The Pink Pippos of Portland is a children's storybook written by Sandra Fretwell.
The eponymous Pink Pippos are fictional pink, hippo-like mammals, closely related to their cousins, the African hippos. They live under the waters of Lyme Bay, Dorset, United Kingdom, where they contribute to the world-famous Chesil Beach, which extends from West-Bay to Portland Harbour. The beach forms part of the "Jurassic Coast", a World Heritage Site.
A particular feature of the beach is the unusual natural phenomenon, pertaining to the carefully graded size of the pebbles from which it is composed. These pebbles are no bigger than shingle at the West Bay end, and gradually increase in size to that of a baked-potato, at its Southern-most end, on the Isle of Portland.
This grading is commonly attributed to longshore drift, but is in fact a result of the diligent labours of the Pippos. Living in "pods" of three or more, along its length, they work nocturnally to grade the pebbles, and thus maintain the integrity of the beach. Without their efforts there would most certainly be extensive flooding through the beach, leading to the Isle of Portland being cut off from the mainland.
Famous quotes containing the words pink and/or portland:
“Once they came on a maple in a glade,
Standing alone with smooth arms lifted up,
And every leaf of foliage she’d worn
Laid scarlet and pale pink about her feet.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“It is said that a carpenter building a summer hotel here ... declared that one very clear day he picked out a ship coming into Portland Harbor and could distinctly see that its cargo was West Indian rum. A county historian avers that it was probably an optical delusion, the result of looking so often through a glass in common use in those days.”
—For the State of New Hampshire, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)