Part 13 (1/2)

THE yacht lay with a very slight heel (thanks to a pair of sh she had dug for herself, so that she was still ringed with a few inches of water, as it ith a moat

For miles in every direction lay a desert of sand To the north it touched the horizon, and was only broken by the blue dot of Neuerk Island and its lighthouse To the east it seemed also to stretch to infinity, but the smoke of a steamer shohere it was pierced by the stream of the Elbe To the south it ran up to the pencil-line of the Hanover shore Only to the as its outline broken by any vestiges of the sea it had risen fro white filaments, knotted confusedly at one spot in the north-west, whence ca of many snakes Desert as I call it, it was not entirely featureless Its colour varied frohest levels had dried in the wind, to brown or deep violet, where it was still wet, and slate-grey where patches of mud soiled its clean bosom Here and there were pools of water, smitten into ripples by the impotent wind; here and there it was speckled by shells and seaweed And close to us, beginning to bend away towards that hissing knot in the north-west, wound our poor little channel, nant, h to hide our se-anchor, which perked up one fluke in i in the rigging as though crying in despair for a prey that had escaped it, made the scene inexpressibly forlorn

Davies scanned it with gusto for a e on the boo the course of the channel

'Fairly well boomed,' he said, meditatively, 'but one or two are very much out By Jove! that's a tricky bend there' He took a bearing with the coorous leap down on to the sand

This, Iashore' that he really liked We raced off as fast as our clumsy sea-boots would let us, and followed up the course of our channel to the west, reconnoitring the road we should have to follohen the tide rose

'The only way to learn a place like this,' he shouted, 'is to see it at loater The banks are dry then, and the channels are plain

Look at that boom'--he stopped and pointed contemptuously--'it's all out of place I suppose the channel's shi+fted there It's just at an iuide when the water was up you'd run aground'

'Which would be very useful,' I observed

'Oh, hang it!' he laughed, 'we're exploring I want to be able to run through this channel without a mistake We will, next time' He stopped, and plied compass and notebook Then we raced on till the next halt was called

'Look,' he said, the channel's getting deeper, it was nearly dry a o; see the current in it now? That's the flood tide co up--from the _west,_ mind you; that is, from the Weser side That shoe're past the watershed'

'Watershed?' I repeated, blankly

'Yes, that's what I call it You see, a big sand such as this is like a range of hills dividing two plains, it's never dead flat though it looks it; there's always one point, one ridge, rather, where it's highest Now a channel cutting right through the sand is, of course, always at its shallohen it's crossing this ridge; at loater it's generally dry there, and it gradually deepens as it gets nearer to the sea on either side Now at high tide, when the whole sand is covered, the water can travel where it likes; but directly the ebb sets in the water falls away on either side the ridge and the channel beco in opposite directions _from_ the centre, or watershed, as I call it So, also, when the ebb has run out and the flood begins, the channel is fed by two currents flowing to the centre andin the middle Here the Elbe and the Weser are our two feeders Now this current here is going eastwards; we know by the ti, _therefore_ the watershed is between us and the yacht'

'Why is it so important to know that?'

'Because these currents are strong, and you want to knohen you'll lose a fair one and strike a foul one Besides, the ridge is the critical point when you're crossing on a falling tide, and you want to knohen you're past it'

We pushed on till our path was barred by a big lagoon It looked farthan the channel; but Davies, after a rapid scrutiny, treated it to a grunt of contempt

'It's a _cul de sac_,' he said 'See that hu for, beyond?'

'It's boo over the bank, and shaking a palsied finger at the i, it's an old cut that's silted up That boo fast I'll just take bearings of e can see'

The false lagoon was the first of several that began to be visible in the west, swelling and joining hands over the ribs of sand that divided therew nearer and louder, and a deep, thunderous note began to sound beneath it We turned our backs to the wind and hastened back towards the 'Dulcibella', the streaside of us

'There's just time to do the other side,' said Davies, e reached her, and I was congratulatingour communications cut And ae scurried in the direction we had co the infant runnels that were stealing out through rifts from the mother-channel as the tide rose Our observations coher ground to avoid the encroaching flood, and wading shi+n-deep in the final approach to the yacht

As I scrambled thankfully aboard, I seeuid depreciation of yachting, that it did not give one enough exercise It was o, in another life From east and west two sheets of water had overspread the desert, each pushi+ng out tongues of surf that met and fused

I waited on deck and watched the death-throes of the suffocating sands under the relentless onset of the sea The last strongholds were battered, stormed, and overwhelmed; the tumult of sounds sank and steadied, and the sea swept victoriously over the whole expanse

The 'Dulcibella', hitherto contes she received Then, with an effort, she jerked herself on to an even keel and bumped and strained fretfully, impatient to vanquish this insolent invader and htened and her nose swung slowly round; only her stern bu force

Suddenly she was free and drifting broadside to the wind till the anchor checked her and she brought up to leeward of it, rocking easily and triumphantly Good-humoured little person! At heart she was friends alike with sand and sea It was only when the old love and the new love were in mortal combat for her favours, and she was mauled in the _fracas_, that her temper rose in revolt

We sed a hasty cup of tea, ran up the sails, and started off west again Once across the 'watershed' we e was now more to the north-west, so that we could hold our course without tacking, and consequently could stem the tide 'Give her just a foot of the centre-plate,' said Davies

'We know the way here, and she'll enerally have to do without it always on a falling tide If you run aground with the plate down you deserve to be drowned' I no valuable our walk had been The boo no hint as to the breadth of the channel A few had lost their tops, and were being engulfed altogether by the rising water When we caoon had lain, I should have felt utterly lost We had crossed the high and relatively level sands which for the labyrinth of detached banks which obstruct the funnel-shaped cavity between the upper and s This I knew frorowing dark green as the depths increased; a dour, threatening sea, showing its white fangs The waves grew longer and steeper, for the channels, though still tortuous, now begin to be broad and deep