BEACH GRASS 



CHAPTER I 

 Days and Nights in the Dunes 



''There is a rapture on the lonely shore^ 

 There is society^ where none intrudes^ 

 By the deep Sea, and music in its roar.'' 



— Byron 



THE DUNES are constantly changing 

 and always present scenes of interest 

 and beauty. The surface ripple-marks 

 formed in the bed of the wind and athwart its 

 course like the ripple marks in the sandy bed of a 

 stream, move with the current. The grains of 

 sand hurry up the gradually sloping side to wind- 

 ward, drop over the steeper leeward side and eddy 

 in the trough. These rippling, corded markings 

 are to be found wherever the sand is bare of vege- 

 tation, and record the direction of the present or 

 latest strong wind. Like snowdrifts, the sand 



