IV. 
THE BEACH. 
At length we reached the seemingly retreating boun¬ 
dary of the plain, and entered what had appeared at 
a distance an upland marsh, but proved to be dry sand 
covered with Beach-grass, the Bearberry, Bayberry, 
Shrub-oaks, and Beach-plum, slightly ascending as we ap¬ 
proached the shore ; then, crossing over a belt of sand on 
which nothing grew, though the roar of the sea sounded 
scarcely louder than before, and we were prepared to go 
half a mile farther, we suddenly stood on the edge of a 
bluff overlooking the Atlantic. Far below us was the 
beach, from half a dozen to a dozen rods in width, with 
a long line of breakers rushing to the strand. The sea 
was exceedingly dark and stormy, the sky completely 
overcast, the clouds still dropping rain, and the wind 
seemed to blow not so much as the exciting cause, as 
from sympathy with the already agitated ocean. The 
waves broke on the bars at some distance from the shore, 
and curving green or yellow as if over so many unseen 
dams, ten or twelve feet high, like a thousand waterfalls, 
rolled in foam to the sand. There was nothing but that 
savage ocean between us and Europe. 
Having got down the bank, and as close to the water 
as we could, w^here the sand was the hardest, leaving the 
