AND OTHER BIRDS 101 



wisps and wreaths of grey inland drift, are lost 

 like snow on water uncongealed. About the 

 mouth of this small stream, therefore, the drift 

 sand is to a considerable degree checked, and a 

 strip of bush running far inland enabled to 

 survive. On the edge of this ribbon of woodland 

 and half a mile from the shore stood the whare 

 where we camped. Sand, nevertheless, in two 

 great sliding drifts has already passed both on 

 the north and south beyond this Castle Perilous, 

 and it may be if the supply is large enough 

 that these two streams at no very distant date 

 will overlap and meet, and that at a still more 

 remote period the strip of bush will also be 

 submerged. On the north, one of these drifts has 

 passed over the shoulder of a wooded hill and 

 is pouring itself into the plain beyond. On the 

 south, stands a granite hill, but its bulk and 

 height are really a less efficient protection to the 

 hut than are the living woods of the valley and 

 the wide wet bed of the little stream. 



This hill much interested me, for on its 

 surface two synchronous processes could be 

 observed at work; to the leeward, enormous 

 masses of sand piling up, and on the side facing 

 the beach, the original cover of the hill each 

 season being stripped away. Up every bare 

 precipitous rocky surface the sand is alternately 

 whirled by the wind, and washed down by the 

 rain. On the upper portions of the peak, those 

 surfaces facing the drift are highly polished 

 with the dark sheen ice carries beneath a gloomy 

 sky, polished and burnished not smoothed, 

 for the sand blast has ridged them with 

 innumerable infinitesimally small striations, 

 easily felt if the finger nail be run over them. 



