SURFSIDE 515 



To the east of the Life Saving station is a region where the island has 

 been rapidly cut awa}' in the past twenty years. The railroad in front 

 of the old Surfside hotel was moved back several times before it was 

 finally removed to the center of the island. Several hundred feet have 

 been cut away to the east of the Life Saving station during the time that 

 this foreland has been built southward some 1,200 feet in front of the 

 old shoreline. This foreland is built at the point where the water breaks 

 over what is known as Miacomet rip. Just why the rip should occur at 

 this point and why the foreland should have been built out during the 

 last forty years is a question of much interest in the study of the devel- 

 opment of the island. 



Before it is possible to attempt an explanation of the formation of 

 Miacomet foreland it is necessary to gather as much information as pos- 

 sible as to the building of the foreland itself and as to the changes in 

 position of the shoreline. During the summer of 1903 there have been 

 several minor advances and retreats of the shoreline between the points 

 A and K. At certain times the waves cut into the sand, leaving a well 

 marked cliffand often two weeks later this cliff would have been replaced 

 by the crescentic sand forms of aggradation. 



From the accounts of old sea captains on the island it appears that 

 some forty years ago it was possible to draw dories up on the sand at 

 the foot of the Green dune (G). This would indicate that the 1,200 feet 

 of sand had been built out within forty years. It is possible that there 

 might have been some sand built as a foreland west of the point (G) in 

 1860. 



The total length of this foreland along the shore is between 5,000 and 

 6,000 feet, and although at many places there are ridges of dunes which 

 probably indicate former shorelines, there is no symmetrical series of 

 such ridges, such as is shown in Dars foreland in Germany and the 

 Canaveral foreland, Florida. The wind apparently shifts these dunes 

 very considerably during the winter storms. It is probable that the 

 shore ridges which were formed have been almost completely obliterated 

 between the present shoreline and the shoreline extending from the life- 

 saving station past the Green dune to station (D). 



Maddaket 



Some 6 miles west of the Miacomet foreland is a region where there 

 has been pronounced cutting back in the shoreline within the last few 

 years. The Life Saving station at this point gives the measure of this 

 cutting back from 1889 to 1903. The shoreline at this point has been 

 cut back 250 feet from 1889 to 1903, a period of fourteen years. This is 



LXVI— Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 15, 1903 



