AUGUST 



Low Tide Treasures The Singing Valley A RJver Nightingale 

 The Way of the Gull A Cloud of Thunder Augustan Sounds 



I. 



I N spite of harvest and the joy in harvest August 

 4s one of the least eventful of months in any 

 Finland parish. Botanically, September is a sort 

 of second spring and the earth grows yeasty again ; 

 and we may regard August from this point of view as 

 its preceding winter. So the folk who go to the seaside 

 in August are wise. Biologically it is one of the busiest 

 months at and about the sea s edge. The seaweeds are 

 lined with eggs, and the weeds themselves growing; 

 and many fish now become fond of the shallows. There 

 is always a deal to see. The first day that some of us 

 went down to the beach in a snug North Devon cove 

 we saw a peculiarly perfect example of a common wonder 

 of the salt water. 



The surface of a little pool by the sea s edge had sud 

 denly become coated with all sorts of heavy things that 

 ought to be on the floor and not on the roof : sand and 

 even bits of shell and stone. I suppose everyone almost 

 who has visited the seaside in August has noticed and 

 mildly wondered at this curious little phenomenon. It 

 is one of many score but comes high in the list of the 

 little things that we remember about the summer holiday ; 

 and half the pleasure of our seasonal migrations, to moor 

 or sea or where not, springs from seeing and hearing the 

 expected the things we especially remember seeing and 



