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river. It was visited during the month of July, 1919, when these 

 observations and notes were recorded, and revisited in Septem- 

 ber 1931. Here a long stretch of beach sands and ridges is ex- 

 posed through which the little Neconicum River cuts its way to 

 the sea. The river rises in the heavily forested slopes of the 

 Coast range a few miles back, eastward from the coast. From 

 the river's mouth southward to the base of Tillamook Head is a 

 narrow forested ridge having beach sands and small dunes along 

 its western or seaside front while salt marshes and the meander- 

 ing river lie along its rear or eastern exposure. Across and long 

 this ridge or peninsula extends a popular summer resort, the 

 city of Seaside. Our notes apply to the plant life on the drifting 

 sands along the seashore, or Clatsop beach, northward from the 

 bathing beach to the outlet of Neconicum River and also to the 

 forest adjacent thereto. Further northward at Gearhart and 

 along the coast the sand dunes are higher and more extensive. 

 Weather records indicate the prevailing winds are generally 

 from the west but in June from the southwest and in July from 

 the northwest. The winds are moisture laden with a rainfall of 

 six to eight inches in the summer and an annual precipitation 

 of about seventy-eight inches. 



Here the drifting, black, basaltic sands appear to pile up 

 less rapidly and shift more slowly than do the drier sands of the 

 New Jersey coast or along the western shores of Lake Michigan. 

 Vegetation advances rapidly upon newly formed ridges and usu- 

 ally holds the crests without blow-outs. Back of the ridges or 

 dunes lie the salt marshes incident to the tidal waters which in- 

 vade the Neconicum and its branches. Thus topographical con- 

 ditions are produced quite similar to those found upon the New 

 Jersey coast at Seven-mile Island. A summer temperature of 61 

 to 67 degrees prevails and gentle showers are frequent through- 

 out July. Once a hillock or small dune is fairly established it is 

 soon overrun by invading plant life of the nearby forest. The 

 older sand ridges have thus become well forested and are to be 

 regarded as permanent except as disturbed by the act of man. 



On the shifting sands, at and above the high tide mark, the 

 succulent sea rocket, Cakile edulenta, var. californica, and the 

 beach pea, Lathyrus maritimus, grow thriftily in broad clumps; 

 the sand sedge, Carex macrocephala, and the beach grass, Am- 

 mophila arenaria, are most abundant; while the sandwort, 



