36 C. HEDLEY. 



Types of Beach. 

 THE SHINGLE BEACH. 



The desert of the shore is a shingle beach. In the wash 

 of the waves, each pebble grinds its neighbour's face, so 

 that any plant or creature seeking a home among the stones 

 would soon be bruised to death. Such beaches are rare 

 in this State, the nearest to Sydney is a shingle beach at 

 Kiama. 1 



THE OCEAN SAND BEACH. 



Next in order of importance is the sandy beach facing 

 the ocean, which contains a small and highly specialised 

 fauna, but no visible flora. Here in New South Wales, as 

 elsewhere, the fauna of the mud or of the rocks is far 

 richer than that of the sand. 



Sandy beaches occur along the whole of our coast line. 

 North of Newcastle they extend with brief interruptions to 

 the Queensland border, south they alternate with the rocky 

 headlands. The changefulness of the local beach front 

 has been well described by Mr. E. O. Andrews. 2 



In all countries and various climates the ocean sand 

 beach preserves the same external appearance. If, by 

 some cosmic change, the climate of Sydney became warmer, 

 then in response a thicket of Rhizophora would spring up 

 on the zostereta of Middle Harbour, and reef corals would 

 build on the hormosireta of the Heads. But the sandy 

 beach though sheltering another series of species, and 

 perhaps serving as a turtle incubator, would still remain 

 unchanged externally. 



It was proposed by Prof. Davenport to group the inter- 

 tidal fauna by companies of sessile, crawling, burrowing, 



1 The shape of pebbles has been studied by H. E. Gregory, Am. Journ. 

 Science, xxxix, 1915, p. 300. 



2 Andrews, this Journal, xlvi, 1913, pp. 158-185. 



