Part 1

The Great Beach

Books by John Hay:

A PRIVATE HISTORY THE RUN NATURE’S YEAR A SENSE OF NATURE (with Arline Strong) THE GREAT BEACH

The Great Beach

JOHN HAY

ILLUSTRATED BY DAVID GROSE

Doubleday & Company, Inc. Garden City, New York 1963

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 63-18198 Copyright © 1963 by John Hay All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America First Edition

To Conrad and Mary Aiken Henry and Gertrude Kittredge

Foreword

I suppose that anyone writing another book about Cape Cod can be convicted of temerity, in the face of such predecessors as the three Henrys--Thoreau, Beston, and Kittredge--as well as Dr. Wyman Richardson. However, each to his own eye. I write about the Cape because of the circumstances of living there, long enough to have begun to learn a little about it; also, the coast is long and the sea will not stop with the outer beach. All Americans who not only love nature but stand in awe of it will be more and more hard put to explain their reasons, as we crowd our magnificent land and diminish it in proportion to the size of our demands. In The Great Beach are some of my reasons.

I am grateful to Dr. Alfred C. Redfield, Dr. John M. Zeigler, Mr. Joseph Chace, Dr. Loren C. Petry, Dr. Howard L. Sanders, and Dr. Ransom Somers for various assistance during the writing of this book, and hope they will not have any serious objections to the way I have used such information as they may have given me. This book also owes a great deal to the discerning and useful criticisms made by Richard K. Winslow, of Doubleday.

Contents

Foreword vii

I--From a Distance 1

II--An Unimagined Frontier 8

III--The Resources of the Sea 18

IV--A Rhythmic Shore 26

V--Dune Country 35

VI--A Change in History 46

VII--Barren Grounds 56

VIII--A Landscape in Motion 63

IX--Who Owns the Beach? 76

X--Deer Week 87

XI--Impermanence Takes Its Stand 93

XII--The Depths of Sight 99

XIII--The Flight of Birds 107

XIV--The Marsh 116