The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1907-05-17
Marching ATaIanolaS Of Blowing
Sand Crush Ont LIVING
Forests.
ON Tie ISLAND PRINCES OF THE
CAROLINAS.

No portion of the North American
continent is so widely known, and at
the same time so little known, as the
chain of low-lying islands and firing
ing sand reefs extending along the
North Carolina coast dor distance
OF more than 300 miles. This is espe-
cially true Of Hatteras island, a sand
spit whose dangerous projection and
shifting shoals have made this portion
OF our Atlantic seaboard a yeritable
graveyard Of American shipping
Distinguished scientists on both
sides Of the Atlantic have discussed
the origin of Cape Hatteras without
having set foot on the island or coast
ed along its shores. The origin Of
well nigh all the features Of this
coast have been discussed at long
range, and yet hardly half a dozen
people from the outside world have
any personal acquaintance with the
island
1t was on this coast that Fessenden
and Thiessen experimental success
fully with wireless telegraphy. At
Kitty Hawk, on these banks, the
Wrights conducted their experiments
in mechanical fight.
Though difficult Of access, the in
habitants of thees islands are in close
touch with the rest of the world by
means Of the telegraph and telephone
lines OF the United States Weather
Bureau and the life-saving service, as
well as by the wireless telegraph.
Those who watch the reports of
shipping need not be told that winds
are constant in this region. The
strong winds Of midWinter come from
the north, and the gentler steady
winds of midsummer and of the
greater part Of the year blow usually
from a littI4 west of south.
These CONSTANT winds were early
taken advantage of by the inhabi-
tants, and windmills for grinding corn
dot the whole chain of islands, though
most of them have now fallen into
disuse A small boy on Church's isl
and hauls freight for the people Of his
village on a car furnished with sail
and propelled by the wind.
The frequency Of wrecks upon this
coast is too well known to require
comment, though such is the efficiency
of the nfe-savers, who brave the per-
lis of any storm, that life is rarely
lost here; but the lightship has some
times been broken from its mornings
on Diamond Shoals and driven upon
the Hatteras banks.
The strong north winds pile the
sands up into great barchanes or me-
danos, cescentic sand dunes known
logically as whaleheads, which are
moving steadily southwark,
These are best developed along the
Currituck banks, from Virginia as far
south as the Kill Devil hills, and
numbers Of them may be seen to the
north and to the south from the top
of Currtuck light These whaleheads
are composed OF singularly homogene-
GUS blown sands, the horns or cusps
of the barchanes pointing to leeward
which is almost due south.
The prevailing winds from a little
west of south have rippled the hetero-
genous sands on Hatteras just south
of the cape, on ShacMeford at its
southwest extremity, and on the
southwest side of Smiths island.
These wind ripples, started in
sands exposed, by the removal of a
strip of forest next the shore, have
grown in size to great sand waves,
which are advancing on forests, fields
and homes. AS the sand wave has adj
vanced it has taken up several feet
of the loose soil over which it has
nassed undermining houses, laying
hare the roots Of trees, and exposing
the bones of the dead in the GENE
teries.
Diurnal winds from the sea have
niIed the sand into small wandering
dimes and hiIlocks, and even some
times into sand waves, which are
marching steadily inward and ShOal-
ing the waters Of the sounds.
At Mays Head a large hotel, con
stituting a solid obstruction, soon had
q sand wave built cup a short distance
in its rear until the level Of it's roof
was reached, when the wave moved
forward and enguIfed the hotel In the
immediate neighborhood two cottages
suffered a similar fate Here the
land gained on the sound $50 feet in
ten years.
On the northern end Of Hatteras
island a fishing village has been sim
iIarIv buried, while the sand has en-
tirelv crossed the island at several
nlaces north of the cape. This move
ment of the sand was started just af-
tor the civil war by the cutting OF