Siialer.] 224 [March 2, 



less of this barrier reef, until, as before remarked, the coast returns 

 to the ordinary type of a low wasting shore. Continuing southward 

 beyond this monotonous coast we find, at about twenty miles north of 

 Cape Eoman, the beginning of a new type of coast. Instead of barrier 

 reef, with a considerable expanse of open water between it and the 

 shore, the coast begins to be penetrated with long tide water creeks 

 which cut up the shore region in an irregular manner. From Cape 

 Roman to Charleston this character becomes more and more pro- 

 nounced. From Charleston southwards as far as the mouth of the 

 St. Johns River, in Florida, a distance of nearly two hundred miles, 

 the coast for a depth of from five to twenty miles is intersected by 

 these arms of the sea to such an extent that at many points the islands 

 form two or three successive tiers. These tide water channels are to 

 be counted by thousands, and vary from a few feet wide to sounds like 

 the Broad River at Port Royal, which has a width of two or three 

 miles. The general appearance of such a shore is not unlike what is 

 seen on the northern part of the coast of this Continent within the 

 limits of what has been termed the fiord zone. The complication of out- 

 line along the Carolina and Georgia sea border quite equals any thing 

 which can be found on the shore of Maine or Labrador. A careful 

 comparison of the details of the topography of any region in the 

 fiord zone with what we find on this southern coast will show some 

 essential differences. The maps of the Coast Survey for the island 

 region of Maine, if compared with those of the sea islands, show the 

 features in question very clearly, and the reader is referred to them 

 for the character of the topography of these areas, if he has not had 

 an opportunity of studying it in the field. The most important of 

 these differences is that the main channels of the fiord regions always 

 run perpendicular to the shore, while in the sea islands the channels 

 approximately parallel to the coast are more numerous than those 

 which are perpendicular to it. It is evident that no such scouring 

 as is brought about by glacial streams could have excavated the tor- 

 tuous channels of the sea island region, for to have produced such 

 water ways the ice currents would have had to move parallel to the 

 shore; which is clearly impossible. 



It is by no means easy to understand just how this peculiar com- 

 plication of the shore has been produced, but there are some fea- 

 tures in its structure which seem to throw a little light upon the 

 question. Throughout the sea island region the attentive observer 

 may see that the surface of the ground is disposed in long, wave-like 



