68 A HANDBOOK FOR SOUTHPORT. 



transparent smoke over the flat, wet shore. The wind alter- 

 nately heaps up the sand and disperses it, except where a 

 firm hold has been obtained by the star-grass, which, running 

 beneath the surface, binds and holds all together. A very 

 beautiful decoration of the smooth surface of the declivities is 

 constantly produced by the wind whirling the stalks half way 

 round, and sometimes quite so when there is room for free play. 

 Elegant circles and semi-circles are then grooved in the 

 sloping sand, smaller ones often inside, as perfect as if drawn 

 with compasses. Another curious result of the steady blowing 

 of the sea-breeze is that on the level of the shore there are 

 innumerable little cones of sand, originating in shells, or 

 fragments of shells, which arrest the drifting particles, and are, 

 in truth, rudiments of sandhills such as form the great 

 rampart a little further in." The passage we quote illustrates 

 exactly how in all probability they began. Some small object 

 standing literally "in the teeth of the wind" would arrest the 

 particles of drifting sand, and just as flowing water accumulates 

 behind a barrier, in the course of centuries the tiny mound 

 would swell into a hill, and valleys and ravines would follow 

 as a matter of course. 



The " star-grass " above-mentioned is one of the two 

 specially characteristic plants of the sandhills, the other being 

 the little salix which covers many portions with grey-leaved 

 scrub. No sandy shore is devoid of it, but here it grows in 

 patches so dense as often to resemble fields of corn, a like- 

 ness sustained by the flower-heads, which may be compared 

 to ears of wheat. Many of the Southport people call it 

 " maram," a word altered probably from the Danish 

 " marhaulm," literally " sea-straw." That the Scandinavian 



