The distribution of soil organic matter of 2coastal forests at the Szehu and Houlong in the western coast of Taiwan was evaluated. The soil pH value (pH(subscript H2O)) in the surface layer was lower than that (pH(subscript H2O)) of the deeper layer, which was due to the abundance of fulvic and humic acids. The water-soluble organic matter, which had mainly accumulated in the surface layer, decreased sharply for soil layers deeper than 5cmin the soil profile. Soil properties at the study sites indicated the rapid decomposition of soil organic matter and lower adsorption of organic carbon by sandy soil, which caused relatively high eluviation in the soil profile. The consequence is that there is no accumulation of organic matter in the lower horizon of the pedon.