



Fig. 11. — Giant sand dunes on Cape Henry, Virginia, encroaching upon an evergreen 

 forest ichich borders the coast 



the eroded drumlins of the Boston Bay region and the tombolos of Nan- 

 tasket, Nahant, and other beaches. The shore of Lake Ontario likewise 

 exhibits the work of waves in cutting away drumlins. The construction 

 of spits by currents where waves are cutting against headlands may be 

 studied in the greatest detail in the compound recurved spits of Cape Cod 

 and Sandy Hook, or the simple recurved spit of Cape Henry, or the suc- 

 cessive offsetting spits of Fire Island, Oak Island, Jones Beach, Long 

 Beach, Eockaway, and Coney Island. 



Wind. — On all of our beaches the work of the wind in the building of 

 dunes is to be seen. Most noteworthy are the giant dunes of Cape Cod 

 and the great dunes of Cape Henry, now encroaching upon a forest (Fig. 

 11). The barrier beaches of Long Island and New Jersey are everywhere 

 covered with dunes rising ten to twenty feet above sea level. 



