ALLUVIAL DIVISION. 23 
continue to be washed away as heretofore, (and much expense would be necessary to prevent 
it,) a century or two would be sufficient to effect its entire removal. 
Kidd’s rock, as it is called, is a remarkable erratic block which was imbedded in the loam 
of the tertiary formation. It has been undermined by the action of the sea, and has slid down 
to the shore, and cracked in many large fragments. Viewing it from a little distance, one 
does not realize its magnitude ; but by climbing over and wandering among its fragments at 
low water, it seems to grow upon the imagination. Its fragments probably weigh at least two 
thousand tons, and several sloop loads of it have been shipped to New-York for building stone. 
It is hornblendic gneiss, and some of its masses abound in epidote. It is a durable stone, 
and will stand any exposure unchanged. 
Several companies of diggers for Kidd’s money have expended much time and labor at this 
place. Mr. Mason relates many amusing anecdotes relative to their mode of operating, and 
the ceremonies practised, some of which are sacrilegious. The superstitions connected with 
these gold hunters are a rarity of this enlightened age. I presume I speak within bounds 
when I remark, that in examining the geology of Long Island, I have seen many hundreds of 
excavations on the east side of the boulders and erratic blocks, where the gold hunters have 
dug for this pirate’s money. 
The rock called Kidd’s rock, at Kidd’s point, three quarters of a mile eastward of Sands’ 
point, is not the same that was known by that name a century ago. Mr. Mason informed 
me that Kidd’s rock was formerly the extremity of the point, but was long ago undermined 
by the waves. He remembers having seen it as an isolated rock, some distance from the 
shore, but it has since disappeared, and the rock on the present point is called by that name. 
Had the money diggers been aware of this fact, it might have spared them the labor of search¬ 
ing here. In some parts of Long Island, almost every boulder and block has had an excava¬ 
tion made by its side. 
Barker’s and Hewlet’s points have also been worn away by the action of the sea ; but the 
sound is here so narrow, that the destructive agency of the waves is not so great as at the 
localities before mentioned. 
Many other localities, where the same effects are in progress, on the west and southwest 
parts of Long Island, and on the north coast from Oyster-pond point to Mount Misery, might 
be mentioned; but they are less marked in their effects, because they are not so much exposed 
to the fury of the surf from broad sheets of water. 
