Abbe.l 492 [MaidW), 
evenly graded course along whieh it is able to maintain a s))ee<l 
sufficient to cany its load. In this respect the seaward slope and 
the shorewise contours of an evenly contoured coast may be 
likened to the graded course of a river-bed that has been built by 
the river to such a slope or grade that the given volume of water 
flowing over it can just carry its given load to the lake or sea 
into which it empties. 
When the waves and currents have built up the bars so that 
they are laid bare at low water and can dry off on the surface, 
then the winds begin to heap the sand into dunes or blow it 
across into the shoal waters of the lagoons. The winds also 
carry a small portion of the dune sand into the sea. Thus the 
bars, showing above water as beaches continuing the line of the 
cliff-fronts, show us the line of maximum activity of the marine 
forces, whose motion is, 07i the whole, landward. 
Behind the beaches the shallow, quiet lagoons of imprisoned 
waters are continually receiving the detritus brought down by the 
rivers, and also the sand that is blown inland from the beaches. 
The lagoons, then, would soon become completely filled were it 
not that the constant ebb and flow of the tides has kept open 
inlets through the beaches and thus maintains channels in the 
lagoons behind. The constant tidal current through these inlets 
serves to interrupt the progress of the long shore currents, and 
these, being deflected in or out, deposit theu- load of sands in the 
form of tidal deltas both inside and outside the opening of the 
inlet. Over these deltas the sands wander in shifting paths until 
they finally reach the further side of the inlet and again continue 
their coastwise travelling. 
On the whole, we may say that the sea is constantly working 
to even off the coast-line, cutting in and forming cliffs on the 
headlands, and strewing the waste thus formed beyond the cliffs 
in confluently curving beaches or bars that straighten out as the 
cliffs are cut back. Such being the usual development of a 
"cliff and bar" coast we are now to seek some explanation for 
the al)errant type found along the Carolina coast. (See fig. 2.) 
The most striking feature 'of the beaches on the Carolina coast 
is that they meet in cuspate points forming the three Capes, 
Hatteras, Lookout, and Fear, while Cape Romain faintly 
