and rather rapidly — in a clockwise direction. The Gulf Stream 

 jets out of the narrows between the south tip of Florida and 

 Bimini Island at the rate of 2.75 miles per hour and 6 billion 

 tons per second, day and night, year in and year out. Baby eels 

 hatched in the depths west of Bermuda swim into this stream 

 and get carried to Europe in three years. A lumber ship, itself 

 made of wood, foundered off Long Island late in the last century, 

 and was washed ashore on the Outer Hebrides off the west coast 

 of Scotland two and a half years later, and some of its cargo 

 finally lodged on the coasts of Portugal, Madeira, and the Azores. 

 Things go round and round, but only one way, in the North 

 Atlantic, and a current moving beach material against this pre- 

 scribed direction has a hard time and is apt to drop its load 

 in ridges extending from the existing south-pointing capes; and 

 so a spit soon forms. But if a cape happens to point north, the 

 wind, the waves, and the major ocean drift may win; and the 



siderable height on a perfectly flat beach where all the little 

 sand grains should logically be blown away into the neigh- 

 boring inland swamps. The slightest impediment, such as a 

 shell, a pebble cast up by a high tide or a good blow, or a piece 

 of beached seaweed may start a dune; and then, if a lull in the 

 wind follows, some seed may sprout in the little piled-up mass 

 and put out roots and a shoot. This anchors the ridge, and more 

 sand piles against it on the windward side. As a result, the 

 immature plant tries harder, and if rain or even salt spray 

 accompanies the next blow, it grows faster, both binding the 

 sand below and arresting more of it above. The little ridge 

 begins to grow, steep on the windward side, tapering gently 

 off on the leeward. If the plant wins this struggle — for in- 

 stance, by finding enough nourishment in the form of a roll of 

 rotting seaweed — other debris will accumulate aroimd it and 

 the ridge will extend and grow upward; the plant, often a grass. 





•N^-' 



■^ 



The //. _. '.L . LJu; , :/ .i....: .'. iUabitant of this coast, is actually related to the scorpions. It 

 comes to the beaches to mate and lay its eggs in early summer. 



whole, like Sandy Hook at the northern tip of the Jersey coast, 

 may grow to the north, creeping part by part over itself on the 

 ocean side and always turning inland until its tip gets to the 

 left of the inshore current, after which things proceed rapidly 

 until one has a real "hook" or crook, like Cape Cod. 



On the coast itself, there are endless sand dunes. Dunes are 

 most contrary things that may build up while being blown down 

 and disappear while being built up. You can get dunes of con- 



will proliferate and arrest more sand; and so on. Sand dunes up 

 to four hundred feet high are known, but before they die and 

 become a part of the land they go through a strange life cycle 

 and sometimes do many odd things. They can march along like 

 waves, or they can stay put, retaining their form but never being 

 made of exactly the same material. This is contrary to ocean 

 waves in which the individual drops of water just go up and 

 down but the crest moves along. 



