28 
GEOLOGY OF THE FIRST DISTRICT. 
headlands by marine currents, and the oblique action of the surf, have already been mentioned. 
Other beaches, but not so extensive, occur on the north coast of Queens county. 
Sand-spits are unfinished beaches, and long tongues or points of land, formed of sand and 
shingle, by the transporting action of currents and the -waves. 
In Coldspring harbor, a sand-spit extends from the west shore, obliquely, nearly across. 
It is formed by the northeast storms driving in a heavy swell, which washes away the high 
banks at the south point of land between Coldspring harbor and the entrance to Oyster bay. 
The materials are transported by the currents and waves, and deposited to form this spit. 
A similar spit has formed nearly across Hempstead harbor, about three miles south of the 
mouth of the bay, and two miles north of the village of Montrose at the head of the bay. It 
extends from the west shore, in an easterly direction, nearly across the harbor, leaving a 
deep inlet of one hundred to one hundred and fifty yards wide next to tae eastern shore. It 
is owing to the same cause as the spit at Coldspring. This spit is probably a thousand yards 
in length, but is not materially affected by storms. The detrital matter tow swept coastwise, 
is carried through the inlet, and deposited in the inner harbor. Two large shoals have thus 
been formed, and it is said they are evidently becoming shallower every year, and at no dis¬ 
tant time will form a considerable addition to the land. A small spit extends from the eastern 
shore, a short distance north of the east end of the large one. Another spit, which extends, 
on the west side of the bay, from the high bank on the west side of the harbor towards Kidd’s 
point, is separated from this point only by an inlet of thirty or forty yards, through which the 
tide flows into the marsh behind Kidd’s island. It is formed from the letrital matter, both of 
this bank and of Kidd’s point. 
A spit of some hundred yards in length extends from the north, parly across the mouth of 
Plandome bay. It is derived from the detritus of some high banks in the bay, and Barker’s 
point on the north. 
There are beaches and spits on the south side of Staten Island, but of no great extent or 
importance. The beach extending southwest from Fort Hudson, and that opposite the Great 
kills, are the most extensive. 
The beaches and spits we have been considering are trifling in extent and importance, when 
compared with the Great South beach of Long Island. This is a line of alluvial sand and 
shingle, extending from Nepeague in Easthampton, to the mouth of lilew-York bay, a distance 
of one hundred and four miles, and having a direction of about vest-southwest. It is not 
continuous, but is divided by inlets communicating with the bays vhich are situated between 
this and Long Island, and through these inlets the tide ebbs anl flows. At Quogue and 
several places east of this. Long Island communicates with the beach, either by marshes or 
by the upland ; but westward for about seventy miles, a continuoas line of bays, from half a 
mile to six miles broad, extends uninterruptedly, and separates tbe beach entirely from Long 
Island. This great beach is a line of spits and islands. One of the islands is about twenty- 
five miles long, with a breadth of a few hundred yards. They are all narrow and long; and 
when above the reach of the surf, they are covered by a labynrinth of hillocks of drifted sand, 
imitating almost all the variety of form which snow-drifts present after a storm. 
