The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1907-05-17
where THE WIND DOES THE WORK.

as shore is growing steadily shallower
from the deposit of blown sand.
On Smiths island pilots village
has been buried beneath the sand
wave for a number of years, but this
has been quite recently resurrected
and its houses are again occupied. On
Currituck, below Caffeys Inlet life
saving station, the sand has advanced
entirely across the land, and one man,
moving before the advancing sand
has at last built his house on piles in
the sound
The writer has found by experiment
that heterogeneous sands, consisting
essentially Of quartz. orthoclase. some
mica, iron, bits Of shell, and many
mineral substances, showing little if
any decomposition, rippled readily IN
the wind and are easily arrested.
This he accomplished in one instance
by planting the seed of a native pine
and covering the dune with brush.
In another case the movement was
checked by the unassisted growth of
grass upon dimes from which hogs
and cattle were fenced out Several
native grasses on these islands are
excellent sand-binders, but so far he
has found no means of checking the
movement of homogeneous sands that
do not ripple, these consisting entire
ly well-rounded and wind-sorted
quartz grains of the same size
throughout a single dune
Other trees besides the pine may be
used as sand-binders. Some live oaks
and myrtle serve well in this capac-
ity.
In January, 1886, the writer planted
the seed of the lobolly pine on the
back Of a dune and covered the area
with brush cut from nearby road in
progress of making. The brush
served not only to break the wind, but
to conserve the moisture of the sands
and today there is a forest Of several
acres where twenty years ago was
moving sand waste. The method so
common abroad of building a barrier
dune by means of wind breaks has
been tried several times along this
coast, but always without success.
The atmospheric humidity of Hat
teras island is greater than that of
any other station in the United
States except in the Puget Sound re-
gion, and even there the excess over
Hatteras is not great Yet there are
more days Of sunshine on Hatteras
than at Cape Henry or Norfolk or
Wilmington.
The heaviest rains come between
late July and mid October, after the
plants have done most of their grow
ing for the year and when plants in
many parts OF the country are suf-
fering greatly from the drOuth
Some primitive customs are presery-
ed among the people and some early
English forms of speech. Their
lodges used in fishing and hunting
are built after the most primitive type
of straw thatch, while a higher type,
similar to that used in the village OF
Gabii in the days of Romulus and
Remus, is used as a temporary resi-
dence during their camp meetings IN
the summer, and this higher type OF
dwelling is on Hatteras built Of pal
metto thatch.
The regaining of the shore strip by
reforesting the sands, and the reten-
ton of the dunes that are devastat-
ing the meadow lands would make OF
Hatteras island, at least, a sub-tropi-
cal garden, where southern fruits and
early vegetables once plentiful here
might come into the market, The
game still lingering among the wood
ed dunes would be greatly multiplied,
and the herds of wild ponies now
dwindling away would again increase
in numbers. The conservative lum-
bering could be added to the indus
tries of the island.
1t is also within the range of posi-
bilities that the black beach sands
which are concentrated by wave &C
ton at a few points might be made
to yield from their iron ores a return
for the labor of gathering them-Col-
lier Cobb in National Geographic Mag
azine
Modern importance Of Greek.
rI-l,o nara o,ir IynOwIadoe ic yvidnnnd