84 
[AsiBMBLY 
The sand-dunes along the shore are so prominent as to mark the 
line of coast in many places, when seen at the distance of several 
miles, presenting a very broken, undulating or serrated outline of 
white hillocks, from ten to forty feet high. On almost all the 
beaches are hillocks of drift sand, and in many places the high 
bluffs on the north coast are capped with them. Jacob's hill, north- 
west of Mattituck, was once much higher than Cooper's hill east 
of it; but the sand has blown off, so that it is now much lower at 
the former place. Some arable land has been covered over, and 
red cedar trees have been buried by the drift sand. The grounds 
occupied by the dunes are exceedingly irregular in form; in some 
places covered with small round-backed hills, with deep, irregular 
or bowl-shaped valleys, formed by the wind scooping the sand out, 
where it is not confined by the roots of the scanty vegetation that 
gains a foothold in some places. The myrtle bush (Myrica ceri- 
fera), the red cedar (.Tuniperus Virginianus), the beach grass 
(Psamma arenaria), and a small creeping vine, are almost the only 
things that take root in these changing, arid sands. 
The south shore of Long Island, from Nepeague beach to South- 
ampton, is skirted with a line of sand-hills, presenting a very irre- 
gular broken appearance in the distance. Nepeague beach is co- 
vered for a considerable breadth with loose drifting sands, forming 
small hillocks of almost every variety of shape. The south beach 
of Long Island is almost entirely a line of hillocks, and is compo- 
sed of a chain of long narrow islands of sand, from one to five or 
six miles from the main island. 
The sand washed up by the surf, having dried on the beach, is 
borne inland by the wind, and piled up in heaps, and in some pla- 
ces, in consequence of the predominance of certain strong winds 
in one direction, they make a regular progressive movement, bury- 
ing farms, houses, cities, and even whole tracts of country. No 
effects of this kind were observed on Long Island, of sufficient mo- 
ment to affect the general value of farms, except in a few indivi- 
dual instances. 
Should such causes ever threaten the destruction of property, 
their effects may be arrested by the cultivation of some plants 
which vegetate only in the most barren sands; by this means, their 
roots will confine the sand, and prevent its drifting. This course is 
pursued in some parts of Europe with obvious advantage. 
