2o6 BEACH GRASS 



What pleasant memories does not the smell 

 of salt marshes bring to mind! It is a char- 

 acteristic odor, a good salty, marshy smell, and it 

 is concentrated in all its agreeable qualities in a 

 rick of damp salt hay. A summer's rain bring 

 it up from the marshes to my lean-to in the forest 

 with especial force. Why this should be so I 

 do not know. Its full flavor is to be found on 

 the borders of the creeks, where one walks in the 

 thatch grass with loud crackling sounds at each 

 tread as the great grass stalks snap under foot. 

 The smell of the flats at low tide is good but it 

 lacks the flavor of salt hay. Flats have an evil 

 reputation, as they are associated in the mind with 

 the flats about the harbors of great cities, contam- 

 inated with sewage and with the waste of gas fac- 

 tories. Flats in primitive regions, washed clean 

 twice in twenty-four hours by the clear green sea 

 water are as different from these as white is from 

 black. 



The sweet odors that float through the four 

 open sides of my lean-to in the forest are always 

 a delight. The delicate and subtle odors of 

 early spring, the smell of the freshly turned 



