Show I 1 rna R na 00 r a V 0 F A N ja 1 1 1 4 I 1 N I 1 I I 1 1 T T k M 4 light station heron neck maine by JOHN OLIVER LA GORCE vice president national geographic society realization of tho the great age of the carth and tho the long periods involved in the birth of mountain ranges and tho the disappearance of continents often obscures tile fact that changes are taking place rapidly enough actually to bo be watched and measured in places the clock of geologic time runs so fast in fact that wo we may as it were see tha minute hand moving upon tho the dial ono of the most conspicuous places by which to illustrate tills this remarkable condition to Is the const line of the southeastern united states from tile the virginia capes to tile the RIO illo grande here flore ns as along every other coastline coast line on oil the face of the earth there Is perpetual warfare between the land jand alid the son sen with the wind ns as a shifting ally now throwing its weight into the balance on the one side and no now w on the other ilera hero the land Is taking the offensive driving the sea back foot by foot always with the aid of the wind there the sea assantes tes the offensive and enta eats its ita way inn lan landward dward hward slowly and laboriously but none the less successfully the varying fortunes of this relentless and age long war which neither truce nor treaty will ever bring to an end can be read in the shifting sands bonds of the seashore at many points along tho the const coast of the northeastern states are found bold cliffs and the charging sen sea attacks them with the shot and shell of loose shingle some of them however are alre adamant and impregnable in their frontal fortifications and hold out against the sorest siege but between them have occurred stretches clips of softer rock which have been literally pounded to dust by the oceans heavy artillery thus permitting flank attacks on an the hitherto unconquered defenses along the southeastern coast however the rockbound rock bound hound cliff Is the axce exception 1 and the long stretches of glittering sand the rule here alere the sandy beach reaches out farther flir ther and farther into the sen sea and tho the water Is thus thua enabled to penetrate farther and farther into the land because the attack of tile sen sea Is usually a frontal movement anti and that of the land frequently a wedge attack thus we can account for tho the long straight shore on tho the one hand and the spit on alie th c other cape lien henrys rys sand dune cape henry virginia where the great chesapeake Clie sipe like hay bay empties into tile the atlantic Is one of the most interesting points along tile the south atlantic coast it affords an excellent opportunity to study the battle royal between the son sea the winds and tile the sands and it Is remarkable also for tiro the weird beauty of Us its storm buffeted beach extending lit in broken masses of sand as far as the oye eye can reach picked out ot i t here and there along the land edge by gnarled gnarled and stunted trees beach grass and hardy shrubs which make a brave fight against the ever encroaching enemy enem at capo cape henry in 1791 was erected the first lighthouse built by tile alio young united states government after many years of falth faithful ful service the ancient beacon gave efly to a inore pretentious tent ious structure which was erected in 1881 but the old lighthouse still stands on its great of sand and rock like a sentinel of n forgotten army ready to spring to firms when called stretching inland behind tile the original lighthouse Is a great dune or rather a mount mountain nin of sand which has been the savings bank of till the winds for untold centuries the dune Is more than feet high in many places and the great plateau on its crest stretching back into the country for several miles covers on an area of 0 many acres slowly but surely the front mass of sand crystals Is making its way toward tho the interior being pushed back inch by inch by tho the restless wind and it Is mercilessly engulfing if a great alno forest it Is even rapidly filling up the lynnhaven river a small freshwater fresh frosh water stream famous for its oysters retreat of the fhe shore line on the shore of cape cod near chatham Chat harn the flie land Is retreating at the rate of a foot ft a year and on t the lie southern shore of Mart marthas marthias lias vineyard rd it Is giving up the fight to the enemy at the rate of three feet every twelve months while on the southern face of the retreat has been as much as six feet a year the records tell us from portland me to cape florida there Is a fairly well connected barrier of band reefs all of them built up by the he sea and its ita ally the tilo wind from frota the mate material riat pounded bounded from the shoreline by the waves prom from chesapeake nay bay to uis cayne day bay florida a distance of miles there Is a natural rampart of sand so continuous fencing such an unbroken series of lagoons in from tho the sea that it la Is possible to make the entire journey through inland waters without exposure to tho open son sea in its incessant warfare against the land the sea literally takes its captured hosts and makes them do battle under its command the boulders that are shattered from theY th eface fice of a cliff are dashed up lip against it again and again bani hammering merIng others loose the while being worn round and smooth as the projectiles of big guns must be As the process goes on these huge shells are worn down and crumbled until there remains nathl nothing to tell the story of forced fighting against their own stronghold savo save grains of sand on some distant beach or the soft carpet carp 1 et spread upon tho the floor of the sea many fat fathoms hoins deep the waves always find a most vain able ally in the wind while their work of coastline coast line transformation goes on thi possibilities of tile the wind as n worker in conjunction with the waves are revealed when we consider that luring during a violent storm the air may nom hold in suspension as much is as tons of annd to the cubic mile this sand driven hither and thither finds a resting place somewhere and that resting place la is usually a dune along the shore how sand dunes are made A sand dune always has it humble iku able beginning ginning lie A piece ot of wreck wreckage cast up lip by the waves may r aart it or any sort of obstacle lying upon the shore MRY may cause it to conic come into being once started the dune becomes a trap to catch sand in it takes its to toll of every passing gust of wind find and thus thug continues to grow and grow often they keep advancing until they bury orchards forests and even buildings like great drifts of snow along tile coast of new jer jersey s ey one may see orchards which have ila vo been covered cove rei by windblown wind wl nd blown sand within the memory of milli so that only tile tops tons of tho the trees now protrude above the surface it Is 19 not exceptional to see a forest invaded anil and sometimes even complete ly burled to witch watch tile the struggles of the OIL trees trl es against their encroaching enemy Is one of the most remarkable sights of nature As the sand rises around their trunks new roots are put out near the surface e and they continue to fight their battle month in and month out but generally they are finally completely engulfed the alternating burial and tion of forests Is duo due mainly to tile the tendency of sand dunes to migrate on Ilat teras island north carolina the migration of a dune literally Itte rally robbed a cemetery of its dead dashing down the gravestones and exposing the bones of tile the bodies burled there says saya professor cobb an authority on the subject of beach formations |