232 
Psyche 
[Aug.-Oct. 
evidently occurred in Quarternary time.” Once above water, 
the particles of sand are carried by the wind and meeting some 
obstacle out of reach of the tide, are in time built up into dunes 
or sand hills. After the primary beaches are formed, various 
agencies combine to change their original extent. “On one side 
they might be worn away by storms and tidal currents, on 
another added to by the same agencies and finally they might 
be greatly extended in course of time by the action of currents 
running in a constant direction along their shores and depositing 
sediment at one of their extremeties, as happens now at the point 
of Sandy Hook, and the south ends of most of the beaches at the 
inlets.’ ’ 
The beach islands consist of fine white sand which is mobile 
in places. Dried by the sun and wind, the sand is blown inward 
or oceanward. The prevailing winds blow toward the ocean and 
as the sand dries it is blown into the water to be hurled back 
again by the waves. If the wind is from the ocean for some time, 
sand hills are formed. Small obstacles sufficient to lessen the 
force of the wind may serve as the starting point of a dune. 
Such dunes may form and reform with every action of the wind. 
At Seaside Park, the shifting was quite pronounced and the 
contour of the line of dunes next to the ocean changed frequently. 
Behind the ocean line of dunes, the shapes of the smaller 
dunes changed infrequently or not at all. Where vegetation 
occurs on the beaches such plants catch and hold the sand and 
dunes are formed rapidly. The beaches vary in width from a 
few rods to a half-mile and in elevation average only a few feet 
above high tide. The dunes formed by winds and tides generally 
reach a height of from fifteen to twenty-five feet. 
The Surveyed Area. 
The surveyed area consists of about ten acres in the form 
of a strip running from the Atlantic Ocean to Barnegat Bay, 
across Island Beach at a point about one mile below Seaside 
Park, and just above the Island Beach Life Saving Station. 
The exact location is indicated on the accompanying map. 
Temperature and moisture records were not kept, but climatolo- 
