40 South Beach. 



steals upon them unawares. Then, too, the great blue 

 herons visit the unfrequented meadows, and stand sentinel 

 there. The white herons used to come also, and the fann- 

 ers and fishermen will tell you about them ; but now they 

 have ceased to visit the shore, or, at most, are a great 

 rarity. Though the herons are imposing, and you feel 

 that the earth still has a great bird when you see them fly, 

 yet those ever busy, cawing crows, that meddle with the 

 meadow hen's eggs, and incur the scoldings of the marsh 

 wrens, are of more general interest. It is said that they 

 used to be seen in vast numbers flying to their roost among 

 the cedars on Sandy Hook. That in its day was one of 

 the great crow roosts of the vicinity. 



There are several wrecks along the beach, not those of 

 recent years, but remains of old crafts that went to pieces 

 long ago. What with the gradual washing away of the 

 shore and the ever-busy sandmen, who land their schoon- 

 ers and sail away with portions of the Point, these wrecks 

 have been exposed. I have stood in wonderment on the 

 old water-worn sides of one of these hulks, whose iron 

 bolts, eroded by time, encrusted the planking for many 

 inches about their heads with a cement of iron, of pebbles 

 and of sand ; and the planking itself was eaten and worn 

 and carved by the sea. Those feathery little sea plants 

 that seem so incapable of withstanding the force of the 

 waves, and yet are really so tough and strong, floated in 

 the incoming tide; and the port-holes, through which 

 murderous cannon had once shown their iron faces, looked 

 peaceful enough, manned by barnacles and fringed by the 

 soft, waving green weeds. 



