54 
MUSEUM BULLETIN NO. 2. 
Re-curved, Hooked Spits, Dipping Beneath Lagoons . — In his 
description of Portage and Fox islands, already referred to, 
Professor Ganong shows that they are detached remnants of 
long, re-curved hooks, now being cut away at one end, and 
built forward at the other. “Portage island is composed of a 
series of approximately concentric, low dune beaches with 
intermediate shallow hollows, a series of sand swells or 
billows. . . . Near its northern end the beaches, bearing 
the oldest woods, are parallel with the axis of the island, and 
here they are being cut aw'ay, together with the covering woods, 
by the sea. Farther south these same beaches curve around 
to the westward and finally sink gradually beneath the waves 
of the Inner bay, their summits projecting as points, while 
their intermediate hollows form coves of salt marsh. These 
beach lines, as may be seen at many points, form only 
above the reach of the highest tides, and their gradual disappear- 
ance beneath the waters of the Inner bay forms one of the very 
best evidences we possess of progressive subsidence in this 
region, evidence still further strengthened by the occurrence 
near the north end of the island, of peat in situ on the beach 
below high water mark .” 1 
Contrary to this statement, it may be pointed out that the 
hooked terminations of long sand spits are commonly inferior 
in height to the Crestline of a main storm beach, whether the 
latter is covered with dune sand or not. On such a hook, the 
crest of the beach always descends to sea-level and extends out 
under water. This is due in part to the decreasing supply of 
sand towards the end of the hook and in part to the fact that 
the storm waves around the bend of the hook are weaker than 
on the fully exposed straight beach which faces the sea, and 
so do not cast beach material up so high. In this case of Portage 
island, therefore, there is nothing abnormal about the dipping 
of the extremities of the hooks beneath the surface of the 
sheltered lagoon. Not only is this feature seen on hooked 
spits of the Atlantic coast generally, but it occurs on hooked 
spits in such lakes as Lake Michigan, where no subsidence of 
the coast has taken place during the period of construction of 
l Op. cit., p. 2. 
