1904 | KEARNEY; PLANTS OF SEA BEACHES AND DUNES 425 
giving only 0.02 parts of matter soluble in water in 100 parts of 
soil, and remarks: ‘It is therefore erroneously that the soil of the 
dunes is often considered as strongly impregnated with lime and 
with sodium chlorid. This opinion is justified only in the case 
of the seaward slope of the line [of dunes] nearest the beach 
and for the little valleys that penetrate it; hither the wind con- 
stantly carries the spray from the waves and fragments of shells, 
which it piles up on the strand. But as one goes farther from the 
sea, one encounters no longer anything but pure sand; what sea 
salt is carried so far is quickly washed out; the débris of shells is 
disintegrated and dissolved by carbon dioxid; and the calcium 
carbonate, in turn, is carried away by rainwater. Thanks to 
the sandy character of the soil, this filters rapidly downward,” 
While at Woods Hole, on the coast of Massachusetts, last 
July, it occurred to the writer to make a number of tests for sol- 
uble salts in the sands of the dunes and the beach, as well as in 
soils that are under water at high tide and bear a typical salt 
marsh vegetation. In September of the same year an oppor- 
tunity offered to examine the sands of Long Beach, near Los 
Angeles, California. As a considerable difference was noted 
between the results obtained at Woods Hole and at Long Beach, 
a trip was made early in December to the neighborhood of Nor- 
folk, Virginia, where soils of the dunes, the beach, and the salt 
marsh were examined. 
In all cases the salt content of the soil was determined by the 
method employed in the Bureau of Soils of the U. S. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture and extensively applied by the bureau in its 
investigations of saline soils in the arid parts of the United 
States.© By means of an auger having a screw-diameter of 4°™ 
and a shaft of any length desired, marked at intervals of pee 
borings are made into the soil, which is brought up on the thread of 
the screw. Each 3% of soil is separately examined. After being 
thoroughly mixed, distilled water is added to the soil in quantity 
sufficient to saturate it. A cell of determined-capacity is then 
6A full description of this method is given in “Instruction to field parties,” 
Bureau of Soils (1903). The apparatus used is described in Bull. 15, Division of 
Soils. 
