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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



fare, and the humble beginnings of these 

 mountains of glistening sand form a re- 

 markable story. One who has stood on 

 a sandy beach during a lashing hurricane 

 and has felt the shining grains hurled 

 into his face with a sting like that of a 

 nettle, knows the wind's power and can 

 the more easily believe the statement of 

 scientists that a cubic mile of churned 

 air may contain thousands of tons of 

 sand. 



Anything of substance, from a piece of 

 wreckage to a tuft of grass, may be the 

 nucleus of a dune that will grow and 

 grow, broadening out as it rises higher, 

 burying a forest, engulfing a house, or 

 wiping out an orchard. 



The trees which the sands seek to over- 

 whelm put up a stubborn fight for life, 

 but usually the dune is victor, and many 

 are the places where one may walk 

 through a graveyard in which a forest 

 lies buried and only a limbless upper 

 trunk has been left as a ghost of a 

 brighter day. 



Sometim.es dunes migrate and the for- 

 est that was buried yesterday awakes to 

 life tomorrow, for the wind picks up the 

 sand it formerly laid down and drives it 

 still further. Cemeteries have been first 

 sheltered by a dune, then buried by it, 

 then resurrected from it. On the Caro- 

 lina coast a human graveyard has been 

 despoiled by the shifting sands, and as the 

 dune moved onward in its migration the 

 very graves were opened by the force of 

 the wind, and the bones of those who peo- 

 pled them were left scattered on the soil. 



warfare: arong the rrorida keys 



The Carolina coast afTords a striking 

 example of the effectiveness of the wind 

 as an ally of the land. Borne southward 

 by the sweeping shore-following currents 

 that come down from the north, sands 

 that are the remains of boulders pounded 

 loose from some rocky coast, have driven 

 a wedge through the left flank of the 

 ocean and have completely isolated the 

 attacking armies holding the salients of 

 the Albemarle and Pamlico sounds. 



The winds have aided in the campaign 

 and have piled up veritable mountains of 

 sand against future attacks by the sea. 

 Thus the main battle line is straightened 

 out and the enemy finds itself in a cross- 



fire, with opposing forces athwart its line 

 of communications. 



Along the southeasternmost coast of 

 Florida, from Cape Florida, which guards 

 lovely Miami, on down to Key West, is 

 the beautiful key region, where the coral 

 polyps have established foundations upon 

 which the land has been able to build 

 first-line defenses that break up the as- 

 saults of the sea before they reach vital 

 ground. 



Sometimes the water erects wonderful 

 natural bridges in these barriers. On the 

 western shore of the northern part of 

 Biscayne Bay, which laves the shore of 

 Alton Beach on one side and Miami on 

 the other, a little river escapes from the 

 Everglades to the elevated Barrier Reef 

 through a beautiful rock arch cut by the 

 water. 



MAN AS A PROFITEER IN NATURES WAR 



Thus having, with some little romantic 

 license, outlined for the nontechnical 

 reader the front-line trenches of nature's 

 great war on our eastern coast, let us 

 turn aside and see how man, the innocent 

 bystander, the neutral, fares through it all. 



In the attack of the sea via the air he 

 is preeminently a profiteer. Without the 

 water and atmosphere to weather the 

 rocks of the mountains he would have 

 no soil upon which to live, and without 

 the rain that gladdens valley and plain 

 the soil would be worthless. 



But when it comes to the frontal at- 

 tack he has to resort to many measures 

 to maintain his neutrality and to prevent 

 both belligerents from encroaching upon 

 his domain. With his Lighthouse Serv- 

 ice he warns the mariner of dangers 

 ahead and directs the fleets of main and 

 inland waters into safe channels. With 

 his Coast and Geodetic Survey he plots 

 the pitfalls and the safe shipways, so that 

 the sailor may set his course without fear. 

 With his Coast Guard he stands unend- 

 ing watch to help those who, in spite of 

 all care, become entangled in the barb- 

 wire of nature's battle-fields and would 

 perish but for its timely aid. 



BEACONS THAT GUARD THE NEUTRAl/S 

 RIGHTS 



The most easterlv light on the shores 

 of the United States is that of West 



