Abbe.] 490 [March 6, 
movement south wost ward, nor the liook-spif, form of Cape 
Lookout. 
Refi'i-riiin- to tliis liook-spit form, its o-rowtli may l)e described as 
follows : .V current liowiug in one direction is met by a cross 
current. Thus the spit the first current was building is made to 
turn when it meets the second current and grow in the direction 
of flow of the temporary or vacillating cross cm-rent. When 
this latter current loses a part of its strength the spit begins to 
grow forward again in its former direction, leaving the hook 
behind to mark a stage in its progress. Thus to explain the 
formation of the hook-spit on Cape Lookout we need another 
current flowing almost perpendicularly to the one flowing along 
the northeast shoi'e of the cape, and its direction must be land- 
wards. But Professor Shaler's explanation would seem to give 
us a current, crossing the southwesterly one to be sure, but 
flowing seaward instead of landward. 
P""inally, though Professor Shaler's explanation be found to 
give a series of cuspate capes on these shores, it seems to me more 
probable that if due to tidal currents, they would have the more 
blunted form seen in Cape Canaveral on the coast of Florida, 
rather than the form here considered where the southwestward 
moving current seems in each case to have l)uilt the beaches 
right across the curve of the succeeding Avestern shore ; just as 
if the one beach were now cutting right across part of the other 
beach. This seems hardly to be the result of two currents such 
as Professor Shaler describes. 
A satisfactory hypothesis must then account for the southwest- 
ward intention of the cuspate capes, the evidence of inflow at the 
hook, and the tendency of the capes to travel southwestward. 
It is therefore suggested that a set of back-set eddies (see fig. 1) 
is here produced by the northeastward-flowing Gulf Stream, and 
that these eddies, aided by waves from the prevaiUngly northeast 
and southeast storms of this area, have produced the cuspate 
capes which we have studied. The currents of the back-set 
eddies setting from northeast to southwest would serve to 
determine the general trend of movement and of cutting, and 
would also explain the cross currents that formed the hooked- 
spit of Cape Lookout. (See fig. 1.) 
