Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1923-06-06
Light Station, Heron Neck, Maine.

eron Neck, Maine.
Ninety years later similar soundings
were taken, and in all cases the water
was found to be considerably deeper,
once again telling the tale of endless
warning.
Retreat of the Shore Line.
On the shore of Cape Cod, near
Chatham, the land is retreating at the
rate of foot a year, and on the
southern shore Of Martha's Vineyard
it is giving up the fight to the enemy
at the rate Of three feet every twelve
months, while on the southern face of
Nantucket the retreat has been as
much as six feet year, the records
tell US.
From Portland, Me-, to Cape Florida
there is fairly well-connected bar
rier of sand-reefs, all of them built I'D
by the sea and it's ally, the wind, from
the material pounded from the shore
line by the waves. From Chesapeake
bay to Biscayne bay, Florida, a dis
lance of 700 miles, there is a natural
rampant of sand so continuous, fenc-
ing such an unbroken series of lagoons
in from the sea, that it is possible to
make the entire journey through in
land waters without exposure to the
open sea.
In its incessant warfare against the
land, the sea literally takes it's cap
tured hosts and makes them do battle
under its command. The boulders
that are shattered from the face of a
cliff are dashed up against it again
| and again, hammering 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 nothing
to tell the story of forced fighting
against their own stronghold save
grains of sand on some distant beach
or the soft carpet spread upon the
floor of the sea many fathoms deep.
The waves always find a most vaIu-
able ally in the wind while their work
of coast-line transformation goes on.
The possibilities of the wind as a
worker in conjunction with the waves
are revealed when we consider that
| during a violent storm the air may
| hold In suspension as much as 10000
| tons of sand to the cubic mile This
sand, driven hither and thither, finds
resting place somewhere, and that
resting place is usually a dune along
| the shore.
How Sand Dunes Are Made.
A sand dune always has a humble
beginning. A piece Of wreckage cast
up by the waves may start it, or any
sort of obstacle lying upon the shore
may cause it to come into being Once
| started, the dune becomes a trap to
catch sand in. 1t takes it's toll of
every passing gust of wind, and thus
continues to grow and grow. Often
they keep advancing until they bury
| orchards, forests, and even buildings,
like great drifts of snow. Along the
coast Of New Jersey one may see or
chards which have been covered by
wind-blown sand within the memory
of man so that only the tops of the
trees now protrude above the surface.
1t is not exceptional to see a forest
invaded and sometimes even complete
| ly buried. To watch the struggles Of
the trees 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, and they con-
tinue to fight their battle month in
and month out, but generally they are
nnally completely engulfed.
The alternating burial and resurrec-
ton of forests is due mainly to the
tendency Of sand dunes to migrate.
On Hatteras island, North Carolina.
the migration of a dune literally
robbed cemetery of its dead, dashing
down the gravestones and exposing the
bones of the bodies buried there saws
Professor Cobb, an authority on the
subject Of beach formations.
On the northern end of Hatteras
island fishing village has been CON-
pletely buried, while the sand has en-
tirely crossed the island at several
places north of Cape Hatteras. This
movement Of sand was started Just
after the Civil war by the cutting Of
trees for ship timbers, and, although
the section is known today as the
Great Woods, there Is not a stick of
timber to be seen.