12 
AMERICAN GEOLOGY. 
indented. The coast of Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut 
is deeply gashed and serrated. The southern coast and shores 
are penetrated by deep bays. The Chesapeake and Delaware 
are two of the most important. The inshore sea, which has 
received the name of sound, is another feature of the coast 
which may properly claim attention. Long Island, Albemarle, 
and Palmico are the largest. These sounds have inlets which 
are liable to be closed by coast storms; or on the contrary, new 
inlets may be formed by the action of winds and waves upon a 
sandy barrier. For this reason, the sounds upon the coast of 
North Carolina vary much in the amount of their saline matter; 
for this reason, too, they undergo changes in their marine 
faunas. No fact, however, so conclusively proves the variable 
condition of the ground occupied by these sounds, as the fact 
that their bottoms are everywhere studded with the stumps of 
the common pines of the country. The grounds which may be 
selected for fishing, require the removal of these stumps by gun 
powder before a net can be drawn. At the first view it may 
be inferred that the bottoms of the sounds were dry land but 
very recently; but the stumps of pine, when immersed in water, 
are almost imperishable, lasting for centuries: still, geologic¬ 
ally speaking, the pines belong exclusively to the present, as 
they are evidently the same species of pines as those which 
now live upon the coast. 
The coast is protected by belts of sand, which in time sup¬ 
port a stunted vegetation, and admit of pasturage for mules, 
horses, and sheep. The horses which run wild upon those 
semi-deserts belong to the pony breed; but they are tough and 
hardy. They invariably refuse corn when first taken. The 
sand reefs and barrens are entirely due to the action of winds 
and waves. The sands are constantly accumulating along the 
coast line. Portions of wrecks, fish-spears, coins from wrecked 
vessels, wash upon the beach after due time. These facts illus¬ 
trate the action of the waves. This coast, by the incessant 
action of its waves, has traveled eastward two hundred miles 
since the Eocenic period. Cape Hatteras moves in advance of 
