. The continent we live on. Physical geography; Natural history. Island, located off the Texas coast, is seventy miles long and is now connected with the mainland by a causeway and bridge at the southern end at the mouth of the Rio Grande so that cars can be driven its entire length along the beach. Third, inside this sandspit lies what is called the "Inland ; This is a shallow paradise for fish and fishing birds, and it is dotted and sometimes filled with low sand or salt-grass-covered islands between which meander narrow channels. To the land- ward side of this inland stre
. The continent we live on. Physical geography; Natural history. Island, located off the Texas coast, is seventy miles long and is now connected with the mainland by a causeway and bridge at the southern end at the mouth of the Rio Grande so that cars can be driven its entire length along the beach. Third, inside this sandspit lies what is called the "Inland ; This is a shallow paradise for fish and fishing birds, and it is dotted and sometimes filled with low sand or salt-grass-covered islands between which meander narrow channels. To the land- ward side of this inland stretch of water comes the coast line proper. This, the fourth belt or strip, alternates between vast open grass-covered marshes and bights with many creeks, chan- nels, and ponds, and stretches of sand beach rising to modest clifflike banks. These are old sand dunes. Some are covered with beautiful lush grass, whereas upon others stand continuous closed-canopy forests of evergreen oaks all leaning madly away from the sea and the wind. Their trunks are naked and very pale, and their lower limbs writhe like things possessed, while their dense, dark-green head foliage trails off landward like a semideflated air cushion. To landward of these marginal dunes lies the fifth coastal belt, which is the coastal plain, so called, known alternatively as the coastal prairies. These are not true prairies though in large part covered with very short grass. Upon them are many pools, ponds, and shallow lakes, and all about them meander dry chaparrals. Little groves of stunted gallery forest grow along the stream beds, and they are dotted with clumps of cactus, here mostly prickly pear, engulfed in herbs and thin-stemmed bushes and mesquite trees; there are also copses of stunted oaks and other trees. This country continues inland to the first low escarpment. Its soil is mostly sandy, with wedges of fine silt where rivers flow from the uplands. The same arrangement extends along the Mexican coast s
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