South Beach. 39 



of the island they may, in the late Summer and Fall days, 

 be seen winging their way shoreward in the morning, fly- 

 ing irregularly as if catching insects by the way, and at 

 evening the flocks return northward. It is nothing for a 

 swallow to feed on the bay-berries by the sea shore and fly 

 far inland to roost. 



You would hardly suspect, in walking along the sand, 

 that many of the clumps of bay bushes were connected 

 one with another by subterranean branches ; but when this 

 is once discovered it will also be observed how they, like 

 the tufts of beach grass, often stand in line. These root- 

 stocks are most marvelously contorted and interlaced, and 

 it is no uncommon matter to find one that has doubled 

 completely on its course. They are covered with a silvery 

 yellow bark, like that at the base of the white birches, and 

 many of them are over two inches in diameter and extend 

 a number of feet, giving rise, as has already been said, to 

 several clumps of upright, leaf-bearing branches. Thus do 

 the bay bushes stand together in the sandy waste, and as 

 the waves eat into the dunes, those that are furthest inland 

 support for a little while the outermost member of their group. 



There is a very thin subsoil of a blacker hue than the 

 sand, and it is the highway to which many of the roots 

 adhere. When the ocean covers it with several feet of 

 cast-up shells and sand, and a pit has been dug into these 

 several layers, then does the narrow black seam and its 

 accompanying roots show most plainly. 



Hawks fly about slowly over the dunes, close to the 

 tops of the bushes. Mice are ever running in and out 

 among the tussocks of grass, and the silent winged hawk 



