212 Fish Stories 



the rocks which stood out so boldly at the point were buried 

 in the foam, the waves making a clear breach into the fields 

 beyond. Now a sea broke in upon the dunes, and the 

 chiseled shapes, which had so long been the toy of the wind, 

 melted away and were lost. The waves uncovered strange 

 playthings : great masses of seaweed, long hawsers of kelp, 

 which went floating away. Into every nook and corner the 

 seas penetrated, licking up the sand, undermining the sculp- 

 turing of the wind and sweeping away the wild grasses, root 

 and branch. 



As the waves encroached upon the dunes, flocks of birds 

 rose with wild, protesting cries, and buffeted by the fierce 

 wind, were blown away. In many of the hollows of the 

 dunes birds had taken shelter. A trio of crows were crouch- 

 ing behind a ledge of sand. I saw them, one by one, give 

 up the struggle and desert the dunes," to disappear in the fly- 

 ing clouds. Two horned larks clung to a little tuft of grass 

 which the wave had spared, apparently confused by the roar 

 of sounds, and only rose as I passed near them, then flying 

 to a wind-swept bank, as though fearing to trust themselves 

 to the gale. 



A number of gulls were standing in a pool in the lee, 

 pluming their feathers, evidently just in from the sea and 

 repairing damages, but a rushing wave soon drove them, 

 with wild cries, away into the bay. 



All day long the gale continued, the seas reluctantly giving 

 up their prey — the shattered dunes. As the tide ebbed, it 

 left the beach covered for miles with wreckage, while golden 

 lines of oranges nestled, in strange contrast, among the 

 kelp. An Italian fruiter had gone upon the sands, and all 

 night the beach was patrolled by curious throngs, drawn to 

 it by the crowning horror of the storm. When morning 

 broke there were other evidences of the gale : great timbers, 

 half buried in the sand, orange boxes high on the deserted 

 dunes, a sailor's chest, wound in a shroud of black kelp, bits 

 of sails, shapely yards broken, bruised and splintered; and 



