THE EQUINOCTIAL ON THE DUNES. 69 



many outlines, varying from pointed peak or 

 bold bluff to long graceful ridge, it was impos- 

 sible to retain true ideas of size and distance. 

 The proportions of pools, islets, bushes, and 

 cliffs corresponded so closely to those which 

 would have marked lakes, islands, groves, and 

 mountain peaks that, for all the eye could tell, 

 Winnepesaukee and the Franconia Mountains 

 were there in all their beauty. During the 

 forenoon the fog crept back to the sea, the sun 

 came out, and the landscape appeared in new 

 colors and proportions. Lakes shrank to pools, 

 mountains dwindled to sand ridges. The sand 

 itself grew pale, and many of its most brightly 

 colored plants lost their brilliancy as they dried. 

 This was strikingly noticeable in the hudsonia 

 tomentosa, which changed from rich brown 

 tones to sage green and gray. Ducks were re- 

 placed by numbers of redwing blackbirds, and 

 all day long the " flick, flick, flick, flick, flick " 

 of a pigeon woodpecker rang from a tree on Hog 

 Island. 



In the afternoon we rowed across the shallow 

 inlet to the island, which is what geologists call a 

 drumlin, and sailors or farmers a " hog back." 

 It is a gently sloping hill of gravel, whose longer 

 axis is supposed to indicate the direction of the 

 glacier's advance at that point. The length of 

 the island from northwest to southeast is a little 



