TO TIE A ROPE OF SAND. 251 



destroyed. First, a breakwater or dike is constructed — occasion- 

 ally a mere plank fence — against which the sand from the beach 

 soon forms long rows of dunes. These sand-hills, usually the ene- 

 mies of the land, being thus hindered from drifting inland, are 

 impressed into the service of the land, and become its coast-guard 

 against the invading waves. The second step is to plant them 

 with beach grass, or some other sand-loving plant, to bind the 

 sand together, and, by the succession of growth and decay, finally 

 to form a soil. 



"We are accustomed to regard sand as utterly barren, but the 

 plants native to the coast sands of Prussia have been enumerated 

 by naturalists, whose estimates vary from 171 to 231 varieties. Of 

 these one of the most available is the Arundo arenaria (marram), 

 which thrives only in sand and in the salt air of the beach. This 

 in time serves to prepare the soil for larger plants. 



In France 100,000 acres of dunes have been reclaimed by plant- 

 ing. In that country the maritime pine (Pinus maritima) has 

 been planted with great success. It does not, however, thrive 

 close to the sea. The ailantus, a tree common enough in our 

 land, and certainly sufficiently tenacious of life in our streets and 

 fields, is a sand-loving tree. I have seen an abandoned cellar 

 choked with healthy ailantus trees, and have known them to 

 spring up from the root after being cut down and rubbed with 

 salt ! It is probable, then, that if it will grow on the beach it will 

 hold its own against the ocean or any other enemy. 



Finally, forests, and even vineyards and pastures, cover the 

 space once resigned to the barren sand. " Every seed that sprouts 

 binds together a certain amount of sand by its roots, shades a little 

 ground with its leaves, and furnishes food and shelter for still 

 younger or smaller growths. A succession of a very few favor- 

 able seasons suffices to bind the whole surface together with a 

 vegetable network, and the power of resistance possessed by the 

 dunes themselves, and the protection they afford to the fields be- 

 hind them, are just in proportion to the abundance and density of 

 the plants they support/' — Marsh. 



To return to our own country : It is said that the dunes of 

 Michigan thirty years ago were clothed with trees, where now the 

 sands are constantly shifting, and the lake beach changing with 

 the action of wave and wind, while the lake level grows lower year 

 by year. The sands of Cape Cod were formerly covered with 

 beach grass, whortleberry bushes, and a peculiar species of dwarf 

 oak. Dr. Dwight, in his Travels, speaking of a beach in Massa- 

 chusetts, says : 



" Within the memory of my informant the sea broke over the 

 beach which connects Truro with Provincetown, and swept the 

 body of it away for some distance. The beach grass was immedi- 



