No. 200.J 
133 
live observer would not estimate the loss of land there at less than this 
amount. Nearly one-half the matter coming from the degradation of the 
land is supposed to be swept coastwise in a westerly direction. 
There are many evidences that the east end of Long Island was once 
much larger than at present, and it is thought probable that it may have 
been connected with Block Island, which lies in the direction of the pro- 
longation of Long Island. From Culloden Point, a reef of loose blocks 
of rocks projects similar to those points on Hog Island, Oak Neck, &c. 
where they are known to result from the degradation of the land. 
Jones' Reef, N. W. of Montauk Point, is similar, and Shagwam Reef, 
a little farther west projects three miles from the shore. It is ascertained 
that black fish (Labrus tautogo — Mitchill) are rarely found except about 
a rocky bottom. It is also known that such a bottom of loose blocks 
of rock is found wherever the natural soil of Long Island and the adja- 
cent islands, has been washed away by the sea. These facts, with the 
well known extensive fishing grounds for black fish around Montauk 
Point, and particularly on the south shore, and between Montauk Point 
and Block Island, give much probability to the idea, that a great ex- 
tent of land has been washed away by the sea. 
Even if these evidences were insufficient, the present rapid degrada- 
tion of the coast in that vicinity, the constant transportation of matter 
westward upon the Great Beach, and the extent of this beach, (more 
than 100 miles long, with a breadth of 100 to 1,000 yards) which is 
the result of this action, would by most minds be deemed conclusive. 
Erratic Blocks. 
I employ this term, because it expresses that the materials constitu- 
ting the formation have been transported from their original position, 
and deposited in another, and because it avoids theoretical considera- 
tions, influenced by which, some would refer them to diluvial agency, 
and the epoch of the deluge, while others to the time of the tertiary de- 
posits, and others still to alluvial causes. 
The masses forming the erratic block group, and terrain de transport, 
are composed of blocks, boulders, pebbles, gravel, sand, loam and clay, 
which are formed of the broken up rocks reduced to various degrees of 
fineness, and transported to a distance from their original situation. The 
