8 A PHILOSOPHER WITH NATURE 



two not far distant and the birds come here daily 

 to fish in the marshes. 



As the tide advances it is possible to land and make 

 a long detour to reach the belt of shingle which runs 

 east and west at the line which marks the reach of 

 the highest tides. A solitary ring-dotterel or ring- 

 plover, and now another, runs with suspicious 

 motions which avoid notice across the ribbon of sand 

 toward the sea. It is the nesting season. Above 

 high-water mark the birds have been scooping 

 shallow depressions among the small pebbles. These 

 are the " cock " nests which precede and accompany 

 the real ones, and the eye searches the beach closely 

 for the characteristic eggs. 



On this solitary coast, where one looks out along 

 the fifty-first parallel toward the Western Continent 

 across many of the main ocean highways of the world, 

 the beach beyond reach of the highest waves is 

 covered with undisturbed mounds of the flotsam 

 and jetsam of sea traffic. The buried cities of the 

 world have left us relics of the ages of man. But 

 what a record of the present civilization of the world 

 these heaps would yield to the followers of some 

 post-historic Schliemann if they were to be suddenly 

 entombed and to give up their secrets again to a 

 distant age ! Floated fragments of every kind, drift- 

 wood and bark, cinders, seaweed, and the white 

 stones of the beach, are intermingled with the offal 

 of ships and fleets, the droppings of ocean-liners and 

 tramps, of fishing craft and the floating fortresses 

 of war. There are relics of divers nationalities, of 

 many kinds of human products, of universal art and 

 literature and of most human customs. It is the 

 story of a world of labour and sweat and the silent 



