DKIFT DIVISION. 
173 
A point of loose blocks and boulders may be seen at low water, three quarters of a mile 
east of Fox island, in Oysterbay township, the remains of higher land that has been washed 
away. The beach extends back of it, and a narrow neck of the upland that once commu¬ 
nicated with it extends back from the beach. A marsh and sand beach connect this neck 
with Oak neck, which was once an island ; an extension of the same beach unites the latter 
with Hog island, or Middle island, as it is now called. Oak neck is washing away, the ma¬ 
terials being swept eastward or westward, according to the direction of the waves and shore 
currents. A belt of boulders and blocks extends seaward, that may be seen at ebb tide. On 
the north shore of the Middle island, at and near Rocky point, the cliffs of drift are high; 
and as it is washing away, great numbers of blocks and boulders line the beach, and extend 
seaward from one quarter to half a mile. These may be seen at low tides. The same re¬ 
marks may be made of Martinecock point, where boulders also extend some distance seaward. 
Granite, gneiss and hornblendic gneiss were the principal rocks seen among the boulders 
and blocks of the north coast of Oysterbay township ; but on the north shore of Oak neck, 
blocks of granite with yellow feldspar (almost lemon yellow) were observed. I have never 
seen such granite as this in place, and its peculiarity may aid in tracing the blocks to their 
original locality, probably in Connecticut or Westchester county. 
Blocks and boulders extend out also at Kidd’s point. Sand’s point,* Barker’s point, Hewlet’s 
point, the Stepping Stones, and generally along the projecting parts of the northwest coast of 
North-Hempstead, on all of which the shore is wasting away more or less rapidly.t Kidd’s 
rock has long protected the shore at this point (Kidd’s point) while the shore on each side 
has been more rapidly removed, forming receding curves on the coast; but the earth is so 
much removed around this mass of rocks, (the waves rushing among its fragments and remov¬ 
ing matter at every tide,) that it cannot be many years before it will disappear beneath the 
water, as the other rock has done that was also called Kidd’s rock.t The erratic block, now 
cracked into fragments, and called Kidd’s rock, is a group of huge blocks of hornblendic 
gneiss, some of which will weigh several hundred tons. Epidote is found in many of its fis¬ 
sures. It is very similar in its mineralogical characters to some of the hornblendic gneiss of 
the Highlands about West-Point and Bull hill, and also a part of Westchester county. 
The surfaee of the north part of North-Hempstead generally, where it is not covered with 
alluvial or quaternary deposits, exposes great numbers of boulders and blocks, varying in size 
from a few pounds to several hundred tons weight. 
* At Sand’s point, granite, gneiss and hornblendic gneiss were the most common rocks constituting the boulders ; but a few of 
trap, of red sandstone, and of white granular limestone were observed. A single boulder also occurred of white quartz pebbles, 
cemented by iron pyrites. It was greenish and reddish on the exterior, in consequence of the partial decomposition of the py¬ 
rites. 1 have never seen rock precisely similar to this, but in one locality, in situ, and that is on the Shawangunk mountains in 
Ulster, where the pebbles of one of the strata of the Shawangunk grit rock are cemented by pyrites. A specimen, now covered 
with a down of acioular crystals of sulphate of iron, from this boulder, may be seen in the case containing the boulders of Long 
island in the State Museum at Albany. Boulders of the same were found in Orange county. 
t Vide Encroachments of the Sea, pp. 22 and 23 of this volume, where this erratic block is described. 
t Vide Plate 2, fig. 1. 
