NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



889 



First, sand is blown or washed up on to the beach ; then, when dry, 

 carried further inland and deposited in low ridges, which gradually drift 

 backward into higher dunes, and, becoming slowly encroached upon by 

 vegetation, are at last merged into the surrounding forest where such 

 exists. Here it is that the exceeding mischief of denuding such reclaimed 

 dunes comes in, and where the necessity of planting them artificially 

 appears. Left bare, the loose sand is exposed to the gales blowing inland 

 from the sea, and carried backwards in such clouds as to bury houses, 

 destroy vegetation, and in the case of Cape Cod appreciably to alter the 

 geography of an important harbour. 



On one disastrous occasion the wind actually scooped out a channel 

 through the whole rampart of sand, and the waters of the Atlantic poured 

 through into Cape Cod harbour across the narrow neck near what is still 

 called " East Harbour," though now silted up into a salt-marsh. From 

 that time the inhabitants of the neighbouring township of Truro 

 inaugurated a system of yearly planting of Beach Grass, Ammophila 

 armaria, which is now regularly carried out all over this area by the 

 State. 



Experience shows that the process of reforesting the dunes must 

 necessarily be a progressive one. Planting or sowing any species of tree 

 or plant in shifting sand is but abandoning your young stock to certain 

 destruction. The only form of plant life which will not only bear such 

 conditions, but which actually requires, for continued growth, a yearly 

 deposit of sand upon its crown, to induce rcot-formation in the young 

 growth is Ammophila arenaria, and this is to be found wild in the 

 neighbourhood of all the regions, both in Europe and in America, where 

 dunes exist. 



Descriptions are given of the best and cheapest methods and time to 

 plant the grass, with diagrams illustrating the way in which it acts, both 

 as a sand-binder and as the nucleus of an accumulation of sand in places 

 where it may be required to strengthen or establish a natural barrier 

 against the inroads of the sea. Other diagrams in Mr. Hitchcock's paper 

 show the effects of various other forms of obstruction to passing sand- 

 storms, and he describes the uses and formation of brush fences, solid 

 fences, and surface coverings of cut bush or heather. He also gives 

 diagrams illustrating the gradual growth of a dune, and describes the 

 wcrks that are being carried on near Alkmaar and at an inland dune 

 near Barneveld, in the Netherlands, at Axbol and Skagen, in Denmark, 

 at the Kurische Nehrung in N.-E. Prussia, and along the south-west 

 coast of France. 



This preliminary planting, however, is only one step, and the Beach 

 Grass cannot be depended upon for effective life during more than ten 

 years. With it, and trusting to its protection, must be planted some 

 shrubby plant, preferably the Bayberry, as experience has proved ; so that 

 by the time the Beach Grass has finally succumbed the soil may be ready 

 for another step in its reclamation, and seedling trees, or even Pine cones 

 or Acorns, may be introduced with safety among the Bayberries. 



Suitable species of trees for this pioneer planting have so far proved 

 few. Pinus rigida, P. Laricio, and P. sylvestris are proved successes in 

 America, with the addition of Pinus excelsa, P. austriaca, P. montana, 



