THE WAVE S TOOTH 



155 



of the great swamp forests of Louisiana are 

 now found beneath the Gulf waters; and the 

 c^'presses of Point Chicot, far out at sea, stand 

 like spectres in the midst of a watery plain. 

 Then, too, bayous have been ripped open by 

 great waves; and new channels have been cut 

 here and there by the tides. Creole Pass, six 

 hundred feet wide to-day, was not on the chart 

 twenty-five years ago. It was born in a storm. 

 At the same time perhaps a group of islands, 

 a marsh or a belt of swamp, passed out — dis- 

 appeared. 



Give and take is the story of the shore. The 

 tides creep in bays and harbors doing little 

 damage, but they suck out doA^-n long inclines 

 dragging with them sand and mud ; on the con- 

 trary, the storm waves ride in with wear and 

 wash but go out in broken undertow. The rock 

 grinds down to sand and that is loss; but the 

 sand comes back eventually to the dunes and 

 that is gain. The return of the sands is made 

 possible by the storm waves that rake and drag 

 the shallow sea bottoms for many miles off 

 shore. In the rush of water across the spits 

 and the bars, the sands are caught up very much 

 as light snow by winter winds, are hurried 

 coastward, and flung in long beds and banks on 

 the beaches. Layer upon layer they are heaped 



The Louis- 

 iana coast. 



Give and 

 take of land 

 and sea. 



Return of 

 the sands 

 from the 

 sea. 



