The Outer Lands: A Natural History Guide to Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Block Island, and Long Island

by Dorothy Sterling, Robert Finch (Foreword by), Winifred Lubell (Illustrator)

Overview

Did you know that horseshoe crabs have been around for 200 million years? That mussels "spin" long anchor lines and climb steep slopes with them? Do you know what a "Beetlebung" tree is?

This is all part of Dorothy Sterling's fascinating description of The Outer Lands, and the plants and animals that inhabit this peninsula and chain of islands along our New England coast.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393064414
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	06/17/1992
Series:	Natural History Guide to Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantuc
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dorothy Sterling (1913--2008) was a native New Yorker who lived for many years on Cape Cod in Wellfleet. She made many trips to Nantucket, Block Island, Martha's Vineyard, and Long Island. She was a painstaking and thorough researcher with a long list of natural history, biography, and fiction books to her credit.

Artist Winifred Lubell's wonderful drawings have illustrated many of Dorothy Sterling's natural history books. She also lives on Cape Cod.

Table of Contents

Foreword: A Second Look at Dorothy Sterling's the Outer Lands vii

Maps 2

Preface 7

I Birth of the Outer Lands 9

The Big Ice

The Hills

Plains and Ponds

The Sea's Work

Wind and Weather

5000 A.D.

II The Ocean Beach 21

Tides

Waves

Sand

The Wanderers

Mole Crabs and Sand Hoppers

Birds

Beachcombing

III Bays and Sounds 35

The Flats 35

Clams

Snails

Hermit Crabs

Worms Can Be Beautiful

Oyster Beds 57

Oyster Drills

Oyster Crabs

Jingle Shells

Boring Sponges

The Eelgrass Jungle 63

Mussels

Scallops

Starfish and Brittle Stars

Pipefish and Sea Horses

Rocky Shores 73

Seaweeds

Moss Animals

Rock Snails and Chitons

Barnacles

Lobsters

Sea Urchins and Sand Dollars

Sea Anemones

Coral

Wharfs and Breakwaters 92

Sponges

Sea Squirts

Shipworms

Shallow Water 98

Crabs

Horseshoe Crabs

Jellyfish

Squid

Birds 112

Plants of the Beach 117

IV The Marshes 121

Meadows by the Sea

The Creeks

See How They Run

Fiddlers on the Banks

The Marsh Community

Salt Plants

The Fresh Marsh

Marshes and Men

V The Dunes 143

Building a Dune

Dune Neighborhoods

Dune Forests

Anchors Aweigh

VI Ponds and Bogs 159

Still Waters

The Tide of Life

Birds

Pond Plants

Bogs

Appendix: Checklist of Scientific Names 173

Index 181

Editorial Reviews

"This book belongs in the hands of anyone who has ever been even remotely curious about the myriad forms of teeming organisms that surround us."

The Cape

"This lovely volume will never leave my library shelves until I again enter the enchanted land it describes."

Los Angeles Herald Examiner