ALLUVIAL DIVISION. 
21 
The high grounds near the two light-houses on Staten Island are wearing away by the 
action of the waves, and the materials are mostly deposited on the adjacent beaches, which 
extend for a considerable distance west of Fort Tompkins, and east and west of the southwest 
light-house. The high bank near Brown’s point, on Staten Island, is also washing away. 
Here a bank of shells about two feet thick is exposed, within eight or ten inches of the natu¬ 
ral surface of the ground. They appear to be recent shells, deposited there, not by nature, ' 
but by the hands of the aborigines of the country. The evidences are, they are all edible 
species, the opposite valves of bivalve shells are scarcely ever found together, and the locali¬ 
ties of these shell banks are such as would naturally be selected for camping grounds and 
villages by such people as derived a large share of their food from the adjoining waters. 
Hog island, as it has been called, or Middle island, the name given by the coast surveyors, 
is gradually wearing away in many places by the action of the waves during storms and high 
tides ; but the north-northeast and northwest parts are exposed to the waves of Long Island 
sound, and are wearing away more rapidly. The materials of which this peninsula, as well as 
nearly the whole of Long Island, is composed, is a series of beds of sand, gravel, loam and 
clay. Boulders and erratic blocks occur in one of the beds in great numbers ; and as the surf 
undermines the cliffs, they tumble down, and all the finer materials are swept away by the tidal 
currents, and the oblique action of the surf on the shore. The headlands, generally, of the 
north shore of Queens county, are washing away. The blocks of rock which were once im¬ 
bedded in the loose soil of the island are seen on the beach, extending out far beyond low water 
mark. 
At Oak neck. Fox island and Martinecock, as well as at Middle island, the boulders extend 
far out at low water, and demonstrate the encroachment of the sea on the land. Middle island 
and Oak neck are parts of a peninsula which lies between Oyster bay and Long Island sound. 
They were once islands, but have been connected with each other and with Long Island, by 
beaches formed of detrital matter, swept from the headlands of Middle island and of Oak 
neck. Extensive salt marshes are forming under the protection of these beaches, and are 
materially increased by the sand drifted from them. These beaches are observed to vary in 
form and magnitude, being sometimes increased or diminished in particular parts by the effects 
of a single storm. Fox island, so called, was once an island, but it is now connected with 
Oak neck and Long Island on the east by a long beach. A long sand spit of a mile and a 
half in length, extends to near Peacock’s, where it is cut off by an inlet, which communicates 
with the extensive marsh between Fox island and Long Island. This beach and spit are de¬ 
rived from the materials washed from Fox island and Oak neck. 
Peacock’s point is also washing away. Stumps and logs of wood are seen below low water 
mark. Martinecock point, a mile or more west of Peacock’s, must have washed away 
rapidly. A long point of boulders and blocks stretches far out into the sound at ebb tide. 
This was once an island, which is also connected with Peacock’s by a long sand beach. Ano¬ 
ther ancient island, now connected with Long Island on the southwest by a beach, is very 
near Martinecock on the west. These two islands and beaches enclose a large pond, the inlet 
