Mineralogy and Geology. , 268 
they wither slowly, and before they are entirely buried, they die. 
Most of them lose all their branches, and nothing but the trunk remains 
to be covered with sand, but some of the cypress retain life to the last.* 
The Desert abounds in deer, bears, racoons, and opossums, Its skirts 
are more thickly peopled than the sterility of the soil would give reason 
to suppose; but the inexhaustible abundance of fish and oysters in the 
oth are surrounded by a platform of plank; and, without any such de- 
sign in the architect, this platform has preserved both these buildings 
from being buried in the sand, 
_When the lighthouse was built, it was placed upon the highest sand 
hill at the Cape. Its distance from the beach may be six or seven hundred 
yards, and the elevation of its base above high water not less than 90 
feet. At that time there was from the foot of the building, the most 
d 
Should this event take place, 
digging of a well in the high sandy country, 
his curiosity would be excited by fossil wood, ; 
the sea coast, perhaps within a cen- — 
between the summit of the sand hills _ 
100 feet below the surface. 
h 
trees st pea e 
hills, they half buried. 
e of the tr 
