The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1910-05-27

~ " E WHO goes to Southport goes
E 81 to the region of sandhills, as
the ancient name, North
b Meols," implies. Southport,
a n itself, both as a name and
place, is comparatively mod
ern, but the "Meols" are ancient
enough, for long before Jameson sang.
In 1886. it might have been said:
OF those chafre sands which doe in noun
tain rise
On shore it's pleasure to behold. which
Are called in worold: windie tempest
blows
Them up in heapes.
The above derivation will scarcely
be questioned now, though wild excur-
sions have been taken into the realm
of fanciful etymology in the past. One
imagined that "Meols' came from the
''meally" appearance of the sand; and
it has even been suggested that the
term was derived from two Greek
words, together meaning mot sea- or
mo longer sea-" The shore at South
port is a source of delight to the lover
of space and color, the play of the light
on this almost unique surface is fascin-
ating. The sand assumes many shades
and charming half-tones, according to
its different degrees of dryness and
the infringement of overwhelming light
upon it, and numerous streams, creeks
and pools break and contour with sinu-
Gus lines and silvery relief The sky,
too, with nothing to break the horizon
line but the distant sea, is wonderful
study, and as the setting sun nears its
dip" the slanting rays are shot be-
tween masses of cloud and at obtuse
angles along the shore, bringing out
light and shade and tone and semi
tone in distracting beauty. A walk
along the sands at low tide in the eve
ming light is a revelation of spacious
and quiet loneliness.
The sandhills are but seldom visited
save by those who know their secret,
and by the devotees of golf. The going
Is too hard for the ordinary pedestrian,
and they are voted monotonous by
those who do not look beneath the
surface. That surface is ever-changing
in its form and is never ten minutes
the same in high-lights and shadows;
every wind gives new shapes, and
every passing cloud alters the appear
ance, while the direction of the sun
(when the sky is clear) produce
series Of constantly changing effects.
The dunes are an object-lesson in
blown sand. Scarcely anywhere else
around the English coast are circum-
stances as favorable for this study as
here and further south along the same
shore.
Among the dunes themselves and
along the shore near at hand one may
lind the materials and forces which
have produced the sandhills as they
are now-after process extending, it
Is estimated, over a period of $500
years. The coast is low and fiat and
the tide recedes a great distance, only
at intervals approaching near to the
base of the line of dunes. The fiat ex-
panse of sand, rarely wholly covered,
dries on the surface and the particles
are blown along in clouds; between
the tides, too, the exposed surface rap
idly dries. To walk along the shore in
a high wind is to have ones clothes
filled with sand, and it is a curious
sight to look down from the Southport
pier on to the drifting clouds of sand
being hurried along below. If the
stroller along the shore be observant,
he may see the initial stage of many
sandhill at his feet. Where fragment
of shell or other small obstruction has
become fixed a few particles of the
blown sand come to stop against it
on the windward side; more and more
particles are brought up by the OBJ
struction, and other particles which
have surmounted it come to rest tout
of the wind" forming slanting tail"
on the leeward side. Here is minia-
ture dune, as perfect in its formation
and varying slopes as the giants of
it's kind; an illustration of the way in
which the mighty heaps of sand along
the coast (some of them rising to a
height of over eighty feet above mean
sea leveD began to be. On the exposed
shore these baby sandhills are swept
away by the next tide; but they illus
trate the genesis of the dunes. When
the blown sand reaches point above
tide-level it is no longer subject to
such interference as that which demoi-
ishes the tiny heap on the shore, and
SO the dunes are constantly being add
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