WINTER STORMS 



elsewhere, become common. Then stretching out into the 

 mud there are rows of curious reeds and sedges. 



Try to pull up one of these reeds, and you will find 

 a strong, buried, stringy stem, with hundreds of anchor- 

 ing roots. These are the pioneers which first fix the sand. 



Over the surface of the sand between these upright 

 stems, one often comes upon a most beautiful, glossy, dark- 

 green, velvety cushion. It is composed of a seaweed called 

 Vaucheria, whose twined and interlaced threads form a 

 thick, silky cushion. But it is only beautiful to look at 

 from above. If you pull up a piece of this cushion, you 

 will find that it is growing on black and loathly mud, 

 with many wriggling worms and horrible animalcula. 

 First these pioneer reeds, then this soft, silky carpet of 

 vaucheria, and then the sea-pinks and other estuarine 

 marsh flowers gradually creep forward and extend over 

 the bare muddy sand, so winning it from the sea for the use 

 of cattle. 



In the worst winter storms, when the waves are thun- 

 dering heavily over these sands, it seems as if nothing 

 could resist them. Yet if you go down when the storm 

 is over, no harm has been done : there is the silky green 

 cushion of vaucheria, and there are the lines of pioneer 

 sedges and reeds quite undisturbed ! 



The reeds bend and sway, yielding to the water ; the sea- 

 weed is slimy and oily, and the water cannot injure it. But 

 yet the strength of these seaweeds is extraordinary, and, 

 indeed, almost incredible. 



More remarkable still, perhaps, are those seaweeds 

 which grow upon rocks, often where the full strength 

 of the waves beats upon them. After a heavy storm, 

 when, perhaps, the great timbers of groins and the heavy 



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