SAXD DUNES AND SALT MARSHES 



few apple trees extending above the sand 

 show what the place once was.' 



The same catastrophe has occurred at Ips- 

 wich. In the middle of the dunes on the 

 marsh side is a long hill about sixty feet high, 

 so covered with sand that it is generally con- 

 sidered a great dune. In some places, how- 

 ever, one can scratch the sand and find earth 

 and gravel below; occasionally a boulder pro- 

 jects, and here and there one comes on ancient 

 stone walls, some of which have been uncov- 

 ered by the blowing sand within a few years. 

 In 1892 there was an orchard near the top and 

 on the southwesterly slope, somewhat less 

 than an acre in extent. Part of this orchard 

 was still nearly unscathed by the advancing 

 sand, which had merely dusted the ground, 

 but the rest was buried to the tops of the main 

 trunks, and all the horizontal and drooping 

 limbs were covered, yet the topmost branches 

 blossomed and bore fruit. But the sand en- 

 croached more and more, and one after an- 

 other the strangled trees gave up the ghost, 



' In Babson'e Historj- of Gloucester, published in 1860, it is stated 

 that Peter Coffin, after failing at law and business, " went onto the 

 farm, where he lived as long as it would ^-ield him a support by the 

 sale of the wood upon it, and then came back to town, and died 

 Aug. 4, 1821, aged seventy-two." 



28 



