404 • F. p. GULLIVER — CUSP ATE FORELANDS. 



mine forms which a weak current from the left prevailing for eleven 

 months of the year would not be able to efface. 



According to the third scheme, a current flows toward the land upon 

 one side of the foreland, while upon the other side a current flows toward 

 the sea. As has been pointed out, such an arrangement would result if 

 a dominant current alongshore were broken b}" projections of the land 

 into several eddies. 



Such a system of backset eddies has been suggested by Mr C. Abbe, Jr.,^ 

 as the cause of the three great Carolina cusps, capes Hatteras, Lookout, 

 and Fear. Such currents seem to be })roved by observations along the 

 shore. In the " Geological Survey of South Carolina for 1848 " Mr 

 Tuomey describes " an edd}^ current which washes the coast south- 



wardly>'t 



In Beaufort harbor, North Carolina, the shifting of the bar to the left 

 between 1854 and 1857 and between 1862 and 1864 was observed by the 

 Coast Survey. I 



Professor Shaler, in summing up the observations along the Atlantic 

 coast from Chesapeake Ixiy to Florida, says that the prevailing move- 

 ment of the sand is from north to south. § 



The writer has the very distinct remembrance of reading that coasting 

 vessels go south along the Carolina shore near the coast because they find 

 a southward-flowing current, but he is unable to refer to the statement 

 definitely. 



CONSEQUENCES OF THEORY. 



If a cuspate foreland were formed in tlie dead water l)etween two cur- 

 rents revolving in the same direction, the transportation of material 

 alongshore would he either from right to left or from left to riglit ; tliat is? 

 the dominant movement would Ije in one direction, though local storms, 

 winds, tides, or currents might carry materials for short distances in the 

 opposite direction. The geologic evidence from kind, size, rounding and 

 position of pebbles con'ii)osing the beach of the foreland wouUl doubtless 

 settle in the field the question of direction of transi)ortation. There are, 

 liowever, facts of geographic form whicli may be expected to restdt from 

 this arrangement of currents. These facts can be observed upon topo- 

 graphic maps, and from them we may infer the dynamic actions. The 

 three criteria of form from which we may infer the dominant current 

 alongshore are offset, overlap, and stream deflection. The three usually 



* Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. xxvi, 189.5, p. 169, and figure 1. 



fPage 190. 



X Appendix IG, 1857, p. 152 ; appendix 6, 18G4, p. 57. 



gGeol. Hist, of Harbors, Thirteenth Ann. Rep. U. S. Geol. Survey, 1891-'92, p. 128. 



