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diff --git a/34392-0.txt b/34392-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f93f7cb --- /dev/null +++ b/34392-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7638 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Cape Cod, by Henry David Thoreau + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: Cape Cod + +Author: Henry D. Thoreau + +Illustrator: Clifton Johnson + +Release Date: November 21, 2010 [eBook #34392] +[Most recently updated: December 10, 2022] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Steve Mattern + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPE COD *** + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + +Cape Cod + +by Henry David Thoreau + +Author of “A Week on the Concord,” “Walden,” +“Excursions,” “The Maine Woods,” etc. + +ILLUSTRATED BY +CLIFTON JOHNSON + +[Illustration] + +NEW YORK +THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. +PUBLISHERS + +Copyright, 1908 +By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. +THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. + +Contents + + INTRODUCTION + I. The Shipwreck + II. Stage-coach Views + III. The Plains Of Nauset + IV. The Beach + V. The Wellfleet Oysterman + VI. The Beach Again + VII. Across the Cape + VIII. The Highland Light + IX. The Sea and the Desert + X. Provincetown + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + The Clam-Digger (Photogravure) + Cohasset—The little cove at Whitehead promontory + An old windmill + A street in Sandwich + The old Higgins tavern at Orleans + A Nauset lane + Nauset Bay + A scarecrow + Millennium Grove camp-meeting grounds + A Cape Cod citizen + Wreckage under the sand-bluff + Herring River at Wellfleet + A characteristic gable with many windows + A Wellfleet oysterman + Wellfleet + Hunting for a leak + Truro—Starting on a voyage + Unloading the day’s catch + A Truro footpath + Truro meeting-house on the hill + A herd of cows + Pond Village + Dragging a dory up on the beach + An old wrecker at home + The Highland Light + Towing along shore + A cranberry meadow + The sand dunes drifting in upon the trees + The white breakers on the Atlantic side + In Provincetown harbor + Provincetown—A bit of the village from the wharf + The day of rest + A Provincetown fishing-vessel + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Of the group of notables who in the middle of the last century made the +little Massachusetts town of Concord their home, and who thus conferred +on it a literary fame both unique and enduring, Thoreau is the only one +who was Concord born. His neighbor, Emerson, had sought the place in +mature life for rural retirement, and after it became his chosen +retreat, Hawthorne, Alcott, and the others followed; but Thoreau, the +most peculiar genius of them all, was native to the soil. + +In 1837, at the age of twenty, he graduated from Harvard, and for three +years taught school in his home town. Then he applied himself to the +business in which his father was engaged,—the manufacture of lead +pencils. He believed he could make a better pencil than any at that +time in use; but when he succeeded and his friends congratulated him +that he had now opened his way to fortune he responded that he would +never make another pencil. “Why should I?” said he. “I would not do +again what I have done once.” + +So he turned his attention to miscellaneous studies and to nature. When +he wanted money he earned it by some piece of manual labor agreeable to +him, as building a boat or a fence, planting, or surveying. He never +married, very rarely went to church, did not vote, refused to pay a tax +to the State, ate no flesh, drank no wine, used no tobacco; and for a +long time he was simply an oddity in the estimation of his +fellow-townsmen. But when they at length came to understand him better +they recognized his genuineness and sincerity and his originality, and +they revered and admired him. He was entirely independent of the +conventional, and his courage to live as he saw fit and to defend and +uphold what he believed to be right never failed him. Indeed, so +devoted was he to principle and his own ideals that he seems never to +have allowed himself one indifferent or careless moment. + +He was a man of the strongest local attachments, and seldom wandered +beyond his native township. A trip abroad did not tempt him in the +least. It would mean in his estimation just so much time lost for +enjoying his own village, and he says: “At best, Paris could only be a +school in which to learn to live here—a stepping-stone to Concord.” + +He had a very pronounced antipathy to the average prosperous city man, +and in speaking of persons of this class remarks: “They do a little +business commonly each day in order to pay their board, and then they +congregate in sitting-rooms, and feebly fabulate and paddle in the +social slush, and go unashamed to their beds and take on a new layer of +sloth.” + +The men he loved were those of a more primitive sort, unartificial, +with the daring to cut loose from the trammels of fashion and inherited +custom. Especially he liked the companionship of men who were in close +contact with nature. A half-wild Irishman, or some rude farmer, or +fisherman, or hunter, gave him real delight; and for this reason, Cape +Cod appealed to him strongly. It was then a very isolated portion of +the State, and its dwellers were just the sort of independent, +self-reliant folk to attract him. In his account of his rambles there +the human element has large place, and he lingers fondly over the +characteristics of his chance acquaintances and notes every salient +remark. They, in turn, no doubt found him interesting, too, though the +purposes of the wanderer were a good deal of a mystery to them, and +they were inclined to think he was a pedler. + +His book was the result of several journeys, but the only trip of which +he tells us in detail was in October. That month, therefore, was the +one I chose for my own visit to the Cape when I went to secure the +series of pictures that illustrate this edition; for I wished to see +the region as nearly as possible in the same guise that Thoreau +describes it. From Sandwich, where his record of Cape experiences +begins, and where the inner shore first takes a decided turn eastward, +I followed much the same route he had travelled in 1849, clear to +Provincetown, at the very tip of the hook. + +Thoreau has a good deal to say of the sandy roads and toilsome walking. +In that respect there has been marked improvement, for latterly a large +proportion of the main highway has been macadamed. Yet one still +encounters plenty of the old yielding sand roads that make travel a +weariness either on foot or in teams. Another feature to which the +nature lover again and again refers is the windmills. The last of these +ceased grinding a score of years ago, though several continue to stand +in fairly perfect condition. There have been changes on the Cape, but +the landscape in the main presents the same appearance it did in +Thoreau’s time. As to the people, if you see them in an unconventional +way, tramping as Thoreau did, their individuality retains much of the +interest that he discovered. + +Our author’s report of his trip has a piquancy that is quite alluring. +This might be said of all his books, for no matter what he wrote about, +his comments were certain to be unusual; and it is as much or more for +the revelations of his own tastes, thoughts, and idiosyncrasies that we +read him as for the subject matter with which he deals. He had +published only two books when he died in 1862 at the age of forty-four, +and his “Cape Cod” did not appear until 1865. Nor did the public at +first show any marked interest in his books. During his life, +therefore, the circle of his admirers was very small, but his fame has +steadily increased since, and the stimulus of his lively descriptions +and observations seems certain of enduring appreciation. + +Clifton Johnson. + +Hadley, Mass. + + + + +I +THE SHIPWRECK + + +Wishing to get a better view than I had yet had of the ocean, which, we +are told, covers more than two-thirds of the globe, but of which a man +who lives a few miles inland may never see any trace, more than of +another world, I made a visit to Cape Cod in October, 1849, another the +succeeding June, and another to Truro in July, 1855; the first and last +time with a single companion, the second time alone. I have spent, in +all, about three weeks on the Cape; walked from Eastham to +Provincetown twice on the Atlantic side, and once on the Bay side +also, excepting four or five miles, and crossed the Cape half a dozen +times on my way; but having come so fresh to the sea, I have got but +little salted. My readers must expect only so much saltness as the land +breeze acquires from blowing over an arm of the sea, or is tasted on +the windows and the bark of trees twenty miles inland, after September +gales. I have been accustomed to make excursions to the ponds within +ten miles of Concord, but latterly I have extended my excursions to the +seashore. + +I did not see why I might not make a book on Cape Cod, as well as my +neighbor on “Human Culture.” It is but another name for the same thing, +and hardly a sandier phase of it. As for my title, I suppose that the +word Cape is from the French _cap_; which is from the Latin _caput_, a +head; which is, perhaps, from the verb _capere_, to take,—that being +the part by which we take hold of a thing:—Take Time by the forelock. +It is also the safest part to take a serpent by. And as for Cod, that +was derived directly from that “great store of codfish” which Captain +Bartholomew Gosnold caught there in 1602; which fish appears to have +been so called from the Saxon word _codde_, “a case in which seeds are +lodged,” either from the form of the fish, or the quantity of spawn it +contains; whence also, perhaps, _codling_ (_pomum coctile?_) and +coddle,—to cook green like peas. (V. Dic.) + +Cape Cod is the bared and bended arm of Massachusetts: the shoulder is +at Buzzard’s Bay; the elbow, or crazy-bone, at Cape Mallebarre; the +wrist at Truro; and the sandy fist at Provincetown,—behind which the +State stands on her guard, with her back to the Green Mountains, and +her feet planted on the floor of the ocean, like an athlete protecting +her Bay,—boxing with northeast storms, and, ever and anon, heaving up +her Atlantic adversary from the lap of earth,—ready to thrust forward +her other fist, which keeps guard the while upon her breast at Cape +Ann. + +On studying the map, I saw that there must be an uninterrupted beach on +the east or outside of the forearm of the Cape, more than thirty miles +from the general line of the coast, which would afford a good sea view, +but that, on account of an opening in the beach, forming the entrance +to Nauset Harbor, in Orleans, I must strike it in Eastham, if I +approached it by land, and probably I could walk thence straight to +Race Point, about twenty-eight miles, and not meet with any +obstruction. + +We left Concord, Massachusetts, on Tuesday, October 9th, 1849. On +reaching Boston, we found that the Provincetown steamer, which should +have got in the day before, had not yet arrived, on account of a +violent storm; and, as we noticed in the streets a handbill headed, +“Death! one hundred and forty-five lives lost at Cohasset,” we decided +to go by way of Cohasset. We found many Irish in the cars, going to +identify bodies and to sympathize with the survivors, and also to +attend the funeral which was to take place in the afternoon;—and when +we arrived at Cohasset, it appeared that nearly all the passengers were +bound for the beach, which was about a mile distant, and many other +persons were flocking in from the neighboring country. There were +several hundreds of them streaming off over Cohasset common in that +direction, some on foot and some in wagons,—and among them were some +sportsmen in their hunting-jackets, with their guns, and game-bags, and +dogs. As we passed the graveyard we saw a large hole, like a cellar, +freshly dug there, and, just before reaching the shore, by a pleasantly +winding and rocky road, we met several hay-riggings and farm-wagons +coming away toward the meeting-house, each loaded with three large, +rough deal boxes. We did not need to ask what was in them. The owners +of the wagons were made the undertakers. Many horses in carriages were +fastened to the fences near the shore, and, for a mile or more, up and +down, the beach was covered with people looking out for bodies, and +examining the fragments of the wreck. There was a small island called +Brook Island, with a hut on it, lying just off the shore. This is said +to be the rockiest shore in Massachusetts, from Nantasket to +Scituate,—hard sienitic rocks, which the waves have laid bare, but have +not been able to crumble. It has been the scene of many a shipwreck. + +The brig _St. John_, from Galway, Ireland, laden with emigrants, was +wrecked on Sunday morning; it was now Tuesday morning, and the sea was +still breaking violently on the rocks. There were eighteen or twenty of +the same large boxes that I have mentioned, lying on a green hillside, +a few rods from the water, and surrounded by a crowd. The bodies which +had been recovered, twenty-seven or eight in all, had been collected +there. Some were rapidly nailing down the lids, others were carting the +boxes away, and others were lifting the lids, which were yet loose, and +peeping under the cloths, for each body, with such rags as still +adhered to it, was covered loosely with a white sheet. I witnessed no +signs of grief, but there was a sober dispatch of business which was +affecting. One man was seeking to identify a particular body, and one +undertaker or carpenter was calling to another to know in what box a +certain child was put. I saw many marble feet and matted heads as the +cloths were raised, and one livid, swollen, and mangled body of a +drowned girl,—who probably had intended to go out to service in some +American family,—to which some rags still adhered, with a string, half +concealed by the flesh, about its swollen neck; the coiled-up wreck of +a human hulk, gashed by the rocks or fishes, so that the bone and +muscle were exposed, but quite bloodless,—merely red and white,—with +wide-open and staring eyes, yet lustreless, dead-lights; or like the +cabin windows of a stranded vessel, filled with sand. Sometimes there +were two or more children, or a parent and child, in the same box, and +on the lid would perhaps be written with red chalk, “Bridget +such-a-one, and sister’s child.” The surrounding sward was covered with +bits of sails and clothing. I have since heard, from one who lives by +this beach, that a woman who had come over before, but had left her +infant behind for her sister to bring, came and looked into these boxes +and saw in one,—probably the same whose superscription I have +quoted,—her child in her sister’s arms, as if the sister had meant to +be found thus; and within three days after, the mother died from the +effect of that sight. + +We turned from this and walked along the rocky shore. In the first cove +were strewn what seemed the fragments of a vessel, in small pieces +mixed with sand and sea-weed, and great quantities of feathers; but it +looked so old and rusty, that I at first took it to be some old wreck +which had lain there many years. I even thought of Captain Kidd, and +that the feathers were those which sea-fowl had cast there; and perhaps +there might be some tradition about it in the neighborhood. I asked a +sailor if that was the _St. John_. He said it was. I asked him where +she struck. He pointed to a rock in front of us, a mile from the shore, +called the Grampus Rock, and added: + +“You can see a part of her now sticking up; it looks like a small +boat.” + +I saw it. It was thought to be held by the chain-cables and the +anchors. I asked if the bodies which I saw were all that were drowned. + +“Not a quarter of them,” said he. + +“Where are the rest?” + +“Most of them right underneath that piece you see.” + +It appeared to us that there was enough rubbish to make the wreck of a +large vessel in this cove alone, and that it would take many days to +cart it off. It was several feet deep, and here and there was a bonnet +or a jacket on it. In the very midst of the crowd about this wreck, +there were men with carts busily collecting the sea-weed which the +storm had cast up, and conveying it beyond the reach of the tide, +though they were often obliged to separate fragments of clothing from +it, and they might at any moment have found a human body under it. +Drown who might, they did not forget that this weed was a valuable +manure. This shipwreck had not produced a visible vibration in the +fabric of society. + +About a mile south we could see, rising above the rocks, the masts of +the British brig which the _St. John_ had endeavored to follow, which +had slipped her cables and, by good luck, run into the mouth of +Cohasset Harbor. A little further along the shore we saw a man’s +clothes on a rock; further, a woman’s scarf, a gown, a straw bonnet, +the brig’s caboose, and one of her masts high and dry, broken into +several pieces. In another rocky cove, several rods from the water, and +behind rocks twenty feet high, lay a part of one side of the vessel, +still hanging together. It was, perhaps, forty feet long, by fourteen +wide. I was even more surprised at the power of the waves, exhibited on +this shattered fragment, than I had been at the sight of the smaller +fragments before. The largest timbers and iron braces were broken +superfluously, and I saw that no material could withstand the power of +the waves; that iron must go to pieces in such a case, and an iron +vessel would be cracked up like an egg-shell on the rocks. Some of +these timbers, however, were so rotten that I could almost thrust my +umbrella through them. They told us that some were saved on this piece, +and also showed where the sea had heaved it into this cove, which was +now dry. When I saw where it had come in, and in what condition, I +wondered that any had been saved on it. A little further on a crowd of +men was collected around the mate of the _St. John_, who was telling +his story. He was a slim-looking youth, who spoke of the captain as the +master, and seemed a little excited. He was saying that when they +jumped into the boat, she filled, and, the vessel lurching, the weight +of the water in the boat caused the painter to break, and so they were +separated. Whereat one man came away, saying:— + +“Well, I don’t see but he tells a straight story enough. You see, the +weight of the water in the boat broke the painter. A boat full of water +is very heavy,”—and so on, in a loud and impertinently earnest tone, as +if he had a bet depending on it, but had no humane interest in the +matter. + +Another, a large man, stood near by upon a rock, gazing into the sea, +and chewing large quids of tobacco, as if that habit were forever +confirmed with him. + +“Come,” says another to his companion, “let’s be off. We’ve seen the +whole of it. It’s no use to stay to the funeral.” + +Further, we saw one standing upon a rock, who, we were told, was one +that was saved. He was a sober-looking man, dressed in a jacket and +gray pantaloons, with his hands in the pockets. I asked him a few +questions, which he answered; but he seemed unwilling to talk about it, +and soon walked away. By his side stood one of the life-boatmen, in an +oil-cloth jacket, who told us how they went to the relief of the +British brig, thinking that the boat of the _St. John_, which they +passed on the way, held all her crew,—for the waves prevented their +seeing those who were on the vessel, though they might have saved some +had they known there were any there. A little further was the flag of +the _St. John_ spread on a rock to dry, and held down by stones at the +corners. This frail, but essential and significant portion of the +vessel, which had so long been the sport of the winds, was sure to +reach the shore. There were one or two houses visible from these rocks, +in which were some of the survivors recovering from the shock which +their bodies and minds had sustained. One was not expected to live. + +We kept on down the shore as far as a promontory called Whitehead, that +we might see more of the Cohasset Rocks. In a little cove, within half +a mile, there were an old man and his son collecting, with their team, +the sea-weed which that fatal storm had cast up, as serenely employed +as if there had never been a wreck in the world, though they were +within sight of the Grampus Rock, on which the _St. John_ had struck. +The old man had heard that there was a wreck, and knew most of the +particulars, but he said that he had not been up there since it +happened. It was the wrecked weed that concerned him most, rock-weed, +kelp, and sea-weed, as he named them, which he carted to his barn-yard; +and those bodies were to him but other weeds which the tide cast up, +but which were of no use to him. We afterwards came to the life-boat in +its harbor, waiting for another emergency,—and in the afternoon we saw +the funeral procession at a distance, at the head of which walked the +captain with the other survivors. + +On the whole, it was not so impressive a scene as I might have +expected. If I had found one body cast upon the beach in some lonely +place, it would have affected me more. I sympathized rather with the +winds and waves, as if to toss and mangle these poor human bodies was +the order of the day. If this was the law of Nature, why waste any time +in awe or pity? If the last day were come, we should not think so much +about the separation of friends or the blighted prospects of +individuals. I saw that corpses might be multiplied, as on the field of +battle, till they no longer affected us in any degree, as exceptions to +the common lot of humanity. Take all the graveyards together, they are +always the majority. It is the individual and private that demands our +sympathy. A man can attend but one funeral in the course of his life, +can behold but one corpse. Yet I saw that the inhabitants of the shore +would be not a little affected by this event. They would watch there +many days and nights for the sea to give up its dead, and their +imaginations and sympathies would supply the place of mourners far +away, who as yet knew not of the wreck. Many days after this, something +white was seen floating on the water by one who was sauntering on the +beach. It was approached in a boat, and found to be the body of a +woman, which had risen in an upright position, whose white cap was +blown back with the wind. I saw that the beauty of the shore itself was +wrecked for many a lonely walker there, until he could perceive, at +last, how its beauty was enhanced by wrecks like this, and it acquired +thus a rarer and sublimer beauty still. + + +[Illustration: Cohasset, The little cove at Whitehead promontory] + +Why care for these dead bodies? They really have no friends but the +worms or fishes. Their owners were coming to the New World, as Columbus +and the Pilgrims did,—they were within a mile of its shores; but, +before they could reach it, they emigrated to a newer world than ever +Columbus dreamed of, yet one of whose existence we believe that there +is far more universal and convincing evidence—though it has not yet +been discovered by science—than Columbus had of this; not merely +mariners’ tales and some paltry drift-wood and sea-weed, but a +continual drift and instinct to all our shores. I saw their empty hulks +that came to land; but they themselves, meanwhile, were cast upon some +shore yet further west, toward which we are all tending, and which we +shall reach at last, it may be through storm and darkness, as they did. +No doubt, we have reason to thank God that they have not been +“shipwrecked into life again.” The mariner who makes the safest port in +Heaven, perchance, seems to his friends on earth to be shipwrecked, for +they deem Boston Harbor the better place; though perhaps invisible to +them, a skillful pilot comes to meet him, and the fairest and balmiest +gales blow off that coast, his good ship makes the land in halcyon +days, and he kisses the shore in rapture there, while his old hulk +tosses in the surf here. It is hard to part with one’s body, but, no +doubt, it is easy enough to do without it when once it is gone. All +their plans and hopes burst like a bubble! Infants by the score dashed +on the rocks by the enraged Atlantic Ocean! No, no! If the _St. John_ +did not make her port here, she has been telegraphed there. The +strongest wind cannot stagger a Spirit; it is a Spirit’s breath. A just +man’s purpose cannot be split on any Grampus or material rock, but +itself will split rocks till it succeeds. + +The verses addressed to Columbus, dying, may, with slight alterations, +be applied to the passengers of the _St. John:_— + +“Soon with them will all be over, +Soon the voyage will be begun +That shall bear them to discover, +Far away, a land unknown. + +“Land that each, alone, must visit, +But no tidings bring to men; +For no sailor, once departed, +Ever hath returned again. + +“No carved wood, no broken branches, +Ever drift from that far wild; +He who on that ocean launches +Meets no corse of angel child. + +“Undismayed, my noble sailors, +Spread, then spread your canvas out; +Spirits! on a sea of ether +Soon shall ye serenely float! + +“Where the deep no plummet soundeth, +Fear no hidden breakers there, +And the fanning wing of angels +Shall your bark right onward bear. + +“Quit, now, full of heart and comfort, +These rude shores, they are of earth; +Where the rosy clouds are parting, +There the blessed isles loom forth.” + + +One summer day, since this, I came this way, on foot, along the shore +from Boston. It was so warm that some horses had climbed to the very +top of the ramparts of the old fort at Hull, where there was hardly +room to turn round, for the sake of the breeze. The _Datura +stramonium_, or thorn-apple, was in full bloom along the beach; and, at +sight of this cosmopolite,—this Captain Cook among plants,—carried in +ballast all over the world, I felt as if I were on the highway of +nations. Say, rather, this Viking, king of the Bays, for it is not an +innocent plant; it suggests not merely commerce, but its attend-ant +vices, as if its fibres were the stuff of which pirates spin their +yarns. I heard the voices of men shouting aboard a vessel, half a mile +from the shore, which sounded as if they were in a barn in the country, +they being between the sails. It was a purely rural sound. As I looked +over the water, I saw the isles rapidly wasting away, the sea nibbling +voraciously at the continent, the springing arch of a hill suddenly +interrupted, as at Point Alderton,—what botanists might call +premorse,—showing, by its curve against the sky, how much space it must +have occupied, where now was water only, On the other hand, these +wrecks of isles were being fancifully arranged into new shores, as at +Hog Island, inside of Hull, where everything seemed to be gently +lapsing, into futurity. This isle had got the very form of a +ripple,—and I thought that the inhabitants should bear a ripple for +device on their shields, a wave passing over them, with the _datura_, +which is said to produce mental alienation of long duration without +affecting the bodily health,[1] springing from its edge. The most +interesting thing which I heard of, in this township of Hull, was an +unfailing spring, whose locality was pointed out to me, on the side of +a distant hill, as I was panting along the shore, though I did not +visit it. Perhaps, if I should go through Rome, it would be some spring +on the Capitoline Hill I should remember the longest. It is true, I was +somewhat interested in the well at the old French fort, which was said +to be ninety feet deep, with a cannon at the bottom of it. On Nantasket +beach I counted a dozen chaises from the public-house. From time to +time the riders turned their horses toward the sea, standing in the +water for the coolness,—and I saw the value of beaches to cities for +the sea breeze and the bath. + +At Jerusalem village the inhabitants were collecting in haste, before a +thunder-shower now approaching, the Irish moss which they had spread to +dry. The shower passed on one side, and gave me a few drops only, which +did not cool the air. I merely felt a puff upon my cheek, though, +within sight, a vessel was capsized in the bay, and several others +dragged their anchors, and were near going ashore. The sea-bathing at +Cohasset Rocks was perfect. The water was purer and more transparent +than any I had ever seen. There was not a particle of mud or slime +about it. The bottom being sandy, I could see the sea-perch swimming +about. The smooth and fantastically worn rocks, and the perfectly clean +and tress-like rock-weeds falling over you, and attached so firmly to +the rocks that you could pull yourself up by them, greatly enhanced the +luxury of the bath. The stripe of barnacles just above the weeds +reminded me of some vegetable growth,—the buds, and petals, and +seed-vessels of flowers. They lay along the seams of the rock like +buttons on a waistcoat. It was one of the hottest days in the year, yet +I found the water so icy cold that I could swim but a stroke or two, +and thought that, in case of shipwreck, there would be more danger of +being chilled to death than simply drowned. One immersion was enough to +make you forget the dog-days utterly. Though you were sweltering +before, it will take you half an hour now to remember that it was ever +warm. There were the tawny rocks, like lions couchant, defying the +ocean, whose waves incessantly dashed against and scoured them with +vast quantities of gravel. The water held in their little hollows, on +the receding of the tide, was so crystalline that I could not believe +it salt, but wished to drink it; and higher up were basins of fresh +water left by the rain,—all which, being also of different depths and +temperature, were convenient for different kinds of baths. Also, the +larger hollows in the smoothed rocks formed the most convenient of +seats and dressing-rooms. In these respects it was the most perfect +seashore that I had seen. + +I saw in Cohasset, separated from the sea only by a narrow beach, a +handsome but shallow lake of some four hundred acres, which, I was +told, the sea had tossed over the beach in a great storm in the spring, +and, after the alewives had passed into it, it had stopped up its +outlet, and now the alewives were dying: by thousands, and the +inhabitants were apprehending a pestilence as the water evaporated. It +had live rocky islets in it. + +This Rock shore is called Pleasant Cove, on some maps; on the map of +Cohasset, that name appears to be confined to the particular cove where +I saw the wreck of the St. John. The ocean did not look, now, as if +any were ever shipwrecked in it; it was not grand and sublime, but +beautiful as a lake. Not a vestige of a wreck was visible, nor could I +believe that the bones of many a shipwrecked man were buried in that +pure sand. But to go on with our first excursion. + + [1] The Jamestown weed (or thorn-apple). “This, being an early plant, + was gathered very young for a boiled salad, by some of the soldiers + sent thither [_i.e._ to Virginia] to quell the rebellion of Bacon; and + some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very + pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several + days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart + straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting up + in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows at them; a fourth + would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces, + with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll. In this + frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, in their + folly, destroy themselves,—though it was observed that all their + actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed, they were not + very cleanly. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after + eleven days returned to themselves again, not remembering anything + that had passed.”—Beverly’s _History of Virginia_, p. 120. + + + + +II +STAGE COACH VIEWS + + +After spending the night in Bridgewater, and picking up a few +arrow-heads there in the morning, we took the cars for Sandwich, where +we arrived before noon. This was the terminus of the “Cape Cod +Railroad,” though it is but the beginning of the Cape. As it rained +hard, with driving mists, and there was no sign of its holding up, we +here took that almost obsolete conveyance, the stage, for “as far as it +went that day,” as we told the driver. We had forgotten how far a +stage could go in a day, but we were told that the Cape roads were very +“heavy,” though they added that, being of sand, the rain would improve +them. This coach was an exceedingly narrow one, but as there was a +slight spherical excess over two on a seat, the driver waited till nine +passengers had got in, without taking the measure of any of them, and +then shut the door after two or three ineffectual slams, as if the +fault were all in the hinges or the latch,—while we timed our +inspirations and expirations so as to assist him. + +We were now fairly on the Cape, which extends from Sandwich eastward +thirty-five miles, and thence north and northwest thirty more, in all +sixty-five, and has an average breadth of about five miles. In the +interior it rises to the height of two hundred, and sometimes perhaps +three hundred feet above the level of the sea. According to Hitchcock, +the geologist of the State, it is composed almost entirely of sand, +even to the depth of three hundred feet in some places, though there is +probably a concealed core of rock a little beneath the surface, and it +is of diluvian origin, excepting a small portion at the extremity and +elsewhere along the shores, which is alluvial. For the first half of +the Cape large blocks of stone are found, here and there, mixed with +the sand, but for the last thirty miles boulders, or even gravel, are +rarely met with. Hitchcock conjectures that the ocean has, in course of +time, eaten out Boston Harbor and other bays in the mainland, and that +the minute fragments have been deposited by the currents at a distance +from the shore, and formed this sand-bank. Above the sand, if the +surface is subjected to agricultural tests, there is found to be a thin +layer of soil gradually diminishing from Barnstable to Truro, where it +ceases; but there are many holes and rents in this weather-beaten +garment not likely to be stitched in time, which reveal the naked flesh +of the Cape, and its extremity is completely bare. + +I at once got out my book, the eighth volume of the Collections of the +Massachusetts Historical Society, printed in 1802, which contains some +short notices of the Cape towns, and began to read up to where I was, +for in the cars I could not read as fast as I travelled. To those who +came from the side of Plymouth, it said: “After riding through a body +of woods, twelve miles in extent, interspersed with but few houses, the +settlement of Sandwich appears, with a more agreeable effect, to the +eye of the traveller.” Another writer speaks of this as a _beautiful_ +village. But I think that our villages will bear to be contrasted only +with one another, not with Nature. I have no great respect for the +writer’s taste, who talks easily about beautiful villages, embellished, +perchance, with a “fulling-mill,” “a handsome academy,” or +meeting-house, and “a number of shops for the different mechanic arts”; +where the green and white houses of the gentry, drawn up in rows, front +on a street of which it would be difficult to tell whether it is most +like a desert or a long stable-yard. Such spots can be beautiful only +to the weary traveller, or the returning native,—or, perchance, the +repentant misanthrope; not to him who, with unprejudiced senses, has +just come out of the woods, and approaches one of them, by a bare road, +through a succession of straggling homesteads where he cannot tell +which is the alms-house. However, as for Sandwich, I cannot speak +particularly. Ours was but half a Sandwich at most, and that must have +fallen on the buttered side some time. I only saw that it was a closely +built town for a small one, with glass-works to improve its sand, and +narrow streets in which we turned round and round till we could not +tell which way we were going, and the rain came in, first on this side, +and then on that, and I saw that they in the houses were more +comfortable than we in the coach. My book also said of this town, “The +inhabitants, in general, are substantial livers.”—that is. I suppose, +they do not live like philosophers: but, as the stage did not stop long +enough for us to dine, we had no opportunity to test the truth of this +statement. It may have referred, however, to the quantity “of oil they +would yield.” It further said, “The inhabitants of Sandwich generally +manifest a fond and steady adherence to the manners, employments, and +modes of living which characterized their fathers”; which made me think +that they were, after all, very much like all the rest of the +world;—and it added that this was “a resemblance, which, at this day, +will constitute no impeachment of either their virtue or taste”: which +remark proves to me that the writer was one with the rest of them. No +people ever lived by cursing their fathers, however great a curse their +fathers might have been to them. But it must be confessed that ours was +old authority, and probably they have changed all that now. + + +[Illustration: An old windmill] + +Our route was along the Bay side, through Barnstable, Yarmouth, Dennis, +and Brewster, to Orleans, with a range of low hills on our right, +running down the Cape. The weather was not favorable for wayside views, +but we made the most of such glimpses of land and water as we could get +through the rain. The country was, for the most part, bare, or with +only a little scrubby wood left on the hills. We noticed in +Yarmouth—and, if I do not mistake, in Dennis—large tracts where +pitch-pines were planted four or five years before. They were in rows, +as they appeared when we were abreast of them, and, excepting that +there were extensive vacant spaces, seemed to be doing remarkably well. +This, we were told, was the only use to which such tracts could be +profitably put. Every higher eminence had a pole set up on it, with an +old storm-coat or sail tied to it, for a signal, that those on the +south side of the Cape, for instance, might know when the Boston +packets had arrived on the north. It appeared as if this use must +absorb the greater part of the old clothes of the Cape, leaving but few +rags for the pedlers. The wind-mills on the hills,—large +weather-stained octagonal structures,—and the salt-works scattered all +along the shore, with their long rows of vats resting on piles driven +into the marsh, their low, turtle-like roofs, and their slighter +wind-mills, were novel and interesting objects to an inlander. The sand +by the road-side was partially covered with bunches of a moss-like +plant, _Hudsonia tomentosa_, which a woman in the stage told us was +called “poverty-grass,” because it grew where nothing else would. + +I was struck by the pleasant equality which reigned among the stage +company, and their broad and invulnerable good-humor. They were what is +called free and easy, and met one another to advantage, as men who had +at length learned how to live. They appeared to know each other when +they were strangers, they were so simple and downright. They were well +met, in an unusual sense, that is, they met as well as they could meet, +and did not seem to be troubled with any impediment. They were not +afraid nor ashamed of one another, but were contented to make just such +a company as the ingredients allowed. It was evident that the same +foolish respect was not here claimed for mere wealth and station that +is in many parts of New England; yet some of them were the “first +people,” as they are called, of the various towns through which we +passed. Retired sea-captains, in easy circumstances, who talked of +farming as sea-captains are wont; an erect, respectable, and +trustworthy-looking man, in his wrapper, some of the salt of the earth, +who had formerly been the salt of the sea; or a more courtly gentleman, +who, perchance, had been a representative to the General Court in his +day; or a broad, red-faced Cape Cod man, who had seen too many storms +to be easily irritated; or a fisherman’s wife, who had been waiting a +week for a coaster to leave Boston, and had at length come by the cars. + +A strict regard for truth obliges us to say that the few women whom we +saw that day looked exceedingly pinched up. They had prominent chins +and noses, having lost all their teeth, and a sharp _W_ would represent +their profile. They were not so well preserved as their husbands; or +perchance they were well preserved as dried specimens. (Their husbands, +however, were pickled.) But we respect them not the less for all that; +our own dental system is far from perfect. + +Still we kept on in the rain, or, if we stopped, it was commonly at a +post-office, and we thought that writing letters, and sorting them +against our arrival, must be the principal employment of the +inhabitants of the Cape this rainy day. The post-office appeared a +singularly domestic institution here. Ever and anon the stage stopped +before some low shop or dwelling, and a wheelwright or shoemaker +appeared in his shirt sleeves and leather apron, with spectacles newly +donned, holding up Uncle Sam’s bag, as if it were a slice of home-made +cake, for the travellers, while he retailed some piece of gossip to the +driver, really as indifferent to the presence of the former as if they +were so much baggage. In one instance we understood that a woman was +the postmistress, and they said that she made the best one on the road; +but we suspected that the letters must be subjected to a very close +scrutiny there. While we were stopping for this purpose at Dennis, we +ventured to put our heads out of the windows, to see where we were +going, and saw rising before us, through the mist, singular barren +hills, all stricken with poverty-grass, looming up as if they were in +the horizon, though they were close to us, and we seemed to have got to +the end of the land on that side, notwithstanding that the horses were +still headed that way. Indeed, that part of Dennis which we saw was an +exceedingly barren and desolate country, of a character which I can +find no name for; such a surface, perhaps, as the bottom of the sea +made dry land day before yesterday. It was covered with poverty-grass, +and there was hardly a tree in sight, but here and there a little +weather-stained, one-storied house, with a red roof,—for often the roof +was painted, though the rest of the house was not,—standing bleak and +cheerless, yet with a broad foundation to the land, where the comfort +must have been all inside. Yet we read in the Gazetteer—for we carried +that too with us—that, in 1837, one hundred and fifty masters of +vessels, belonging to this town, sailed from the various ports of the +Union. There must be many more houses in the south part of the town, +else we cannot imagine where they all lodge when they are at home, if +ever they are there; but the truth is, their houses are floating ones, +and their home is on the ocean. There were almost no trees at all in +this part of Dennis, nor could I learn that they talked of setting out +any. It is true, there was a meeting-house, set round with Lombardy +poplars, in a hollow square, the rows fully as straight as the studs of +a building, and the corners as square; but, if I do not mistake, every +one of them was dead. I could not help thinking that they needed a +revival here. Our book said that, in 1795, there was erected in Dennis +“an elegant meeting-house, with a steeple.” Perhaps this was the one; +though whether it had a steeple, or had died down so far from sympathy +with the poplars, I do not remember. Another meeting-house in this town +was described as a “neat building”; but of the meeting-house in +Chatham, a neighboring town, for there was then but one, nothing is +said, except that it “is in good repair,”—both which remarks, I trust, +may be understood as applying to the churches spiritual as well as +material. However, “elegant meeting-houses,” from that Trinity one on +Broadway, to this at Nobscusset, in my estimation, belong to the same +category with “beautiful villages.” I was never in season to see one. +Handsome is that handsome does. What they did for shade here, in warm +weather, we did not know, though we read that “fogs are more frequent +in Chatham than in any other part of the country; and they serve in +summer, instead of trees, to shelter the houses against the heat of the +sun. To those who delight in extensive vision,”—is it to be inferred +that the inhabitants of Chatham do not?—“they are unpleasant, but they +are not found to be unhealthful.” Probably, also, the unobstructed +sea-breeze answers the purpose of a fan. The historian of Chatham says +further, that “in many families there is no difference between the +breakfast and supper; cheese, cakes, and pies being as common at the +one as at the other.” But that leaves us still uncertain whether they +were really common at either. + +[Illustration: A street in Sandwich] + +The road, which was quite hilly, here ran near the Bay-shore, having +the Bay on one side, and “the rough hill of Scargo,” said to be the +highest land on the Cape, on the other. Of the wide prospect of the Bay +afforded by the summit of this hill, our guide says: “The view has not +much of the beautiful in it, but it communicates a strong emotion of +the sublime.” That is the kind of communication which we love to have +made to us. We passed through the village of Suet, in Dennis, on Suet +and Quivet Necks, of which it is said, “when compared with +Nobscusset,”—we had a misty recollection of having passed through, or +near to, the latter,—“it may be denominated a pleasant village; but, in +comparison with the village of Sandwich, there is little or no beauty +in it.” However, we liked Dennis well, better than any town we had seen +on the Cape, it was so novel, and, in that stormy day, so sublimely +dreary. + +Captain John Sears, of Suet, was the first person in this country who +obtained pure marine salt by solar evaporation alone; though it had +long been made in a similar way on the coast of France, and elsewhere. +This was in the year 1776, at which time, on account of the war, salt +was scarce and dear. The Historical Collections contain an interesting +account of his experiments, which we read when we first saw the roofs +of the salt-works. Barnstable county is the most favorable locality for +these works on our northern coast,—there is so little fresh water here +emptying into ocean. Quite recently there were about two millions of +dollars invested in this business here. But now the Cape is unable to +compete with the importers of salt and the manufacturers of it at the +West, and, accordingly, her salt-works are fast going to decay. From +making salt, they turn to fishing more than ever. The Gazetteer will +uniformly tell you, under the head of each town, how many go a-fishing, +and the value of the fish and oil taken, how much salt is made and +used, how many are engaged in the coasting trade, how many in +manufacturing palm-leaf hats, leather, boots, shoes, and tinware, and +then it has done, and leaves you to imagine the more truly domestic +manufactures which are nearly the same all the world over. + +Late in the afternoon, we rode through Brewster, so named after Elder +Brewster, for fear he would be forgotten else. Who has not heard of +Elder Brewster? Who knows who he was? This appeared to be the +modern-built town of the Cape, the favorite residence of retired +sea-captains. It is said that “there are more masters and mates of +vessels which sail on foreign voyages belonging to this place than to +any other town in the country.” There were many of the modern American +houses here, such as they turn out at Cambridgeport, standing on the +sand; you could almost swear that they had been floated down Charles +River, and drifted across the Bay. I call them American, because they +are paid for by Americans, and “put up” by American carpenters; but +they are little removed from lumber; only Eastern stuff disguised with +white paint, the least interesting kind of drift-wood to me. Perhaps we +have reason to be proud of our naval architecture, and need not go to +the Greeks, or the Goths, or the Italians, for the models of our +vessels. Sea-captains do not employ a Cambridgeport carpenter to build +their floating houses, and for their houses on shore, if they must copy +any, it would be more agreeable to the imagination to see one of their +vessels turned bottom upward, in the Numidian fashion. We read that, +“at certain seasons, the reflection of the sun upon the windows of the +houses in Wellfleet and Truro (across the inner side of the elbow of +the Cape) is discernible with the naked eye, at a distance of eighteen +miles and upward, on the county road.” This we were pleased to imagine, +as we had not seen the sun for twenty-four hours. + +[Illustration: The old Higgins tavern at Orleans] + +The same author (the Rev. John Simpkins) said of the inhabitants, a +good while ago: “No persons appear to have a greater relish for the +social circle and domestic pleasures. They are not in the habit of +frequenting taverns, unless on public occasions. I know not of a proper +idler or tavern-haunter in the place.” This is more than can be said of +my townsmen. + +At length we stopped for the night at Higgins’s tavern, in Orleans, +feeling very much as if we were on a sand-bar in the ocean, and not +knowing whether we should see land or water ahead when the mist cleared +away. We here overtook two Italian boys, who had waded thus far down +the Cape through the sand, with their organs on their backs, and were +going on to Provincetown. What a hard lot, we thought, if the +Provincetown people should shut their doors against them! Whose yard +would they go to next? Yet we concluded that they had chosen wisely to +come here, where other music than that of the surf must be rare. Thus +the great civilizer sends out its emissaries, sooner or later, to every +sandy cape and light-house of the New World which the census-taker +visits, and summons the savage there to surrender. + + + + +III +THE PLAINS OF NAUSET + + +The next morning, Thursday, October 11th, it rained, as hard as ever; +but we were determined to proceed on foot, nevertheless. We first made +some inquiries with regard to the practicability of walking up the +shore on the Atlantic side to Provincetown, whether we should meet with +any creeks or marshes to trouble us. Higgins said that there was no +obstruction, and that it was not much farther than by the road, but he +thought that we should find it very “heavy” walking in the sand; it was +bad enough in the road, a horse would sink in up to the fetlocks there. +But there was one man at the tavern who had walked it, and he said that +we could go very well, though it was sometimes inconvenient and even +dangerous walking under the bank, when there was a great tide, with an +easterly wind, which caused the sand to cave. For the first four or +five miles we followed the road, which here turns to the north on the +elbow, —the narrowest part of the Cape,—that we might clear an inlet +from the ocean, a part of Nauset Harbor, in Orleans, on our right. We +found the travelling good enough for walkers on the sides of the roads, +though it was “heavy” for horses in the middle. We walked with our +umbrellas behind us, since it blowed hard as well as rained, with +driving mists, as the day before, and the wind helped us over the sand +at a rapid rate. Everything indicated that we had reached a strange +shore. The road was a mere lane, winding over bare swells of bleak and +barren-looking land. The houses were few and far between, besides being +small and rusty, though they appeared to be kept in good repair, and +their dooryards, which were the unfenced Cape, were tidy; or, rather, +they looked as if the ground around them was blown clean by the wind. +Perhaps the scarcity of wood here, and the consequent absence of the +wood-pile and other wooden traps, had something to do with this +appearance. They seemed, like mariners ashore, to have sat right down +to enjoy the firmness of the land, without studying their postures or +habiliments. To them it was merely _terra firma_ and _cognita_, not yet +_fertilis_ and _jucunda_. Every landscape which is dreary enough has a +certain beauty to my eyes, and in this instance its permanent qualities +were enhanced by the weather. Everything told of the sea, even when we +did not see its waste or hear its roar. For birds there were gulls, and +for carts in the fields, boats turned bottom upward against the houses, +and sometimes the rib of a whale was woven into the fence by the +road-side. The trees were, if possible, rarer than the houses, +excepting apple-trees, of which there were a few small orchards in the +hollows. These were either narrow and high, with flat tops, having lost +their side branches, like huge plum-bushes growing in exposed +situations, or else dwarfed and branching immediately at the ground, +like quince-bushes. They suggested that, under like circumstances, all +trees would at last acquire like habits of growth. I afterward saw on +the Cape many full-grown apple-trees not higher than a man’s head; one +whole orchard, indeed, where all the fruit could have been gathered by +a man standing on the ground; but you could hardly creep beneath the +trees. Some, which the owners told me were twenty years old, were only +three and a half feet high, spreading at six inches from the ground +five feet each way, and being withal surrounded with boxes of tar to +catch the cankerworms, they looked like plants in flower-pots, and as +if they might be taken into the house in the winter. In another place, +I saw some not much larger than currant-bushes; yet the owner told me +that they had borne a barrel and a half of apples that fall. If they +had been placed close together, I could have cleared them all at a +jump. I measured some near the Highland Light in Truro, which had been +taken from the shrubby woods thereabouts when young, and grafted. One, +which had been set ten years, was on an average eighteen inches high, +and spread nine feet with a flat top. It had borne one bushel of apples +two years before. Another, probably twenty years old from the seed, was +five feet high, and spread eighteen feet, branching, as usual, at the +ground, so that you could not creep under it. This bore a barrel of +apples two years before. The owner of these trees invariably used the +personal pronoun in speaking of them; as, “I got _him_ out of the +woods, but _he_ doesn’t bear.” The largest that I saw in that +neighborhood was nine feet high to the topmost leaf, and spread +thirty-three feet, branching at the ground five ways. + +[Illustration: A Nauset lane] + +In one yard I observed a single, very healthy-looking tree, while all +the rest were dead or dying. The occupant said that his father had +manured all but that one with blackfish. + +This habit of growth should, no doubt, be encouraged; and they should +not be trimmed up, as some travelling practitioners have advised. In +1802 there was not a single fruit-tree in Chatham, the next town to +Orleans, on the south; and the old account of Orleans says: +“Fruit-trees cannot be made to grow within a mile of the ocean. Even +those which are placed at a greater distance are injured by the east +winds; and, after violent storms in the spring, a saltish taste is +perceptible on their bark.” We noticed that they were often covered +with a yellow lichen-like rust, the _Parmelia parietina_. + +The most foreign and picturesque structures on the Cape, to an +inlander, not excepting the salt-works, are the +wind-mills,—gray-looking octagonal towers, with long timbers slanting +to the ground in the rear, and there resting on a cart-wheel, by which +their fans are turned round to face the wind. These appeared also to +serve in some measure for props against its force. A great circular rut +was worn around the building by the wheel. The neighbors who assemble +to turn the mill to the wind are likely to know which way it blows, +without a weathercock. They looked loose and slightly locomotive, like +huge wounded birds, trailing a wing or a leg, and re-minded one of +pictures of the Netherlands. Being on elevated ground, and high in +themselves, they serve as landmarks,—for there are no tall trees, or +other objects commonly, which can be seen at a distance in the horizon; +though the outline of the land itself is so firm and distinct that an +insignificant cone, or even precipice of sand, is visible at a great +distance from over the sea. Sailors making the land commonly steer +either by the wind-mills or the meeting-houses. In the country, we are +obliged to steer by the meeting-houses alone. Yet the meeting-house is +a kind of wind-mill, which runs one day in seven, turned either by the +winds of doctrine or public opinion, or more rarely by the winds of +Heaven, where another sort of grist is ground, of which, if it be not +all bran or musty, if it be not _plaster_, we trust to make bread of +life. + +There were, here and there, heaps of shells in the fields, where clams +had been opened for bait; for Orleans is famous for its shell-fish, +especially clams, or, as our author says, “to speak more properly, +worms.” The shores are more fertile than the dry land. The inhabitants +measure their crops, not only by bushels of corn, but by barrels of +clams. A thousand barrels of clam-bait are counted as equal in value to +six or eight thousand bushels of Indian corn, and once they were +procured without more labor or expense, and the supply was thought to +be inexhaustible. “For,” runs the history, “after a portion of the +shore has been dug over, and almost all the clams taken up, at the end +of two years, it is said, they are as plenty there as ever. It is even +affirmed by many persons, that it is as necessary to stir the clam +ground frequently as it is to hoe a field of potatoes; because, if this +labor is omitted, the clams will be crowded too closely together, and +will be prevented from increasing in size.” But we were told that the +small clam, _Mya arenaria_, was not so plenty here as formerly. +Probably the clam ground has been stirred too frequently, after all. +Nevertheless, one man, who complained that they fed pigs with them and +so made them scarce, told me that he dug and opened one hundred and +twenty-six dollars’ worth in one winter, in Truro. + +[Illustration: Nauset Bay] + +We crossed a brook, not more than fourteen rods long, between Orleans +and Eastham, called Jeremiah’s Gutter. The Atlantic is said sometimes +to meet the Bay here, and isolate the northern part of the Cape. The +streams of the Cape are necessarily formed on a minute scale, since +there is no room for them to run, without tumbling immediately into the +sea; and beside, we found it difficult to run ourselves in that sand, +when there was no want of room. Hence, the least channel where water +runs, or may run, is important, and is dignified with a name. We read +that there is no running water in Chatham, which is the next town. The +barren aspect of the land would hardly be believed if described. It was +such soil, or rather land, as, to judge from appearances, no farmer in +the interior would think of cultivating, or even fencing. Generally, +the ploughed fields of the Cape look white and yellow, like a mixture +of salt and Indian meal. This is called soil. All an inlander’s notions +of soil and fertility will be confounded by a visit to these parts, and +he will not be able, for some time afterward, to distinguish soil from +sand. The historian of Chatham says of a part of that town, which has +been gained from the sea: “There is a doubtful appearance of a soil +beginning to be formed. It is styled _doubtful_, because it would not +be observed by every eye, and perhaps not acknowledged by many.” We +thought that this would not be a bad description of the greater part of +the Cape. There is a “beach” on the west side of Eastham, which we +crossed the next summer, half a mile wide, and stretching across the +township, containing seventeen hundred acres, on which there is not now +a particle of vegetable mould, though it formerly produced wheat. All +sands are here called “beaches,” whether they are waves of water or of +air that dash against them, since they commonly have their origin on +the shore. “The sand in some places,” says the historian of Eastham, +“lodging against the beach-grass, has been raised into hills fifty feet +high, where twenty-five years ago no hills existed. In others it has +filled up small valleys, and swamps. Where a strong-rooted bush stood, +the appearance is singular: a mass of earth and sand adheres to it, +resembling a small tower. In several places, rocks, which were formerly +covered with soil, are disclosed, and being lashed by the sand, driven +against them by the wind, look as if they were recently dug from a +quarry.” + +We were surprised to hear of the great crops of corn which are still +raised in Eastham, notwithstanding the real and apparent barrenness. +Our landlord in Orleans had told us that he raised three or four +hundred bushels of corn annually, and also of the great number of pigs +which he fattened. In Champlain’s “Voyages,” there is a plate +representing the Indian cornfields hereabouts, with their wigwams in +the midst, as they appeared in 1605, and it was here that the Pilgrims, +to quote their own words, “bought eight or ten hogsheads of corn and +beans” of the Nauset Indians, in 1622, to keep themselves from +starving.[1] + +“In 1667 the town [of Eastham] voted that every housekeeper should kill +twelve blackbirds or three crows, which did great damage to the corn; +and this vote was repeated for many years.” In 1695 an additional order +was passed, namely, that “every unmarried man in the township shall +kill six blackbirds, or three crows, while he remains single; as a +penalty for not doing it, shall not be married until he obey this +order.” The blackbirds, however, still molest the corn. I saw them at +it the next summer, and there were many scarecrows, if not +scare-blackbirds, in the fields, which I often mistook for men. + +[Illustration: A scarecrow] + +From which I concluded that either many men were not married, or many +blackbirds were. Yet they put but three or four kernels in a hill, and +let fewer plants remain than we do. In the account of Eastham, in the +“Historical Collections,” printed in 1802, it is said, that “more corn +is produced than the inhabitants consume, and about a thousand bushels +are annually sent to market. The soil being free from stones, a plough +passes through it speedily; and after the corn has come up, a small +Cape horse, somewhat larger than a goat, will, with the assistance of +two boys, easily hoe three or four acres in a day; several farmers are +accustomed to produce five hundred bushels of grain annually, and not +long since one raised eight hundred bushels on sixty acres.” Similar +accounts are given to-day; indeed, the recent accounts are in some +instances suspectable repetitions of the old, and I have no doubt that +their statements are as often founded on the exception as the rule, and +that by far the greater number of acres are as barren as they appear to +be. It is sufficiently remarkable that any crops can be raised here, +and it may be owing, as others have suggested, to the amount of +moisture in the atmosphere, the warmth of the sand, and the rareness of +frosts. A miller, who was sharpening his stones, told me that, forty +years ago, he had been to a husking here, where five hundred bushels +were husked in one evening, and the corn was piled six feet high or +more, in the midst, but now, fifteen or eighteen bushels to an acre +were an average yield. I never saw fields of such puny and unpromising +looking corn as in this town. Probably the inhabitants are contented +with small crops from a great surface easily cultivated. It is not +always the most fertile land that is the most profitable, and this sand +may repay cultivation, as well as the fertile bottoms of the West. It +is said, moreover, that the vegetables raised in the sand, without +manure, are remarkably sweet, the pumpkins especially, though when +their seed is planted in the interior they soon degenerate. I can +testify that the vegetables here, when they succeed at all, look +remarkably green and healthy, though perhaps it is partly by contrast +with the sand. Yet the inhabitants of the Cape towns, generally, do not +raise their own meal or pork. Their gardens are commonly little +patches, that have been redeemed from the edges of the marshes and +swamps. + +All the morning we had heard the sea roar on the eastern shore, which +was several miles distant; for it still felt the effects of the storm +in which the _St. John_ was wrecked,—though a school-boy, whom we +overtook, hardly knew what we meant, his ears were so used to it. He +would have more plainly heard the same sound in a shell. It was a very +inspiriting sound to walk by, filling the whole air, that of the sea +dashing against the land, heard several miles inland. Instead of having +a dog to growl before your door, to have an Atlantic Ocean to growl for +a whole Cape! On the whole, we were glad of the storm, which would show +us the ocean in its angriest mood. Charles Darwin was assured that the +roar of the surf on the coast of Chiloe, after a heavy gale, could be +heard at night a distance of “21 sea miles across a hilly and wooded +country.” We conversed with the boy we have mentioned, who might have +been eight years old, making him walk the while under the lee of our +umbrella; for we thought it as important to know what was life on the +Cape to a boy as to a man. We learned from him where the best grapes +were to be found in that neighborhood. He was carrying his dinner in a +pail; and, without any impertinent questions being put by us, it did at +length appear of what it consisted. The homeliest facts are always the +most acceptable to an inquiring mind. At length, before we got to +Eastham meeting-house, we left the road and struck across the country +for the eastern shore at Nauset Lights,—three lights close together, +two or three miles distant from us. They were so many that they might +be distinguished from others; but this seemed a shiftless and costly +way of accomplishing that object. We found ourselves at once on an +apparently boundless plain, without a tree or a fence, or, with one or +two exceptions, a house in sight. Instead of fences, the earth was +sometimes thrown up into a slight ridge. My companion compared it to +the rolling prairies of Illinois. In the storm of wind and rain which +raged when we traversed it, it no doubt appeared more vast and desolate +than it really is. As there were no hills, but only here and there a +dry hollow in the midst of the waste, and the distant horizon was +concealed by mist, we did not know whether it was high or low. A +solitary traveller whom we saw perambulating in the distance loomed +like a giant. He appeared to walk slouchingly, as if held up from above +by straps under his shoulders, as much as supported by the plain below. +Men and boys would have appeared alike at a little distance, there +being no object by which to measure them. Indeed, to an inlander, the +Cape landscape is a constant mirage. This kind of country extended a +mile or two each way. These were the “Plains of Nauset,” once covered +with wood, where in winter the winds howl and the snow blows right +merrily in the face of the traveller. I was glad to have got out of the +towns, where I am wont to feel unspeakably mean and disgraced,—to have +left behind me for a season the bar-rooms of Massachusetts, where the +full-grown are not weaned from savage and filthy habits,—still sucking +a cigar. My spirits rose in proportion to the outward dreariness. The +towns need to be ventilated. The gods would be pleased to see some pure +flames from their altars. They are not to be appeased with cigar-smoke. + +As we thus skirted the back-side of the towns, for we did not enter any +village, till we got to Provincetown, we read their histories under our +umbrellas, rarely meeting anybody. The old accounts are the richest in +topography, which was what we wanted most; and, indeed, in most things +else, for I find that the readable parts of the modern accounts of +these towns consist, in a great measure, of quotations, acknowledged +and unacknowledged, from the older ones, without any additional +information of equal interest;—town histories, which at length run into +a history of the Church of that place, that being the only story they +have to tell, and conclude by quoting the Latin epitaphs of the old +pastors, having been written in the good old days of Latin and of +Greek. They will go back to the ordination of every minister and tell +you faithfully who made the introductory prayer, and who delivered the +sermon; who made the ordaining prayer, and who gave the charge; who +extended the right hand of fellowship, and who pronounced the +benediction; also how many ecclesiastical councils convened from time +to time to inquire into the orthodoxy of some minister, and the names +of all who composed them. As it will take us an hour to get over this +plain, and there is no variety in the prospect, peculiar as it is, I +will read a little in the history of Eastham the while. + +When the committee from Plymouth had purchased the territory of Eastham +of the Indians, “it was demanded, who laid claim to Billingsgate?” +which was understood to be all that part of the Cape north of what they +had purchased. “The answer was, there was not any who owned it. ‘Then,’ +said the committee, ‘that land is ours.’ The Indians answered, that it +was.” This was a remarkable assertion and admission. The Pilgrims +appear to have regarded themselves as Not Any’s representatives. +Perhaps this was the first instance of that quiet way of “speaking for” +a place not yet occupied, or at least not improved as much as it may +be, which their descendants have practised, and are still practising so +extensively. Not Any seems to have been the sole proprietor of all +America before the Yankees. But history says that, when the Pilgrims +had held the lands of Billingsgate many years, at length “appeared an +Indian, who styled himself Lieutenant Anthony,” who laid claim to them, +and of him they bought them. Who knows but a Lieutenant Anthony may be +knocking at the door of the White House some day? At any rate, I know +that if you hold a thing unjustly, there will surely be the devil to +pay at last. + +Thomas Prince, who was several times the governor of the Plymouth +colony, was the leader of the settlement of Eastham. There was recently +standing, on what was once his farm, in this town, a pear-tree which is +said to have been brought from England, and planted there by him, about +two hundred years ago. It was blown down a few months before we were +there. A late account says that it was recently in a vigorous state; +the fruit small, but excellent; and it yielded on an average fifteen +bushels. Some appropriate lines have been addressed to it, by a Mr. +Heman Doane, from which I will quote, partly because they are the only +specimen of Cape Cod verse which I remember to have seen, and partly +because they are not bad. + +“Two hundred years have, on the wings of Time, + Passed with their joys and woes, since thou, Old Tree! +Put forth thy first leaves in this foreign clime. + Transplanted from the soil beyond the sea.” + + +* * * * * + + +[These stars represent the more clerical lines, and also those which +have deceased.] + +“That exiled band long since have passed away, + And still, Old Tree I thou standest in the place +Where Prince’s hand did plant thee in his day,— + An undesigned memorial of his race +And time; of those our honored fathers, + when They came from Plymouth o’er and settled here; +Doane, Higgins, Snow, and other worthy men. + Whose names their sons remember to revere. + + +* * * * * + + +“Old Time has thinned thy boughs. Old Pilgrim Tree! + And bowed thee with the weight of many years; +Yet ’mid the frosts of age, thy bloom we see, + And yearly still thy mellow fruit appears.” + + +There are some other lines which I might quote, if they were not tied +to unworthy companions by the rhyme. When one ox will lie down, the +yoke bears hard on him that stands up. + +One of the first settlers of Eastham was Deacon John Doane, who died in +1707, aged one hundred and ten. Tradition says that he was rocked in a +cradle several of his last years. That, certainly, was not an Achillean +life. His mother must have let him slip when she dipped him into the +liquor which was to make him invulnerable, and he went in, heels and +all. Some of the stone-bounds to his farm which he set up are standing +to-day, with his initials cut in them. + +The ecclesiastical history of this town interested us somewhat. It +appears that “they very early built a small meeting-house, twenty feet +square, with a thatched roof through which they might fire their +muskets,”—of course, at the Devil. “In 1662, the town agreed that a +part of every whale cast on shore be appropriated for the support of +the ministry.” No doubt there seemed to be some propriety in thus +leaving the support of the ministers to Providence, whose servants they +are, and who alone rules the storms; for, when few whales were cast up, +they might suspect that their worship was not acceptable. The ministers +must have sat upon the cliffs in every storm, and watched the shore +with anxiety. And, for my part, if I were a minister I would rather +trust to the bowels of the billows, on the back-side of Cape Cod, to +cast up a whale for me, than to the generosity of many a country parish +that I know. You cannot say of a country minister’s salary, commonly, +that it is “very like a whale.” Nevertheless, the minister who depended +on whales cast up must have had a trying time of it. I would rather +have gone to the Falkland Isles with a harpoon, and done with it. Think +of a whale having the breath of life beaten out of him by a storm, and +dragging in over the bars and guzzles, for the support of the ministry! +What a consolation it must have been to him! I have heard of a +minister, who had been a fisherman, being settled in Bridgewater for as +long a time as he could tell a cod from a haddock. Generous as it +seems, this condition would empty most country pulpits forthwith, for +it is long since the fishers of men were fishermen. Also, a duty was +put on mackerel here to support a free-school; in other words, the +mackerel-school was taxed in order that the children’s school might be +free. “In 1665 the Court passed a law to inflict corporal punishment on +all persons, who resided in the towns of this government, who denied +the Scriptures.” Think of a man being whipped on a spring morning till +he was constrained to confess that the Scriptures were true! “It was +also voted by the town that all persons who should stand out of the +meeting-house during the time of divine service should be set in the +stocks.” It behooved such a town to see that sitting in the +meeting-house was nothing akin to sitting in the stocks, lest the +penalty of obedience to the law might be greater than that of +disobedience. This was the Eastham famous of late years for its +camp-meetings, held in a grove near by, to which thousands flock from +all parts of the Bay. We conjectured that the reason for the perhaps +unusual, if not unhealthful, development of the religious sentiment +here was the fact that a large portion of the population are women +whose husbands and sons are either abroad on the sea, or else drowned, +and there is nobody but they and the ministers left behind. The old +account says that “hysteric fits are very common in Orleans, Eastham, +and the towns below, particularly on Sunday, in the times of divine +service. When one woman is affected, five or six others generally +sympathize with her; and the congregation is thrown into the utmost +confusion. Several old men suppose, unphilosophically and uncharitably, +perhaps, that the will is partly concerned, and that ridicule and +threats would have a tendency to prevent the evil.” How this is now we +did not learn. We saw one singularly masculine woman, however, in a +house on this very plain, who did not look as if she was ever troubled +with hysterics, or sympathized with those that were; or, perchance, +life itself was to her a hysteric fit,—a Nauset woman, of a hardness +and coarseness such as no man ever possesses or suggests. It was enough +to see the vertebrae and sinews of her neck, and her set jaws of iron, +which would have bitten a board-nail in two in their ordinary +action,—braced against the world, talking like a man-of-war’s-man in +petticoats, or as if shouting to you through a breaker; who looked as +if it made her head ache to live; hard enough for any enormity. I +looked upon her as one who had committed infanticide; who never had a +brother, unless it were some wee thing that died in infancy,—for what +need of him?—and whose father must have died before she was born. This +woman told us that the camp-meetings were not held the previous summer +for fear of introducing the cholera, and that they would have been held +earlier this summer, but the rye was so backward that straw would not +have been ready for them; for they lie in straw. There are sometimes +one hundred and fifty ministers (!) and five thousand hearers +assembled. The ground, which is called Millennium Grove, is owned by a +company in Boston, and is the most suitable, or rather unsuitable, for +this purpose of any that I saw on the Cape. It is fenced, and the +frames of the tents are at all times to be seen interspersed among the +oaks. They have an oven and a pump, and keep all their kitchen utensils +and tent coverings and furniture in a permanent building on the spot. +They select a time for their meetings when the moon is full. A man is +appointed to clear out the pump a week beforehand, while the ministers +are clearing their throats; but, probably, the latter do not always +deliver as pure a stream as the former. I saw the heaps of clam-shells +left under the tables, where they had feasted in previous summers, and +supposed, of course, that that was the work of the unconverted, or the +backsliders and scoffers. It looked as if a camp-meeting must be a +singular combination of a prayer-meeting and a picnic. + +[Illustration: Millennium Grove camp-meeting grounds] + +The first minister settled here was the Rev. Samuel Treat, in 1672, a +gentleman who is said to be “entitled to a distinguished rank among the +evangelists of New England.” He converted many Indians, as well as +white men, in his day, and translated the Confession of Faith into the +Nauset language. These were the Indians concerning whom their first +teacher, Richard Bourne, wrote to Gookin, in 1674, that he had been to +see one who was sick, “and there came from him very savory and heavenly +expressions,” but, with regard to the mass of them, he says, “the truth +is, that many of them are very loose in their course, to my +heartbreaking sorrow.” Mr. Treat is described as a Calvinist of the +strictest kind, not one of those who, by giving up or explaining away, +become like a porcupine disarmed of its quills, but a consistent +Calvinist, who can dart his quills to a distance and courageously +defend himself. There exists a volume of his sermons in manuscript, +“which,” says a commentator, “appear to have been designed for +publication.” I quote the following sentences at second hand, from a +Discourse on Luke xvi. 23, addressed to sinners:— + +“Thou must erelong go to the bottomless pit. Hell hath enlarged +herself, and is ready to receive thee. There is room enough for thy +entertainment.... + +“Consider, thou art going to a place prepared by God on purpose to +exalt his justice in,—a place made for no other employment but +torments. Hell is God’s house of correction; and, remember, God doth +all things like himself. When God would show his justice, and what is +the weight of his wrath, he makes a hell where it shall, indeed, appear +to purpose.... Woe to thy soul when thou shalt be set up as a butt for +the arrows of the Almighty.... + +“Consider, God himself shall be the principal agent in thy misery,—his +breath is the bellows which blows up the flame of hell forever;—and if +he punish thee, if he meet thee in his fury, he will not meet thee as a +man; he will give thee an omnipotent blow.” + +“Some think sinning ends with this life; but it is a mistake. The +creature is held under an everlasting law; the damned increase in sin +in hell. Possibly, the mention of this may please thee. But, remember, +there shall be no pleasant sins there; no eating, drinking, singing, +dancing, wanton dalliance, and drinking stolen waters, but damned sins, +bitter, hellish sins; sins exasperated by torments, cursing God, spite, +rage, and blasphemy.—The guilt of all thy sins shall be laid upon thy +soul, and be made so many heaps of fuel.... + +“Sinner, I beseech thee, realize the truth of these things. Do not go +about to dream that this is derogatory to God’s mercy, and nothing but +a vain fable to scare children out of their wits withal. God can be +merciful, though he make thee miserable. He shall have monuments enough +of that precious attribute, shining like stars in the place of glory, +and singing eternal hallelujahs to the praise of Him that redeemed +them, though, to exalt the power of his justice, he damn sinners heaps +upon heaps.” + +“But,” continues the same writer, “with the advantage of proclaiming +the doctrine of terror, which is naturally productive of a sublime and +impressive style of eloquence (‘Triumphat ventoso gloriæ curru orator, +qui pectus angit, irritat, et implet terroribus.’ Vid. Burnet, De Stat. +Mort., p. 309), he could not attain the character of a popular +preacher. His voice was so loud that it could be heard at a great +distance from the meeting-house, even amidst the shrieks of hysterical +women, and the winds that howled over the plains of Nauset; but there +was no more music in it than in the discordant sounds with which it was +mingled.” + +“The effect of such preaching,” it is said, “was that his hearers were +several times, in the course of his ministry, awakened and alarmed; and +on one occasion a comparatively innocent young man was frightened +nearly out of his wits, and Mr. Treat had to exert himself to make hell +seem somewhat cooler to him”; yet we are assured that “Treat’s manners +were cheerful, his conversation pleasant, and sometimes facetious, but +always decent. He was fond of a stroke of humor, and a practical joke, +and manifested his relish for them by long and loud fits of laughter.” + +This was the man of whom a well-known anecdote is told, which doubtless +many of my readers have heard, but which, nevertheless, I will venture +to quote:— + +“After his marriage with the daughter of Mr. Willard (pastor of the +South Church in Boston), he was sometimes invited by that gentleman to +preach in his pulpit. Mr. Willard possessed a graceful delivery, a +masculine and harmonious voice; and, though he did not gain much +reputation by his ‘Body of Divinity,’ which is frequently sneered at, +particularly by those who have read it, yet in his sermons are strength +of thought and energy of language. The natural consequence was that he +was generally admired. Mr. Treat having preached one of his best +discourses to the congregation of his father-in-law, in his usual +unhappy manner, excited universal disgust; and several nice judges +waited on Mr. Willard, and begged that Mr. Treat, who was a worthy, +pious man, it was true, but a wretched preacher, might never be invited +into his pulpit again. To this request Mr. Willard made no reply; but +he desired his son-in-law to lend him the discourse; which being left +with him, he delivered it without alteration to his people a few weeks +after. They ran to Mr. Willard and requested a copy for the press. ‘See +the difference,’ they cried, ‘between yourself and your son-in-law; you +have preached a sermon on the same text as Mr. Treat’s, but whilst his +was contemptible, yours is excellent.’ As is observed in a note, ‘Mr. +Willard, after producing the sermon in the handwriting of Mr. Treat, +might have addressed these sage critics in the words of Phaedrus, + +“‘En hic declarat, quales sitis judices.’”[2] + + +Mr. Treat died of a stroke of the palsy, just after the memorable storm +known as the Great Snow, which left the ground around his house +entirely bare, but heaped up the snow in the road to an uncommon +height. Through this an arched way was dug, by which the Indians bore +his bod to the grave. + +The reader will imagine us, all the while, steadily traversing that +extensive plain in a direction a little north of east toward Nauset +Beach, and reading under our umbrellas as we sailed, while it blowed +hard with mingled mist and rain, as if we were approaching a fit +anniversary of Mr. Treat’s funeral. We fancied that it was such a moor +as that on which somebody perished in the snow, as is related in the +“Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life.” + +The next minister settled here was the “Rev. Samuel Osborn, who was +born in Ireland, and educated at the University of Dublin.” He is said +to have been “A man of wisdom and virtue,” and taught his people the +use of peat, and the art of drying and preparing it, which as they had +scarcely any other fuel, was a great blessing to them. He also +introduced improvements in agriculture. But, notwithstanding his many +services, as he embraced the religion of Arminius, some of his flock +became dissatisfied. At length, an ecclesiastical council, consisting +of ten ministers, with their churches, sat upon him, and they, +naturally enough, spoiled his usefulness. The council convened at the +desire of two divine philosophers,—Joseph Doane and Nathaniel Freeman. + +In their report they say, “It appears to the council that the Rev. Mr. +Osborn hath, in his preaching to this people, said, that what Christ +did and suffered doth nothing abate or diminish our obligation to obey +the law of God, and that Christ’s suffering and obedience were for +himself; both parts of which, we think, contain dangerous error.” + +“Also: ‘It hath been said, and doth appear to this council, that the +Rev. Mr. Osborn, both in public and in private, asserted that there are +no promises in the Bible but what are conditional, which we think, +also, to be an error, and do say that there are promises which are +absolute and without any condition,—such as the promise of a new heart, +and that he will write his law in our hearts.’” + +“Also, they say, ‘it hath been alleged, and doth appear to us, that Mr. +Osborn hath declared, that _obedience_ is a considerable _cause_ of a +person’s justification, which, we think, contains very dangerous +error.’” + +And many the like distinctions they made, such as some of my readers, +probably, are more familiar with than I am. So, far in the East, among +the Yezidis, or Worshippers of the Devil, so-called, the Chaldaeans, +and others, according to the testimony of travellers, you may still +hear these remarkable disputations on doctrinal points going on. Osborn +was, accordingly, dismissed, and he removed to Boston, where he kept +school for many years. But he was fully justified, methinks, by his +works in the peat-meadow; one proof of which is, that he lived to be +between ninety and one hundred years old. + +The next minister was the Rev. Benjamin Webb, of whom, though a +neighboring clergy-man pronounced him “the best man and the best +minister whom he ever knew,” yet the historian says that, + +“As he spent his days in the uniform discharge of his duty (it reminds +one of a country muster) and there were no shades to give relief to his +character, not much can be said of him. (Pity the Devil did not plant a +few shade-trees along his avenues.) His heart was as pure as the +new-fallen snow, which completely covers every dark spot in a field; +his mind was as serene as the sky in a mild evening in June, when the +moon shines without a cloud. Name any virtue, and that virtue he +practised; name any vice, and that vice he shunned. But if peculiar +qualities marked his character, they were his humility, his gentleness, +and his love of God. The people had long been taught by a son of +thunder (Mr. Treat): in him they were instructed by a son of +consolation, who sweetly allured them to virtue by soft persuasion, and +by exhibiting the mercy of the Supreme Being; for his thoughts were so +much in heaven that they seldom descended to the dismal regions below; +and though of the same religious sentiments as Mr. Treat, yet his +attention was turned to those glad tidings of great joy which a Saviour +came to publish.” + +We were interested to hear that such a man had trodden the plains of +Nauset. + +Turning over further in our book, our eyes fell on the name of the Rev. +Jonathan Bascom, of Orleans; “Senex emunctæ naris, doctus, et auctor +elegantium verborum, facetus, et dulcis festique sermonis.” And, again, +on that of the Rev. Nathan Stone, of Dennis: “Vir humilis, mitis, +blandus, advenarum hospes; (there was need of him there;) suis commodis +in terrâ non studens, reconditis thesauris in cœlo.” An easy virtue +that, there, for methinks no inhabitant of Dennis could be very +studious about his earthly commodity, but must regard the bulk of his +treasures as in heaven. But probably the most just and pertinent +character of all is that which appears to be given to the Rev. Ephraim +Briggs, of Chatham, in the language of the later Romans, “_Seip, +sepoese, sepoemese, wechekum_,”—which not being interpreted, we know +not what it means, though we have no doubt it occurs somewhere in the +Scriptures, probably in the Apostle Eliot’s Epistle to the Nipmucks. + +Let no one think that I do not love the old ministers. They were, +probably, the best men of their generation, and they deserve that their +biographies should fill the pages of the town histories. If I could but +hear the “glad tidings” of which they tell, and which, perchance, they +heard, I might write in a worthier strain than this. + +There was no better way to make the reader realize how wide and +peculiar that plain was, and how long it took to traverse it, than by +inserting these extracts in the midst of my narrative. + + [1] They touched after this at a place called Mattachiest, where they + got more corn; but their shallop being cast away in a storm, the + Governor was obliged to return to Plymouth on foot, fifty miles + through the woods. According to Mourt’s Relation, “he came safely + home, though weary and _surbated_,” that is, foot-sore. (Ital. + _sobattere_, Lat. _sub_ or _solea battere_, to bruise the soles of the + feet; v. Dic. Not “from _acerbatus_, embittered or aggrieved,” as one + commentator on this passage supposes.) This word is of very rare + occurrence, being applied only to governors and persons of like + description, who are in that predicament; though such generally have + considerable mileage allowed them, and might save their soles if they + cared. + + + [2] Lib. v. Fab. 5. + + + + +IV +THE BEACH + + +At length we reached the seemingly retreating boundary of the plain, +and entered what had appeared at a distance an upland marsh, but proved +to be dry sand covered with Beach-grass, the Bearberry, Bayberry, +Shrub-oaks, and Beach-plum, slightly ascending as we approached the +shore; then, crossing over a belt of sand on which nothing grew, though +the roar of the sea sounded scarcely louder than before, and we were +prepared to go half a mile farther, we suddenly stood on the edge of a +bluff overlooking the Atlantic. Far below us was the beach, from half a +dozen to a dozen rods in width, with a long line of breakers rushing to +the strand. The sea was exceedingly dark and stormy, the sky completely +overcast, the clouds still dropping rain, and the wind seemed to blow +not so much as the exciting cause, as from sympathy with the already +agitated ocean. The waves broke on the bars at some distance from the +shore, and curving green or yellow as if over so many unseen dams, ten +or twelve feet high, like a thousand waterfalls, rolled in foam to the +sand. There was nothing but that savage ocean between us and Europe. + +Having got down the bank, and as close to the water as we could, where +the sand was the hardest, leaving the Nauset Lights behind us, we began +to walk leisurely up the beach, in a northwest direction, towards +Provincetown, which was about twenty-five miles distant, still sailing +under our umbrellas with a strong aft wind, admiring in silence, as we +walked, the great force of the ocean stream,— + +ποταμοῖο μέγα σθένος Ὠκεανοῖο. + + +The white breakers were rushing to the shore; the foam ran up the sand, +and then ran back as far as we could see (and we imagined how much +farther along the Atlantic coast, before and behind us), as regularly, +to compare great things with small, as the master of a choir beats time +with his white wand; and ever and anon a higher wave caused us hastily +to deviate from our path, and we looked back on our tracks filled with +water and foam. The breakers looked like droves of a thousand wild +horses of Neptune, rushing to the shore, with their white manes +streaming far behind; and when at length the sun shone for a moment, +their manes were rainbow-tinted. Also, the long kelp-weed was tossed up +from time to time, like the tails of sea-cows sporting in the brine. + +[Illustration: A Cape Cod citizen] + +There was not a sail in sight, and we saw none that day,—for they had +all sought harbors in the late storm, and had not been able to get out +again; and the only human beings whom we saw on the beach for several +days were one or two wreckers looking for drift-wood, and fragments of +wrecked vessels. After an easterly storm in the spring, this beach is +sometimes strewn with eastern wood from one end to the other, which, as +it belongs to him who saves it, and the Cape is nearly destitute of +wood, is a Godsend to the inhabitants. We soon met one of these +wreckers,—a regular Cape Cod man, with whom we parleyed, with a +bleached and weather-beaten face, within whose wrinkles I distinguished +no particular feature. It was like an old sail endowed with life,—a +hanging cliff of weather-beaten flesh,—like one of the clay boulders +which occurred in that sand-bank. He had on a hat which had seen salt +water, and a coat of many pieces and colors, though it was mainly the +color of the beach, as if it had been sanded. His variegated back—for +his coat had many patches, even between the shoulders—was a rich study +to us, when we had passed him and looked round. It might have been +dishonorable for him to have so many scars behind, it is true, if he +had not had many more and more serious ones in front. He looked as if +he sometimes saw a doughnut, but never descended to comfort; too grave +to laugh, too tough to cry; as indifferent as a clam,—like a sea-clam +with hat on and legs, that was out walking the strand. He may have been +one of the Pilgrims,—Peregrine White, at least,—who has kept on the +back-side of the Cape, and let the centuries go by. He was looking for +wrecks, old logs, water-logged and covered with barnacles, or bits of +boards and joists, even chips, which he drew out of the reach of the +tide, and stacked up to dry. When the log was too large to carry far, +he cut it up where the last wave had left it, or rolling it a few feet +appropriated it by sticking two sticks into the ground crosswise above +it. Some rotten trunk, which in Maine cumbers the ground, and is, +perchance, thrown into the water on purpose, is here thus carefully +picked up, split and dried, and husbanded. Before winter the wrecker +painfully carries these things up the bank on his shoulders by a long +diagonal slanting path made with a hoe in the sand, if there is no +hollow at hand. You may see his hooked pike-staff always lying on the +bank ready for use. He is the true monarch of the beach, whose “right +there is none to dispute,” and he is as much identified with it as a +beach-bird. + +Crantz, in his account of Greenland, quotes Dalagen’s relation of the +ways and usages of the Greenlanders, and says, “Whoever finds +driftwood, or the spoils of a shipwreck on the strand, enjoys it as his +own, though, he does not live there. But he must haul it ashore and lay +a stone upon it, as a token that some one has taken possession of it, +and this stone is the deed of security, for no other Greenlander will +offer to meddle with it afterwards.” Such is the instinctive law of +nations. We have also this account of drift-wood in Crantz: “As he (the +Founder of Nature) has denied this frigid rocky region the growth of +trees, he has bid the streams of the Ocean to convey to its shores a +great deal of wood, which accordingly comes floating thither, part +without ice, but the most part along with it, and lodges itself between +the islands. Were it not for this, we Europeans should have no wood to +burn there, and the poor Greenlanders (who, it is true, do not use +wood, but train, for burning) would, however, have no wood to roof +their houses, to erect their tents, as also to build their boats, and +to shaft their arrows (yet there grew some small but crooked alders, +&c.), by which they must procure their maintenance, clothing and train +for warmth, light, and cooking. Among this wood are great trees torn up +by the roots, which by driving up and down for many years and rubbing +on the ice, are quite bare of branches and bark, and corroded with +great wood-worms. A small part of this drift-wood are willows, alder +and birch trees, which come out of the bays in the south of (_i.e._ +Greenland); also large trunks of aspen-trees, which must come from a +greater distance; but the greatest part is pine and fir. We find also a +good deal of a sort of wood finely veined, with few branches; this I +fancy is larch-wood, which likes to decorate the sides of lofty, stony +mountains. There is also a solid, reddish wood, of a more agreeable +fragrance than the common fir, with visible cross-veins; which I take +to be the same species as the beautiful silver-firs, or _zirbel_, that +have the smell of cedar, and grow on the high Grison hills, and the +Switzers wainscot their rooms with them.” The wrecker directed us to a +slight depression, called Snow’s Hollow, by which we ascended the +bank,—for elsewhere, if not difficult, it was inconvenient to climb it +on account of the sliding sand, which filled our shoes. + +This sand-bank—the backbone of the Cape—rose directly from the beach to +the height of a hundred feet or more above the ocean. It was with +singular emotions that we first stood upon it and discovered what a +place we had chosen to walk on. On our right, beneath us, was the beach +of smooth and gently sloping sand, a dozen rods in width; next, the +endless series of white breakers; further still, the light green water +over the bar, which runs the whole length of the forearm of the Cape, +and beyond this stretched the unwearied and illimitable ocean. On our +left, extending back from the very edge of the bank, was a perfect +desert of shining sand, from thirty to eighty rods in width, skirted in +the distance by small sand-hills fifteen or twenty feet high; between +which, however, in some places, the sand penetrated as much farther. +Next commenced the region of vegetation—a succession of small hills and +valleys covered with shrubbery, now glowing with the brightest +imaginable autumnal tints; and beyond this were seen, here and there, +the waters of the bay. Here, in Wellfleet, this pure sand plateau, +known to sailors as the Table Lands of Eastham, on account of its +appearance, as seen from the ocean, and because it once made a part of +that town,—full fifty rods in width, and in many places much more, and +sometimes full one hundred and fifty feet above the ocean,—stretched +away northward from the southern boundary of the town, without a +particle of vegetation,—as level almost as a table,—for two and a half +or three miles, or as far as the eye could reach; slightly rising +towards the ocean, then stooping to the beach, by as steep a slope as +sand could lie on, and as regular as a military engineer could desire. +It was like the escarped rampart of a stupendous fortress, whose glacis +was the beach, and whose champaign the ocean.—From its surface we +overlooked the greater part of the Cape. In short, we were traversing a +desert, with the view of an autumnal landscape of extraordinary +brilliancy, a sort of Promised Land, on the one hand, and the ocean on +the other. Yet, though the prospect was so extensive, and the country +for the most part destitute of trees, a house was rarely visible,—we +never saw one from the beach,—and the solitude was that of the ocean +and the desert combined. A thousand men could not have seriously +interrupted it, but would have been lost in the vastness of the scenery +as their footsteps in the sand. + +The whole coast is so free from rocks, that we saw but one or two for +more than twenty miles. The sand was soft like the beach, and trying to +the eyes when the sun shone. A few piles of drift-wood, which some +wreckers had painfully brought up the bank and stacked up there to dry, +being the only objects in the desert, looked indefinitely large and +distant, even like wigwams, though, when we stood near them, they +proved to be insignificant little “jags” of wood. + +For sixteen miles, commencing at the Nauset Lights, the bank held its +height, though farther north it was not so level as here, but +interrupted by slight hollows, and the patches of Beach-grass and +Bayberry frequently crept into the sand to its edge. There are some +pages entitled “A description of the Eastern Coast of the County of +Barnstable,” printed in 1802, pointing out the spots on which the +Trustees of the Humane Society have erected huts called Charity or +Humane Houses, “and other places where shipwrecked seamen may look for +shelter.” Two thousand copies of this were dispersed, that every vessel +which frequented this coast might be provided with one. I have read +this Shipwrecked Seaman’s Manual with a melancholy kind of +interest,—for the sound of the surf, or, you might say, the moaning of +the sea, is heard all through it, as if its author were the sole +survivor of a shipwreck himself. Of this part of the coast he says: +“This highland approaches the ocean with steep and lofty banks, which +it is extremely difficult to climb, especially in a storm. In violent +tempests, during very high tides, the sea breaks against the foot of +them, rendering it then unsafe to walk on the strand which lies between +them and the ocean. Should the seaman succeed in his attempt to ascend +them, he must forbear to penetrate into the country, as houses are +generally so remote that they would escape his research during the +night; he must pass on to the valleys by which the banks are +intersected. These valleys, which the inhabitants call Hollows, run at +right angles with the shore, and in the middle or lowest part of them a +road leads from the dwelling-houses to the sea.” By the _word_ road +must not always be understood a visible cart-track. + +There were these two roads for us,—an upper and a lower one,—the bank +and the beach; both stretching twenty-eight miles northwest, from +Nauset Harbor to Race Point, without a single opening into the beach, +and with hardly a serious interruption of the desert. If you were to +ford the narrow and shallow inlet at Nauset Harbor, where there is not +more than eight feet of water on the bar at full sea, you might walk +ten or twelve miles farther, which would make a beach forty miles +long,—and the bank and beach, on the east side of Nantucket, are but a +continuation of these. I was comparatively satisfied. There I had got +the Cape under me, as much as if I were riding it bare-backed. It was +not as on the map, or seen from the stagecoach; but there I found it +all out of doors, huge and real, Cape Cod! as it cannot be represented +on a map, color it as you will; the thing itself, than which there is +nothing more like it, no truer picture or account; which you cannot go +farther and see. I cannot remember what I thought before that it was. +They commonly celebrate those beaches only which have a hotel on them, +not those which have a Humane house alone. But I wished to see that +seashore where man’s works are wrecks; to put up at the true Atlantic +House, where the ocean is land-lord as well as sea-lord, and comes +ashore without a wharf for the landing; where the crumbling land is the +only invalid, or at best is but dry land, and that is all you can say +of it. + +We walked on quite at our leisure, now on the beach, now on the +bank,—sitting from time to time on some damp log, maple or yellow +birch, which had long followed the seas, but had now at last settled on +land; or under the lee of a sandhill, on the bank, that we might gaze +steadily on the ocean. The bank was so steep that, where there was no +danger of its caving, we sat on its edge, as on a bench. It was +difficult for us landsmen to look out over the ocean without imagining +land in the horizon; yet the clouds appeared to hang low over it, and +rest on the water as they never do on the land, perhaps on account of +the great distance to which we saw. The sand was not without advantage, +for, though it was “heavy” walking in it, it was soft to the feet; and, +notwithstanding that it had been raining nearly two days, when it held +up for half an hour, the sides of the sand-hills, which were porous and +sliding, afforded a dry seat. All the aspects of this desert are +beautiful, whether you behold it in fair weather or foul, or when the +sun is just breaking out after a storm, and shining on its moist +surface in the distance, it is so white, and pure, and level, and each +slight inequality and track is so distinctly revealed; and when your +eyes slide off this, they fall on the ocean. In summer the mackerel +gulls—which here have their nests among the neighboring +sand-hills—pursue the traveller anxiously, now and then diving close to +his head with a squeak, and he may see them, like swallows, chase some +crow which has been feeding on the beach, almost across the Cape. + +Though for some time I have not spoken of the roaring of the breakers, +and the ceaseless flux and reflux of the waves, yet they did not for a +moment cease to dash and roar, with such a tumult that if you had been +there, you could scarcely have heard my voice the while; and they are +dashing and roaring this very moment, though it may be with less din +and violence, for there the sea never rests. We were wholly absorbed by +this spectacle and tumult, and like Chryses, though in a different mood +from him, we walked silent along the shore of the resounding sea, + +Βῆ δ’ ἀκέων παρὰ θῖνα πολυφλοίσβοιο θαλάσσης.[1] + + +I put in a little Greek now and then, partly because it sounds so much +like the ocean,—though I doubt if Homer’s _Mediterranean_ Sea ever +sounded so loud as this. + +The attention of those who frequent the camp-meetings at Eastham is +said to be divided between the preaching of the Methodists and the +preaching of the billows on the back-side of the Cape, for they all +stream over here in the course of their stay. I trust that in this case +the loudest voice carries it. With what effect may we suppose the ocean +to say, “My hearers!” to the multitude on the bank! On that side some +John N. Maffit; on this, the Reverend Poluphloisboios Thalassa. + +There was but little weed cast up here, and that kelp chiefly, there +being scarcely a rock for rockweed to adhere to. Who has not had a +vision from some vessel’s deck, when he had still his land-legs on, of +this great brown apron, drifting half upright, and quite submerged +through the green water, clasping a stone or a deep-sea mussel in its +unearthly fingers? I have seen it carrying a stone half as large as my +head. We sometimes watched a mass of this cable-like weed, as it was +tossed up on the crest of a breaker, waiting with interest to see it +come in, as if there were some treasure buoyed up by it; but we were +always surprised and disappointed at the insignificance of the mass +which had attracted us. As we looked out over the water, the smallest +objects floating on it appeared indefinitely large, we were so +impressed by the vastness of the ocean, and each one bore so large a +proportion to the whole ocean, which we saw. We were so often +disappointed in the size of such things as came ashore, the ridiculous +bits of wood or weed, with which the ocean labored, that we began to +doubt whether the Atlantic itself would bear a still closer inspection, +and wold not turn out to be a but small pond, if it should come ashore +to us. This kelp, oar-weed, tangle, devils-apron, sole-leather, or +ribbon-weed,—as various species are called,—appeared to us a singularly +marine and fabulous product, a lit invention for Neptune to adorn his +car with, or a freak of Proteus. All that is told of the sea has a +fabulous sound to an inhabitant of the land, and all its products have +a certain fabulous quality, as if they belonged to another planet, from +sea-weed to a sailor’s yarn, or a fish-story. In this element the +animal and vegetable kingdoms meet and are strangely mingled. One +species of kelp, according to Bory St. Vincent, has a stem fifteen +hundred feet long, and hence is the longest vegetable known, and a +brig’s crew spent two days to no purpose collecting the trunks of +another kind cast ashore on the Falkland Islands, mistaking it for +drift-wood. (See Harvey on _Algæ_) This species looked almost edible; +at least, I thought that if I were starving I would try it. One sailor +told me that the cows ate it. It cut like cheese: for I took the +earliest opportunity to sit down and deliberately whittle up a fathom +or two of it, that I might become more intimately acquainted with it, +see how it cut, and if it were hollow all the way through. The blade +looked like a broad belt, whose edges had been quilled, or as if +stretched by hammering, and it was also twisted spirally. The extremity +was generally worn and ragged from the lashing of the waves. A piece of +the stem which I carried home shrunk to one quarter of its size a week +afterward, and was completely covered with crystals of salt like frost. +The reader will excuse my greenness,—though it is not sea-greenness, +like his, perchance,—for I live by a river-shore, where this weed does +not wash up. When we consider in what meadows it grew. and how it was +raked, and in what kind of hay weather got in or out, we may well be +curious about it. One who is weatherwise has given the following +account of the matter. + +“When descends on the Atlantic + The gigantic + Storm-wind of the equinox, +Landward in his wrath he scourges + The toiling surges, +Laden with sea-weed from the rocks. + +“From Bermuda’s reefs, from edges + Of sunken ledges, + On some far-off bright Azore; +From Bahama and the dashing, + Silver-flashing +Surges of San Salvador; + +“From the trembling surf that buries + The Orkneyan Skerries. + Answering the hoarse Hebrides; +And from wrecks and ships and drifting + Spars, uplifting +On the desolate rainy seas; + +“Ever drifting, drifting, drifting +On the shifting +Currents of the restless main.” + +But he was not thinking of this shore, when he added:— + +“Till, in sheltered coves and reaches + Of sandy beaches, +All have found repose again.” + + +_These_ weeds were the symbols of those grotesque and fabulous thoughts +which have not yet got into the sheltered coves of literature. + +“Ever drifting, drifting, drifting + On the shifting + Currents of the restless heart,” +_And not yet_ “in books recorded + They, like hoarded +Household words, no more depart.” + + +The beach was also strewn with beautiful sea-jellies, which the +wreckers called Sun-squall, one of the lowest forms of animal life, +some white, some wine-colored, and a foot in diameter. I at first +thought that they were a tender part of some marine monster, which the +storm or some other foe had mangled. What right has the sea to bear in +its bosom such tender things as sea-jellies and mosses, when it has +such a boisterous shore that the stoutest fabrics are wrecked against +it? Strange that it should undertake to dandle such delicate children +in its arm. I did not at first recognize these for the same which I had +formerly seen in myriads in Boston Harbor, rising, with a waving +motion, to the surface, as if to meet the sun, and discoloring the +waters far and wide, so that I seemed to be sailing through a mere +sunfish soup. They say that when you endeavor to take one up, it will +spill out the other side of your hand like quicksilver. Before the land +rose out of the ocean, and became _dry_ land, chaos reigned; and +between high and low water mark, where she is partially disrobed and +rising, a sort of chaos reigns still, which only anomalous creatures +can inhabit. Mackerel-gulls were all the while flying over our heads +and amid the breakers, sometimes two white ones pursuing a black one; +quite at home in the storm, though they are as delicate organizations +as sea-jellies and mosses; and we saw that they were adapted to their +circumstances rather by their spirits than their bodies. Theirs must be +an essentially wilder, that is, less human, nature than that of larks +and robins. Their note was like the sound of some vibrating metal, and +harmonized well with the scenery and the roar of the surf, as if one +had rudely touched the strings of the lyre, which ever lies on the +shore; a ragged shred of ocean music tossed aloft on the spray. But if +I were required to name a sound the remembrance of which most perfectly +revives the impression which the beach has made, it would be the dreary +peep of the piping plover (_Charadrius melodus_) which haunts there. +Their voices, too, are heard as a fugacious part in the dirge which is +ever played along the shore for those mariners who have been lost in +the deep since first it was created. But through all this dreariness we +seemed to have a pure and unqualified strain of eternal melody, for +always the same strain which is a dirge to one household is a morning +song of rejoicing to another. + +A remarkable method of catching gulls, derived from the Indians, was +practised in Wellfleet in 1794. “The Gull House,” it is said, “is built +with crotchets, fixed in the ground on the beach,” poles being +stretched across for the top, and the sides made close with stakes and +seaweed. “The poles on the top are covered with lean whale. The man +being placed within, is not discovered by the fowls, and while they are +contending for and eating the flesh, he draws them in, one by one, +between the poles, until he has collected forty or fifty.” Hence, +perchance, a man is said to be _gulled_, when he is _taken in_. We read +that one “sort of gulls is called by the Dutch _mallemucke, i.e._ the +foolish fly, because they fall upon a whale as eagerly as a fly, and, +indeed, all gulls are foolishly bold and easy to be shot. The +Norwegians call this bird _havhest_, sea-horse (and the English +translator says, it is probably what we call boobies). If they have +eaten too much, they throw it up, and eat it again till they are tired. +It is this habit in the gulls of parting with their property +[disgorging the contents of their stomachs to the skuas], which has +given rise to the terms gull, guller, and gulling, among men.” We also +read that they used to kill small birds which roosted on the beach at +night, by making a fire with hog’s lard in a frying-pan. The Indians +probably used pine torches; the birds flocked to the light, and were +knocked down with a stick. We noticed holes dug near the edge of the +bank, where gunners conceal themselves to shoot the large gulls which +coast up and down a-fishing, for these are considered good to eat. + +We found some large clams of the species _Mactra solidissima_, which +the storm had torn up from the bottom, and cast ashore. I selected one +of the largest, about six inches in length, and carried it along, +thinking to try an experiment on it. We soon after met a wrecker, with +a grapple and a rope, who said that he was looking for tow cloth, which +had made part of the cargo of the ship _Franklin_, which was wrecked +here in the spring, at which time nine or ten lives were lost. The +reader may remember this wreck, from the circumstance that a letter was +found in the captain’s valise, which washed ashore, directing him to +wreck the vessel before he got to America, and from the trial which +took place in consequence. The wrecker said that tow cloth was still +cast up in such storms as this. He also told us that the clam which I +had was the sea-clam, or hen, and was good to eat. We took our nooning +under a sand-hill, covered with beach-grass, in a dreary little hollow, +on the top of the bank, while it alternately rained and shined. There, +having reduced some damp drift-wood, which I had picked up on the +shore, to shavings with my knife, I kindled a fire with a match and +some paper and cooked my clam on the embers for my dinner; for +breakfast was commonly the only meal which I took in a house on this +excursion. When the clam was done, one valve held the meat and the +other the liquor. Though it was very tough, I found it sweet and +savory, and ate _the whole_ with a relish. Indeed, with the addition of +a cracker or two, it would have been a bountiful dinner. I noticed that +the shells were such as I had seen in the sugar-kit at home. Tied to a +stick, they formerly made the Indian’s hoe hereabouts. + +At length, by mid-afternoon, after we had had two or three rainbows +over the sea, the showers ceased, and the heavens gradually cleared up, +though the wind still blowed as hard and the breakers ran as high as +before. Keeping on, we soon after came to a Charity-house, which we +looked into to see how the shipwrecked mariner might fare. Far away in +some desolate hollow by the sea-side, just within the bank, stands a +lonely building on piles driven into the sand, with a slight nail put +through the staple, which a freezing man can bend, with some straw, +perchance, on the floor on which he may lie, or which he may burn in +the fireplace to keep him alive. Perhaps this hut has never been +required to shelter a ship-wrecked man, and the benevolent person who +promised to inspect it annually, to see that the straw and matches are +here, and that the boards will keep off the wind, has grown remiss and +thinks that storms and shipwrecks are over; and this very night a +perishing crew may pry open its door with their numbed fingers and +leave half their number dead here by morning. When I thought what must +be the condition of the families which alone would ever occupy or had +occupied them, what must have been the tragedy of the winter evenings +spent by human beings around their hearths, these houses, though they +were meant for human dwellings, did not look cheerful to me. They +appeared but a stage to the grave. The gulls flew around and screamed +over them; the roar of the ocean in storms, and the lapse of its waves +in calms, alone resounds through them, all dark and empty within, year +in, year out, except, perchance, on one memorable night. Houses of +entertainment for shipwrecked men! What kind of sailors’ homes were +they? + +[Illustration: Wreckage under the sand-bluff] + +“Each hut,” says the author of the “Description of the Eastern Coast of +the County of Barnstable,” “stands on piles, is eight feet long, eight +feet wide, and seven feet high; a sliding door is on the south, a +sliding shutter on the west, and a pole, rising fifteen feet above the +top of the building, on the east. Within it is supplied either with +straw or hay, and is further accommodated with a bench.” They have +varied little from this model now. There are similar huts at the Isle +of Sable and Anticosti, on the north, and how far south along the coast +I know not. It is pathetic to read the minute and faithful directions +which he gives to seamen who may be wrecked on this coast, to guide +them to the nearest Charity-house, or other shelter, for, as is said of +Eastham, though there are a few houses within a mile of the shore, yet +“in a snow-storm, which rages here with excessive fury, it would be +almost impossible to discover them either by night or by day.” You hear +their imaginary guide thus marshalling, cheering, directing the +dripping, shivering, freezing troop along; “at the entrance of this +valley the sand has gathered, so that at present a little climbing is +necessary. Passing over several fences and taking heed not to enter the +wood on the right hand, at the distance of three-quarters of a mile a +house is to be found. This house stands on the south side of the road, +and not far from it on the south is Pamet River, which runs from east +to west through body of salt marsh.” To him cast ashore in Eastham, he +says, “The meeting-house is without a steeple, but it may be +distinguished from the dwelling-houses near it by its situation, which +is between two small groves of locusts, one on the south and one on the +north,—that on the south being three times as long as the other. About +a mile and a quarter from the hut, west by north, appear the top and +arms of a windmill.” And so on for many pages. + +We did not learn whether these houses had been the means of saving any +lives, though this writer says, of one erected at the head of Stout’s +Creek in Truro, that “it was built in an improper manner, having a +chimney in it; and was placed on a spot where no beach-grass grew. The +strong winds blew the sand from its foundation and the weight of the +chimney brought it to the ground; so that in January of the present +year [1802] it was entirely demolished. This event took place about six +weeks before the _Brutus_ was cast away. If it had remained, it is +probable that the whole of the unfortunate crew of that ship would have +been saved, as they gained the shore a few rods only from the spot +where the hut had stood.” + +This “Charity-house,” as the wrecker called it, this “Humane-house,” as +some call it, that is, the one to which we first came, had neither +window nor sliding shutter, nor clapboards, nor paint. As we have said, +there was a rusty nail put through the staple. However, as we wished to +get an idea of a Humane house, and we hoped that we should never have a +better opportunity, we put our eyes, by turns, to a knot-hole in the +door, and after long looking, without seeing, into the dark,—not +knowing how many shipwrecked men’s bones we might see at last, looking +with the eye of faith, knowing that, though to him that knocketh it may +not always be opened, yet to him that looketh long enough through a +knot-hole the inside shall be visible,—for we had had some practice at +looking inward,—by steadily keeping our other ball covered from the +light meanwhile, putting the outward world behind us, ocean and land, +and the beach,—till the pupil became enlarged and collected the rays of +light that were wandering in that dark (for the pupil shall be enlarged +by looking; there never was so dark a night but a faithful and patient +eye, however small, might at last prevail over it),—after all this, I +say, things began to take shape to our vision,—if we may use this +expression where there was nothing but emptiness,—and we obtained the +long-wished-for insight. Though we thought at first that it was a +hopeless case, after several minutes’ steady exercise of the divine +faculty, our prospects began decidedly to brighten, and we were ready +to exclaim with the blind bard of “Paradise Lost and Regained,”— + +“Hail, holy Light! offspring of Heaven first born, +Or of the Eternal co-eternal beam. +May I express thee unblamed?” + + +A little longer, and a chimney rushed red on our sight. In short, when +our vision had grown familiar with the darkness, we discovered that +there were some stones and some loose wads of wool on the floor, and an +empty fireplace at the further end; but it _was not_ supplied with +matches, or straw, or hay, that we could see, nor “accommodated with a +bench.” Indeed, it was the wreck of all cosmical beauty there within. + +Turning our backs on the outward world, we thus looked through the +knot-hole into the Humane house, into the very bowels of mercy; and for +bread we found a stone. It was literally a great cry (of sea-mews +outside), and a little wool. However, we were glad to sit outside, +under the lee of the Humane house, to escape the piercing wind; and +there we thought how cold is charity! how inhumane humanity! This, +then, is what charity hides! Virtues antique and far away with ever a +rusty nail over the latch; and very difficult to keep in repair, +withal, it is so uncertain whether any will ever gain the beach near +you. So we shivered round about, not being able to get into it, ever +and anon looking through the knot-hole into that night without a star, +until we concluded that it was not a _humane_ house at all, but a +sea-side box, now shut up. belonging to some of the family of Night or +Chaos, where they spent their summers by the sea, for the sake of the +sea breeze, and that it was not proper for us to be prying into their +concerns. + +My companion had declared before this that I had not a particle of +sentiment, in rather absolute terms, to my astonishment; but I suspect +he meant that my legs did not ache just then, though I am not wholly a +stranger to that sentiment. But I did not intend this for a sentimental +journey. + +[Illustration: Herring River at Wellfleet] + + [1] We have no word in English to express the sound of many waves, + dashing at once, whether gently or violently, πολυφλοίσβοιος to the + ear, and, in the ocean’s gentle moods, an ἀνάριθμον γέλασμα to the + eye. + + + + +V +THE WELLFLEET OYSTERMAN + + +Having walked about eight miles since we struck the beach, and passed +the boundary between Wellfleet and Truro, a stone post in the sand,—for +even this sand comes under the jurisdiction of one town or another,—we +turned inland over barren hills and valleys, whither the sea, for some +reason, did not follow us, and, tracing up a Hollow, discovered two or +three sober-looking houses within half a mile, uncommonly near the +eastern coast. Their garrets were apparently so full of chambers, that +their roofs could hardly lie down straight, and we did not doubt that +there was room for us there. Houses near the sea are generally low and +broad. These were a story and a half high; but if you merely counted +the windows in their gable-ends, you would think that there were many +stories more, or, at any rate, that the half-story was the only one +thought worthy of being illustrated. The great number of windows in the +ends of the houses, and their irregularity in size and position, here +and elsewhere on the Cape, struck us agreeably,—as if each of the +various occupants who had their _cunabula_ behind had punched a hole +where his necessities required it, and, according to his size and +stature, without regard to outside effect. There were windows for the +grown folks, and windows for the children,—three or four apiece; as a +certain man had a large hole cut in his barn-door for the cat, and +another smaller one for the kitten. Sometimes they were so low under +the eaves that I thought they must have perforated the plate beam for +another apartment, and I noticed some which were triangular, to fit +that part more exactly. The ends of the houses had thus as many muzzles +as a revolver, and, if the inhabitants have the same habit of staring +out the windows that some of our neighbors have, a traveller must stand +a small chance with them. + +Generally, the old-fashioned and unpainted houses on the Cape looked +more comfortable, as well as picturesque, than the modern and more +pretending ones, which were less in harmony with the scenery, and less +firmly planted. + +[Illustration: A characteristic gable with many windows] + +These houses were on the shores of a chain of ponds, seven in number, +the source of a small stream called Herring River, which empties into +the Bay. There are many Herring Rivers on the Cape; they will, perhaps, +be more numerous than herrings soon. We knocked at the door of the +first house, but its inhabitants were all gone away. In the meanwhile, +we saw the occupants of the next one looking out the window at us, and +before we reached it an old woman came out and fastened the door of her +bulkhead, and went in again. Nevertheless, we did not hesitate to knock +at her door, when a grizzly-looking man appeared, whom we took to be +sixty or seventy years old. He asked us, at first, suspiciously, where +we were from, and what our business was; to which we returned plain +answers. + +“How far is Concord from Boston?” he inquired. + +“Twenty miles by railroad.” + +“Twenty miles by railroad,” he repeated. + +“Didn’t you ever hear of Concord of Revolutionary fame?” + +“Didn’t I ever hear of Concord? Why, I heard the guns fire at the +battle of Bunker Hill. [They hear the sound of heavy cannon across the +Bay.] I am almost ninety; I am eighty-eight year old. I was fourteen +year old at the time of Concord Fight,—and where were you then?” + +We were obliged to confess that we were not in the fight. + +“Well, walk in, we’ll leave it to the women,” said he. + +So we walked in, surprised, and sat down, an old woman taking our hats +and bundles, and the old man continued, drawing up to the large, +old-fashioned fireplace,— + +“I am a poor good-for-nothing crittur, as Isaiah says; I am all broken +down this year. I am under petticoat government here.” + +The family consisted of the old man, his wife, and his daughter, who +appeared nearly as old as her mother, a fool, her son (a +brutish-looking, middle-aged man, with a prominent lower face, who was +standing by the hearth when we entered, but immediately went out), and +a little boy of ten. + +While my companion talked with the women, I talked with the old man. +They said that he was old and foolish, but he was evidently too knowing +for them. + +“These women,” said he to me, “are both of them poor good-for-nothing +critturs. This one is my wife. I married her sixty-four years ago. She +is eighty-four years old, and as deaf as an adder, and the other is not +much better.” + +He thought well of the Bible, or at least he _spoke_ well, and did not +_think_ ill, of it, for that would not have been prudent for a man of +his age. He said that he had read it attentively for many years, and he +had much of it at his tongue’s end. He seemed deeply impressed with a +sense of his own nothingness, and would repeatedly exclaim,— + +“I am a nothing. What I gather from my Bible is just this: that man is +a poor good-for-nothing crittur, and everything is just as God sees fit +and disposes.” + +“May I ask your name?” I said. + +“Yes,” he answered, “I am not ashamed to tell my name. My name is——. My +great-grandfather came over from England and settled here.” + +He was an old Wellfleet oysterman, who had acquired a competency in +that business, and had sons still engaged in it. + +Nearly all the oyster shops and stands in Massachusetts, I am told, are +supplied and kept by natives of Wellfleet, and a part of this town is +still called Billingsgate from the oysters having been formerly planted +there; but the native oysters are said to have died in 1770. Various +causes are assigned for this, such as a ground frost, the carcasses of +blackfish kept to rot in the harbor, and the like, but the most common +account of the matter is,—and I find that a similar superstition with +regard to the disappearance of fishes exists almost everywhere,—that +when Wellfleet began to quarrel with the neighboring towns about the +right to gather them, yellow specks appeared in them, and Providence +caused them to disappear. A few years ago sixty thousand bushels were +annually brought from the South and planted in the harbor of Wellfleet +till they attained “the proper relish of Billingsgate”; but now they +are imported commonly full-grown, and laid down near their markets, at +Boston and elsewhere, where the water, being a mixture of salt and +fresh, suits them better. The business was said to be still good and +improving. + +The old man said that the oysters were liable to freeze in the winter, +if planted too high; but if it were not “so cold as to strain their +eyes” they were not injured. The inhabitants of New Brunswick have +noticed that “ice will not form over an oyster-bed, unless the cold is +very intense indeed, and when the bays are frozen over the oyster-beds +are easily discovered by the water above them remaining unfrozen, or as +the French residents say, _degèle_.” Our host said that they kept them +in cellars all winter. + +“Without anything to eat or drink?” I asked. + +“Without anything to eat or drink,” he answered. + +“Can the oysters move?” + +“Just as much as my shoe.” + +[Illustration: A Welfleet oysterman] + +But when I caught him saying that they “bedded themselves down in the +sand, flat side up, round side down,” I told him that my shoe could not +do that, without the aid of my foot in it; at which he said that they +merely settled down as they grew; if put down in a square they would be +found so; but the clam could move quite fast. I have since been told by +oystermen of Long Island, where the oyster is still indigenous and +abundant, that they are found in large masses attached to the parent in +their midst, and are so taken up with their tongs; in which case, they +say, the age of the young proves that there could have been no motion +for five or six years at least. And Buckland in his Curiosities of +Natural History (page 50) says: “An oyster who has once taken up his +position and fixed himself when quite young can never make a change. +Oysters, nevertheless, that have not fixed themselves, but remain loose +at the bottom of the sea, have the power of locomotion; they open their +shells to their fullest extent, and then suddenly contracting them, the +expulsion of the water forwards gives a motion backwards. A fisherman +at Guernsey told me that he had frequently seen oysters moving in this +way.” + +Some still entertain the question “whether the oyster was indigenous in +Massachusetts Bay,” and whether Wellfleet harbor was a “natural +habitat” of this fish; but, to say nothing of the testimony of old +oystermen, which, I think, is quite conclusive, though the native +oyster may now be extinct there, I saw that their shells, opened by the +Indians, were strewn all over the Cape. Indeed, the Cape was at first +thickly settled by Indians on account of the abundance of these and +other fish. We saw many traces of their occupancy after this, in Truro, +near Great Hollow, and at High-Head, near East Harbor River,—oysters, +clams, cockles, and other shells, mingled with ashes and the bones of +deer and other quadrupeds. I picked up half a dozen arrow-heads, and in +an hour or two could have filled my pockets with them. The Indians +lived about the edges of the swamps, then probably in some instances +ponds, for shelter and water. Moreover, Champlain in the edition of his +“Voyages” printed in 1613, says that in the year 1606 he and +Poitrincourt explored a harbor (Barnstable Harbor?) in the southerly +part of what is now called Massachusetts Bay, in latitude 42°, about +five leagues south, one point west of _Cap Blanc_ (Cape Cod), and there +they found many good oysters, and they named it “_le Port aux +Huistres_” (Oyster Harbor). In one edition of his map (1632), the _“R. +aux Escailles_” is drawn emptying into the same part of the bay, and on +the map “_Novi Belgii_,” in Ogilby’s “America” (1670), the words “_Port +aux Huistres_” are placed against the same place. Also William Wood, +who left New England in 1633, speaks, in his “New England’s Prospect,” +published in 1634, of “a great oyster-bank” in Charles River, and of +another in the Mistick, each of which obstructed the navigation of its +river. “The oysters,” says he, “be great ones in form of a shoehorn; +some be a foot long; these breed on certain banks that are bare every +spring tide. This fish without the shell is so big, that it must admit +of a division before you can well get it into your mouth.” Oysters are +still found there. (Also, see Thomas Morton’s “New English Canaan,” +page 90.) + +Our host told us that the sea-clam, or hen, was not easily obtained; it +was raked up, but never on the Atlantic side, only cast ashore there in +small quantities in storms. The fisherman sometimes wades in water +several feet deep, and thrusts a pointed stick into the sand before +him. When this enters between the valves of a clam, he closes them on +it, and is drawn out. It has been known to catch and hold coot and teal +which were preying on it. I chanced to be on the bank of the Acushnet +at New Bedford one day since this, watching some ducks, when a man +informed me that, having let out his young ducks to seek their food +amid the samphire (_Salicornia_) and other weeds along the river-side +at low tide that morning, at length he noticed that one remained +stationary, amid the weeds, something preventing it from following the +others, and going to it he found its foot tightly shut in a quahog’s +shell. He took up both together, carried them to his home, and his wife +opening the shell with a knife released the duck and cooked the quahog. +The old man said that the great clams were good to eat, but that they +always took out a certain part which was poisonous, before they cooked +them. “People said it would kill a cat.” I did not tell him that I had +eaten a large one entire that afternoon, but began to think that I was +tougher than a cat. He stated that pedlers came round there, and +sometimes tried to sell the women folks a skimmer, but he told them +that their women had got a better skimmer than _they_ could make, in +the shell of their clams; it was shaped just right for this +purpose.—They call them “skim-alls” in some places. He also said that +the sun-squall was poisonous to handle, and when the sailors came +across it, they did not meddle with it, but heaved it out of their way. +I told him that I had handled it that afternoon, and had felt no ill +effects as yet. But he said it made the hands itch, especially if they +had previously been scratched, or if I put it into my bosom I should +find out what it was. + +He informed us that no ice ever formed on the back side of the Cape, or +not more than once in a century, and but little snow lay there, it +being either absorbed or blown or washed away. Sometimes in winter, +when the tide was down, the beach was frozen, and afforded a hard road +up the back side for some thirty miles, as smooth as a floor. One +winter when he was a boy, he and his father “took right out into the +back side before daylight, and walked to Provincetown and back to +dinner.” + +When I asked what they did with all that barren-looking land, where I +saw so few cultivated fields,—“Nothing,” he said. + +“Then why fence your fields?” + +“To keep the sand from blowing and covering up the whole.” + +“The yellow sand,” said he, “has some life in it, but the white little +or none.” + +When, in answer to his questions, I told him that I was a surveyor, he +said that they who surveyed his farm were accustomed, where the ground +was uneven, to loop up each chain as high as their elbows; that was the +allowance they made, and he wished to know if I could tell him why they +did not come out according to his deed, or twice alike. He seemed to +have more respect for surveyors of the old school, which I did not +wonder at. “King George the Third,” said he, “laid out a road four rods +wide and straight the whole length of the Cape,” but where it was now +he could not tell. + +This story of the surveyors reminded me of a Long-Islander, who once, +when I had made ready to jump from the bow of his boat to the shore, +and he thought that I underrated the distance and would fall +short,—though I found afterward that he judged of the elasticity of my +joints by his own,—told me that when he came to a brook which he wanted +to get over, he held up one leg, and then, if his foot appeared to +cover any part of the opposite bank, he knew that he could jump it. +“Why,” I told him, “to say nothing of the Mississippi, and other small +watery streams, I could blot out a star with my foot, but I would not +engage to jump that distance,” and asked how he knew when he had got +his leg at the right elevation. But he regarded his legs as no less +accurate than a pair of screw dividers or an ordinary quadrant, and +appeared to have a painful recollection of every degree and minute in +the arc which they described; and he would have had me believe that +there was a kind of hitch in his hip-joint which answered the purpose. +I suggested that he should connect his two ankles by a string of the +proper length, which should be the chord of an arc, measuring his +jumping ability on horizontal surfaces,—assuming one leg to be a +perpendicular to the plane of the horizon, which, however, may have +been too bold an assumption in this case. Nevertheless, this was a kind +of geometry in the legs which it interested me to hear of. + +Our host took pleasure in telling us the names of the ponds, most of +which we could see from his windows, and making us repeat them after +him, to see if we had got them right. They were Gull Pond, the largest +and a very handsome one, clear and deep, and more than a mile in +circumference, Newcomb’s, Swett’s, Slough, Horse-Leech, Round, and +Herring Ponds, all connected at high water, if I do not mistake. The +coast-surveyors had come to him for their names, and he told them of +one which they had not detected. He said that they were not so high as +formerly. There was an earthquake about four years before he was born, +which cracked the pans of the ponds, which were of iron, and caused +them to settle. I did not remember to have read of this. Innumerable +gulls used to resort to them; but the large gulls were now very scarce, +for, as he said, the English robbed their nests far in the north, where +they breed. He remembered well when gulls were taken in the gull-house, +and when small birds were killed by means of a frying-pan and fire at +night. His father once lost a valuable horse from this cause. A party +from Wellfleet having lighted their fire for this purpose, one dark +night, on Billingsgate Island, twenty horses which were pastured there, +and this colt among them, being frightened by it, and endeavoring in +the dark to cross the passage which separated them from the neighboring +beach, and which was then fordable at low tide, were all swept out to +sea and drowned. I ob-served that many horses were still turned out to +pasture all summer on the islands and beaches in Wellfleet, Eastham, +and Orleans, as a kind of common. He also described the killing of what +he called “wild hens” here, after they had gone to roost in the woods, +when he was a boy. Perhaps they were “Prairie hens” (pinnated grouse). + +He liked the Beach-pea (_Lathyrus maritimus_), cooked green, as well as +the cultivated. He had seen it growing very abundantly in Newfoundland, +where also the inhabitants ate them, but he had never been able to +obtain any ripe for seed. We read, under the head of Chatham, that “in +1555, during a time of great scarcity, the people about Orford, in +Sussex (England) were preserved from perishing by eating the seeds of +this plant, which grew there in great abundance on the sea-coast. Cows, +horses, sheep, and goats eat it.” But the writer who quoted this could +not learn that they had ever been used in Barnstable County. + +He had been a voyager, then? O, he had been about the world in his day. +He once considered himself a pilot for all our coast; but now they had +changed the names so he might be bothered. + +He gave us to taste what he called the Summer Sweeting, a pleasant +apple which he raised, and frequently grafted from, but had never seen +growing elsewhere, except once,—three trees on Newfoundland, or at the +Bay of Chaleur, I forget which, as he was sailing by. He was sure that +he could tell the tree at a distance. + +At length the fool, whom my companion called the wizard, came in, +muttering between his teeth, “Damn book-pedlers,—all the time talking +about books. Better do something. Damn ’em. I’ll shoot ’em. Got a +doctor down here. Damn him, I’ll get a gun and shoot him”; never once +holding up his head. Whereat the old man stood up and said in a loud +voice, as if he was accustomed to command, and this was not the first +time he had been obliged to exert his authority there: “John, go sit +down, mind your business,—we’ve heard you talk before,—precious little +you’ll do,—your bark is worse than your bite.” But, without minding, +John muttered the same gibberish over again, and then sat down at the +table which the old folks had left. He ate all there was on it, and +then turned to the apples, which his aged mother was paring, that she +might give her guests some apple-sauce for breakfast, but she drew them +away and sent him off. + +[Illustration: Welfleet] + +When I approached this house the next summer, over the desolate hills +between it and the shore, which are worthy to have been the birthplace +of Ossian, I saw the wizard in the midst of a cornfield on the +hillside, but, as usual, he loomed so strangely, that I mistook him for +a scarecrow. + +This was the merriest old man that we had ever seen, and one of the +best preserved. His style of conversation was coarse and plain enough +to have suited Rabelais. He would have made a good Panurge. Or rather +he was a sober Silenus, and we were the boys Chromis and Mnasilus, who +listened to his story. + +“Not by Hæmonian hills the Thracian bard. +Nor awful Phœbus was on Pindus heard +With deeper silence or with more regard.” + + +There was a strange mingling of past and present in his conversation, +for he had lived under King George, and might have remembered when +Napoleon and the moderns generally were born. He said that one day, +when the troubles between the Colonies and the mother country first +broke out, as he, a boy of fifteen, was pitching hay out of a cart, one +Doane, an old Tory, who was talking with his father, a good Whig, said +to him, “Why, Uncle Bill, you might as well undertake to pitch that +pond into the ocean with a pitchfork, as for the Colonies to undertake +to gain their independence.” He remembered well General Washington, and +how he rode his horse along the streets of Boston, and he stood up to +show us how he looked. + +“He was a r—a—ther large and portly-looking man, a manly and +resolute-looking officer, with a pretty good leg as he sat on his +horse.”—“There, I’ll tell you, this was the way with Washington.” Then +he jumped up again, and bowed gracefully to right and left, making show +as if he were waving his hat. Said he, _“That_ was Washington.” + +He told us many anecdotes of the Revolution, and was much pleased when +we told him that we had read the same in history, and that his account +agreed with the written. + +“O,” he said, “I know, I know! I was a young fellow of sixteen, with my +ears wide open; and a fellow of that age, you know, is pretty wide +awake, and likes to know everything that’s going on. O, I know!” + +He told us the story of the wreck of the _Franklin_, which took place +there the previous spring: how a boy came to his house early in the +morning to know whose boat that was by the shore, for there was a +vessel in distress, and he, being an old man, first ate his breakfast, +and then walked over to the top of the hill by the shore, and sat down +there, having found a comfortable seat, to see the ship wrecked. She +was on the bar, only a quarter of a mile from him, and still nearer to +the men on the beach, who had got a boat ready, but could render no +assistance on account of the breakers, for there was a pretty high sea +running. There were the passengers all crowded together in the forward +part of the ship, and some were getting out of the cabin windows and +were drawn on deck by the others. + +“I saw the captain get out his boat,” said he; “he had one little one; +and then they jumped into it one after another, down as straight as an +arrow. I counted them. There were nine. One was a woman, and she jumped +as straight as any of them. Then they shoved off. The sea took them +back, one wave went over them, and when they came up there were six +still clinging to the boat; I counted them. The next wave turned the +boat bottom upward, and emptied them all out. None of them ever came +ashore alive. There were the rest of them all crowded together on the +forecastle, the other parts of the ship being under water. They had +seen all that happened to the boat. At length a heavy sea separated the +forecastle from the rest of the wreck, and set it inside of the worst +breaker, and the boat was able to reach them, and it saved all that +were left, but one woman.” + +He also told us of the steamer _Cambria’s_ getting aground on his shore +a few months before we were there, and of her English passengers who +roamed over his grounds, and who, he said, thought the prospect from +the high hill by the shore “the most delightsome they had ever seen,” +and also of the pranks which the ladies played with his scoop-net in +the ponds. He spoke of these travellers with their purses full of +guineas, just as our provincial fathers used to speak of British bloods +in the time of King George the Third. + +_Quid loquar?_ Why repeat what he told us? + +“Aut Scyllam Nisi, quam fama secuta est, +Candida succinctam latrantibus inguina monstris, +Dulichias vexâsse rates, et gurgite in alto +Ah timidos nautas canibus lacerâsse marinis?” + + +In the course of the evening I began to feel the potency of the clam +which I had eaten, and I was obliged to confess to our host that I was +no tougher than the cat he told of; but he answered, that he was a +plain-spoken man, and he could tell me that it was all imagination. At +any rate, it proved an emetic in my case, and I was made quite sick by +it for a short time, while he laughed at my expense. I was pleased to +read afterward, in Mourt’s Relation of the landing of the Pilgrims in +Provincetown Harbor, these words: “We found great muscles (the old +editor says that they were undoubtedly sea-clams) and very fat and full +of sea-pearl; but we could not eat them, for they made us all sick that +did eat, as well sailors as passengers, ... but they were soon well +again.” It brought me nearer to the Pilgrims to be thus reminded by a +similar experience that I was so like them. Moreover, it was a valuable +confirmation of their story, and I am prepared now to believe every +word of Mourt’s Relation. I was also pleased to find that man and the +clam lay still at the same angle to one another. But I did not notice +sea-pearl. Like Cleopatra, I must have swallowed it. I have since dug +these clams on a flat in the Bay and observed them. They could squirt +full ten feet before the wind, as appeared by the marks of the drops on +the sand. + +“Now I’m going to ask you a question,” said the old man, “and I don’t +know as you can tell me; but you are a learned man, and I never had any +learning, only what I got by natur.”—It was in vain that we reminded +him that he could quote Josephus to our confusion.—“I’ve thought, if I +ever met a learned man I should like to ask him this question. Can you +tell me how _Axy_ is spelt, and what it means? _Axy_,” says he; +“there’s a girl over here is named _Axy_. Now what is it? What does it +mean? Is it Scripture? I’ve read my Bible twenty-five years over and +over, and I never came across it.” + +“Did you read it twenty-five years for this object.’” I asked. + +“Well, _how_ is it spelt? Wife, how is it spelt?” She said: “It is in +the Bible; I’ve seen it.” + +“Well, how do you spell it?” + +“I don’t know. A c h, ach, s e h, seh,—Achseh.” + +“Does that spell Axy? Well, do _you_ know what it means?” asked he, +turning to me. + +“No,” I replied, “I never heard the sound before.” + +“There was a schoolmaster down here once, and they asked him what it +meant, and he said it had no more meaning than a bean-pole.” + +I told him that I held the same opinion with the schoolmaster. I had +been a schoolmaster myself, and had had strange names to deal with. I +also heard of such names as Zoleth, Beriah, Amaziah, Bethuel, and +Shearjashub, hereabouts. + +At length the little boy, who had a seat quite in the chimney-corner, +took off his stockings and shoes, warmed his feet, and having had his +sore leg freshly salved, went off to bed; then the fool made bare his +knotty-looking feet and legs, and followed him; and finally the old man +exposed his calves also to our gaze. We had never had the good fortune +to see an old man’s legs before, and were surprised to find them fair +and plump as an infant’s, and we thought that he took a pride in +exhibiting them. He then proceeded to make preparations for retiring, +discoursing meanwhile with Panurgic plainness of speech on the ills to +which old humanity is subject. We were a rare haul for him. He could +commonly get none but ministers to talk to, though sometimes ten of +them at once, and he was glad to meet some of the laity at leisure. The +evening was not long enough for him. As I had been sick, the old lady +asked if I would not go to bed,—it was getting late for old people; but +the old man, who had not yet done his stories, said, “You ain’t +particular, are you?” + +“O, no,” said I, “I am in no hurry. I believe I have weathered the Clam +cape.” + +“They are good,” said he; “I wish I had some of them now.” + +“They never hurt me,” said the old lady. + +“But then you took out the part that killed a cat,” said I. + +At last we cut him short in the midst of his stories, which he promised +to resume in the morning. Yet, after all, one of the old ladies who +came into our room in the night to fasten the fire-board, which +rattled, as she went out took the precaution to fasten us in. Old women +are by nature more suspicious than old men. However, the winds howled +around the house, and made the fire-boards as well as the casements +rattle well that night. It was probably a windy night for any locality, +but we could not distinguish the roar which was proper to the ocean +from that which was due to the wind alone. + +The sounds which the ocean makes must be very significant and +interesting to those who live near it. When I was leaving the shore at +this place the next summer, and had got a quarter of a mile distant, +ascending a hill, I was startled by a sudden, loud sound from the sea, +as if a large steamer were letting off steam by the shore, so that I +caught my breath and felt my blood run cold for an instant, and I +turned about, expecting to see one of the Atlantic steamers thus far +out of her course, but there was nothing unusual to be seen. There was +a low bank at the entrance of the Hollow, between me and the ocean, and +suspecting that I might have risen into another stratum of air in +ascending the hill,—which had wafted to me only the ordinary roar of +the sea,—I immediately descended again, to see if I lost _hearing_ of +it; but, without regard to my ascending or descending, it died away in +a minute or two, and yet there was scarcely any wind all the while. The +old man said that this was what they called the “rut,” a peculiar roar +of the sea before the wind changes, which, however, he could not +account for. He thought that he could tell all about the weather from +the sounds which the sea made. + +Old Josselyn, who came to New England in 1638, has it among his +weather-signs, that “the resounding of the sea from the shore, and +murmuring of the winds in the woods, without apparent wind, sheweth +wind to follow.” + +Being on another part of the coast one night since this, I heard the +roar of the surf a mile distant, and the inhabitants said it was a sign +that the wind would work round east, and we should have rainy weather. +The ocean was heaped up somewhere at the eastward, and this roar was +occasioned by its effort to preserve its equilibrium, the wave reaching +the shore before the wind. Also the captain of a packet between this +country and England told me that he sometimes met with a wave on the +Atlantic coming against the wind, perhaps in a calm sea, which +indicated that at a distance the wind was blowing from an opposite +quarter, but the undulation had travelled faster than it. Sailors tell +of “tide-rips” and “ground-swells,” which they suppose to have been +occasioned by hurricanes and earthquakes, and to have travelled many +hundred, and sometimes even two or three thousand miles. + +[Illustration: Hunting for a Leak] + +Before sunrise the next morning they let us out again, and I ran over +to the beach to see the sun come out of the ocean. The old woman of +eighty-four winters was already out in the cold morning wind, +bareheaded, tripping about like a young girl, and driving up the cow to +milk. She got the breakfast with despatch, and without noise or bustle; +and meanwhile the old man resumed his stories, standing before us, who +were sitting, with his back to the chimney, and ejecting his tobacco +juice right and left into the fire behind him, without regard to the +various dishes which were there preparing. At breakfast we had eels, +buttermilk cake, cold bread, green beans, doughnuts, and tea. The old +man talked a steady stream; and when his wife told him he had better +eat his breakfast, he said: “Don’t hurry me; I have lived too long to +be hurried.” I ate of the apple-sauce and the doughnuts, which I +thought had sustained the least detriment from the old man’s shots, but +my companion refused the apple-sauce, and ate of the hot cake and green +beans, which had appeared to him to occupy the safest part of the +hearth. But on comparing notes afterward, I told him that the +buttermilk cake was particularly exposed, and I saw how it suffered +repeatedly, and therefore I avoided it; but he declared that, however +that might be, he witnessed that the apple-sauce was seriously injured, +and had therefore declined that. After breakfast we looked at his +clock, which was out of order, and oiled it with some “hen’s grease,” +for want of sweet oil, for he scarcely could believe that we were not +tinkers or pedlers; meanwhile he told a story about visions, which had +reference to a crack in the clock-case made by frost one night. He was +curious to know to what religious sect we belonged. He said that he had +been to hear thirteen kinds of preaching in one month, when he was +young, but he did not join any of them,—he stuck to his Bible. There +was nothing like any of them in his Bible. While I was shaving in the +next room, I heard him ask my companion to what sect he belonged, to +which he answered:— + +“O, I belong to the Universal Brotherhood.” + +“What’s that?” he asked, “Sons o’ Temperance?” + +Finally, filling our pockets with doughnuts, which he was pleased to +find that we called by the same name that he did, and paying for our +entertainment, we took our departure; but he followed us out of doors, +and made us tell him the names of the vegetables which he had raised +from seeds that came out of the _Franklin_. They were cabbage, +broccoli, and parsley. As I had asked him the names of so many things, +he tried me in turn with all the plants which grew in his garden, both +wild and cultivated. It was about half an acre, which he cultivated +wholly himself. Besides the common garden vegetables, there were +Yellow-Dock, Lemon Balm, Hyssop, Gill-go-over-the-ground. Mouse-ear, +Chick-weed, Roman Wormwood, Elecampane, and other plants. As we stood +there, I saw a fish-hawk stoop to pick a fish out of his pond. + +“There,” said I, “he has got a fish.” + +“Well,” said the old man, who was looking all the while, but could see +nothing, “he didn’t dive, he just wet his claws.” + +And, sure enough, he did not this time, though it is said that they +often do, but he merely stooped low enough to pick him out with his +talons; but as he bore his shining prey over the bushes, it fell to the +ground, and we did not see that he recovered it. That is not their +practice. + +Thus, having had another crack with the old man, he standing bareheaded +under the eaves, he directed us “athwart the fields,” and we took to +the beach again for another day, it being now late in the morning. + +It was but a day or two after this that the safe of the Provincetown +Bank was broken open and robbed by two men from the interior, and we +learned that our hospitable entertainers did at least transiently +harbor the suspicion that we were the men. + + + + +VI +THE BEACH AGAIN + + +Our way to the high sand-bank, which I have described as extending all +along the coast, led, as usual, through patches of Bayberry bushes +which straggled into the sand. This, next to the Shrub-oak, was perhaps +the most common shrub thereabouts. I was much attracted by its +odoriferous leaves and small gray berries which are clustered about the +short twigs, just below the last year’s growth. I know of but two +bushes in Concord, and they, being staminate plants, do not bear fruit. +The berries gave it a venerable appearance, and they smelled quite +spicy, like small confectionery. Robert Beverley, in his “History of +Virginia,” published in 1705, states that “at the mouth of their +rivers, and all along upon the sea and bay, and near many of their +creeks and swamps, grows the myrtle, bearing a berry, of which they +make a hard brittle wax, of a curious green color, which by refining +becomes almost transparent. Of this they make candles, which are never +greasy to the touch nor melt with lying in the hottest weather; neither +does the snuff of these ever offend the smell, like that of a tallow +candle; but, instead of being disagreeable, if an accident puts a +candle out, it yields a pleasant fragrancy to all that are in the room; +insomuch that nice people often put them out on purpose to have the +incense of the expiring snuff. The melting of these berries is said to +have been first found out by a surgeon in New England, who performed +wonderful things with a salve made of them.” From the abundance of +berries still hanging on the bushes, we judged that the inhabitants did +not generally collect them for tallow, though we had seen a piece in +the house we had just left. I have since made some tallow myself. +Holding a basket beneath the bare twigs in April, I rubbed them +together between my hands and thus gathered about a quart in twenty +minutes, to which were added enough to make three pints, and I might +have gathered them much faster with a suitable rake and a large shallow +basket. They have little prominences like those of an orange all +creased in tallow, which also fills the interstices down to the stone. +The oily part rose to the top, making it look like a savory black +broth, which smelled much like balm or other herb tea. You let it cool, +then skim off the tallow from the surface, melt this again and strain +it. I got about a quarter of a pound weight from my three pints, and +more yet remained within the berries. A small portion cooled in the +form of small flattish hemispheres, like crystallizations, the size of +a kernel of corn (nuggets I called them as I picked them out from amid +the berries), Loudon says, that “cultivated trees are said to yield +more wax than those that are found wild.” (See Duplessy, _Végetaux +Résineux_, Vol. II. p. 60.) If you get any pitch on your hands in the +pine-woods you have only to rub some of these berries between your +hands to start it off. But the ocean was the grand fact there, which +made us forget both bay berries and men. + +To-day the air was beautifully clear, and the sea no longer dark and +stormy, though the waves still broke with foam along the beach, but +sparkling and full of life. Already that morning I had seen the day +break over the sea as if it came out of its bosom:— + +“The saffron-robed Dawn rose in haste from the streams +Of Ocean, that she might bring light to immortals and to mortals.” + + +The sun rose visibly at such a distance over the sea that the +cloud-bank in the horizon, which at first concealed him, was not +perceptible until he had risen high behind it, and plainly broke and +dispersed it, like an arrow. But as yet I looked at him as rising over +land, and could not, without an effort, realize that he was rising over +the sea. Already I saw some vessels on the horizon, which had rounded +the Cape in the night, and were now well on their watery way to other +lands. + +We struck the beach again in the south part of Truro. In the early part +of the day, while it was flood tide and the beach was narrow and soft, +we walked on the bank, which was very high here, but not so level as +the day before, being more interrupted by slight hollows. The author of +the Description of the Eastern Coast says of this part, that “the bank +is very high and steep. From the edge of it west, there is a strip of +sand a hundred yards in breadth. Then succeeds low brushwood, a quarter +of a mile wide, and almost impassable. After which comes a thick, +perplexing forest, in which not a house is to be discovered. Seamen, +therefore, though the distance between these two hollows (Newcomb’s and +Brush Hollows) is great, must not attempt to enter the wood, as in a +snowstorm they must undoubtedly perish.” This is still a true +description of the country, except that there is not much high wood +left. + +[Illustration: Truro—Starting on a voyage] + +There were many vessels, like gulls, skimming over the surface of the +sea, now half concealed in its troughs, their dolphin-strikers +ploughing the water, now tossed on the top of the billows. One, a bark +standing down parallel with the coast, suddenly furled her sails, came +to anchor, and swung round in the wind, near us, only half a mile from +the shore. At first we thought that her captain wished to communicate +with us, and perhaps we did not regard the signal of distress, which a +mariner would have understood, and he cursed us for cold-hearted +wreckers who turned our backs on him. For hours we could still see her +anchored there behind us, and we wondered how she could afford to +loiter so long in her course. Or was she a smuggler who had chosen that +wild beach to land her cargo on? Or did they wish to catch fish, or +paint their vessel? Erelong other barks, and brigs, and schooners, +which had in the mean while doubled the Cape, sailed by her in the +smacking breeze, and our consciences were relieved. Some of these +vessels lagged behind, while others steadily went ahead. We narrowly +watched their rig, and the cut of their jibs, and how they walked the +water, for there was all the difference between them that there is +between living creatures. But we wondered that they should be +remembering Boston and New York and Liverpool, steering for them, out +there; as if the sailor might forget his peddling business on such a +grand highway. They had perchance brought oranges from the Western +Isles; and were they carrying back the peel? We might as well transport +our old traps across the ocean of eternity. Is _that_ but another +“trading-flood,” with its blessed isles? Is Heaven such a harbor as the +Liverpool docks? + +Still held on without a break, the inland barrens and shrubbery, the +desert and the high sand bank with its even slope, the broad white +beach, the breakers, the green water on the bar, and the Atlantic +Ocean; and we traversed with delight new reaches of the shore; we took +another lesson in sea-horses’ manes and sea-cows’ tails, in sea-jellies +and sea-clams, with our new-gained experience. The sea ran hardly less +than the day before. It seemed with every wave to be subsiding, because +such was our expectation, and yet when hours had elapsed we could see +no difference. But there it was, balancing itself, the restless ocean +by our side, lurching in its gait. Each wave left the sand all braided +or woven, as it were, with a coarse woof and warp, and a distinct +raised edge to its rapid work. We made no haste, since we wished to see +the ocean at our leisure; and indeed that soft sand was no place in +which to be in a hurry, for one mile there was as good as two +elsewhere. Besides, we were obliged frequently to empty our shoes of +the sand which one took in in climbing or descending the bank. + +As we were walking close to the water’s edge this morning we turned +round, by chance, and saw a large black object which the waves had just +cast up on the beach behind us, yet too far off for us to distinguish +what it was; and when we were about to return to it, two men came +running from the bank, where no human beings had appeared before, as if +they had come out of the sand, in order to save it before another wave +took it. As we approached, it took successively the form of a huge +fish, a drowned man, a sail or a net, and finally of a mass of +tow-cloth, part of the cargo of the _Franklin_, which the men loaded +into a cart. + +Objects on the beach, whether men or inanimate things, look not only +exceedingly grotesque, but much larger and more wonderful than they +actually are. Lately, when approaching the seashore several degrees +south of this, I saw before me, seemingly half a mile distant, what +appeared like bold and rugged cliffs on the beach, fifteen feet high, +and whitened by the sun and waves; but after a few steps it proved to +be low heaps of rags,—part of the cargo of a wrecked vessel,—scarcely +more than a foot in height. Once also it was my business to go in +search of the relics of a human body, mangled by sharks, which had just +been cast up, a week after a wreck, having got the direction from a +light-house: I should find it a mile or two distant over the sand, a +dozen rods from the water, covered with a cloth, by a stick stuck up. I +expected that I must look very narrowly to find so small an object, but +the sandy beach, half a mile wide, and stretching farther than the eye +could reach, was so perfectly smooth and bare, and the mirage toward +the sea so magnifying, that when I was half a mile distant the +insignificant sliver which marked the spot looked like a bleached spar, +and the relics were as conspicuous as if they lay in state on that +sandy plain, or a generation had labored to pile up their cairn there. +Close at hand they were simply some bones with a little flesh adhering +to them, in fact, only a slight inequality in the sweep of the shore. +There was nothing at all remarkable about them, and they were +singularly inoffensive both to the senses and the imagination. But as I +stood there they grew more and more imposing. They were alone with the +beach and the sea, whose hollow roar seemed addressed to them, and I +was impressed as if there was an understanding between them and the +ocean which necessarily left me out, with my snivelling sympathies. +That dead body had taken possession of the shore, and reigned over it +as no living one, could, in the name of a certain majesty which +belonged to it. + +We afterward saw many small pieces of tow-cloth washed up, and I learn +that it continued to be found in good condition, even as late as +November in that year, half a dozen bolts at a time. + +We eagerly filled our pockets with the smooth round pebbles which in +some places, even here, were thinly sprinkled over the sand, together +with flat circular shells (_Scutellæ?_); but, as we had read, when they +were dry they had lost their beauty, and at each sitting we emptied our +pockets again of the least remarkable, until our collection was well +culled. Every material was rolled into the pebble form by the waves; +not only stones of various kinds, but the hard coal which some vessel +had dropped, bits of glass, and in one instance a mass of peat three +feet long, where there was nothing like it to be seen for many miles. +All the great rivers of the globe are annually, if not constantly, +discharging great quantities of lumber, which drifts to distant shores. +I have also seen very perfect pebbles of brick, and bars of Castile +soap from a wreck rolled into perfect cylinders, and still spirally +streaked with red, like a barber’s pole. When a cargo of rags is washed +ashore, every old pocket and bag-like recess will be filled to bursting +with sand by being rolled on the beach; and on one occasion, the +pockets in the clothing of the wrecked being thus puffed up, even after +they had been ripped open by wreckers, deluded me into the hope of +identifying them by the contents. A pair of gloves looked exactly as if +filled by a hand. The water in such clothing is soon wrung out and +evaporated, but the sand, which works itself into every seam, is not so +easily got rid of. Sponges, which are picked up on the shore, as is +well known, retain some of the sand of the beach to the latest day, in +spite of every effort to extract it. + +I found one stone on the top of the bank, of a dark gray color, shaped +exactly like a giant clam (_Mactra solidissima_), and of the same size; +and, what was more remarkable, one-half of the outside had shelled off +and lay near it, of the same form and depth with one of the valves of +this clam, while the other half was loose, leaving a solid core of a +darker color within it. I afterward saw a stone resembling a razor +clam, but it was a solid one. It appeared as if the stone, in the +process of formation, had filled the mould which a clam-shell +furnished; or the same law that shaped the clam had made a clam of +stone. Dead clams, with shells full of sand, are called sand clams. +There were many of the large clamshells filled with sand; and sometimes +one valve was separately filled exactly even, as if it had been heaped +and then scraped. Even among the many small stones on the top of the +bank, I found one arrow-head. + +Beside the giant clam and barnacles, we found on the shore a small clam +(_Mesodesma arctata_), which I dug with my hands in numbers on the +bars, and which is sometimes eaten by the inhabitants, in the absence +of the _Mya arenaria_, on this side. Most of their empty shells had +been perforated by some foe.—Also, the + +_Astarte castanea_. + +The Edible Mussel (_Mytilus edulis_) on the few rocks, and washed up in +curious bunches of forty or fifty, held together by its rope-like +_byssus_. + +The Scollop Shell (_Pecten concentricus_), used for card-racks and +pin-cushions. + +Cockles, or Cuckoos (_Natica heros_), and their remarkable _nidus_, +called “sand-circle,” looking like the top of a stone jug without the +stopple, and broken on one side, or like a flaring dickey made of +sand-paper. Also, + +_Cancellaria Couthouyi_ (?), and + +Periwinkles (?) (_Fusus decemcostatus_). + +We afterward saw some other kinds on the Bay-side. Gould states that +this Cape “has hitherto proved a barrier to the migrations of many +species of Mollusca.”—“Of the one hundred and ninety-seven species +[which he described in 1840 as belonging to Massachusetts], +eighty-three do not pass to the South shore, and fifty are not found on +the North shore of the Cape.” + +Among Crustacea, there were the shells of Crabs and Lobsters, often +bleached quite white high up the beach; Sea or Beach Fleas +(_Amphipoda_); and the cases of the Horse-shoe Crab, or Saucepan Fish +(_Limulus Polyphemus_), of which we saw many alive on the Bay side, +where they feed pigs on them. Their tails were used as arrow-heads by +the Indians. + +Of Radiata, there were the Sea Chestnut or Egg (_Echinus granulatus_), +commonly divested of its spines; flat circular shells (_Scutella +parma?_) covered with chocolate-colored spines, but becoming smooth and +white, with five petal-like figures; a few Star-fishes or Five-fingers +(_Asterias rubens_); and Sun-fishes or Sea-jellies (_Aureliæ_). + +There was also at least one species of Sponge. + +The plants which I noticed here and there on the pure sandy shelf, +between the ordinary high-water mark and the foot of the bank, were Sea +Rocket (_Cakile Americana_), Saltwort (_Salsola kali_), Sea Sandwort +(_Honkenya peploides_), Sea Burdock (_Xanthium echinatum_), Sea-side +Spurge (_Euphorbia poylgonifolia_); also, Beach Grass (_Arundo, +Psamma_, or _Calamagrostis arenaria_), Sea-side Golden-rod (_Solidago +sempervirens_), and the Beach Pea (_Lathyrus maritimus_). + +Sometimes we helped a wrecker turn over a larger log than usual, or we +amused ourselves with rolling stones down the bank, but we rarely could +make one reach the water, the beach was so soft and wide; or we bathed +in some shallow within a bar, where the sea covered us with sand at +every flux, though it was quite cold and windy. The ocean there is +commonly but a tantalizing prospect in hot weather, for with all that +water before you, there is, as we were afterward told, no bathing on +the Atlantic side, on account of the undertow and the rumor of sharks. +At the lighthouse both in Eastham and Truro, the only houses quite on +the shore, they declared, the next year, that they would not bathe +there “for any sum,” for they sometimes saw the sharks tossed up and +quiver for a moment on the sand. Others laughed at these stories, but +perhaps they could afford to because they never bathed anywhere. One +old wrecker told us that he killed a regular man-eating shark fourteen +feet long, and hauled him out with his oxen, where we had bathed; and +another, that his father caught a smaller one of the same kind that was +stranded there, by standing him up on his snout so that the waves could +not take him. They will tell you tough stories of sharks all over the +Cape, which I do not presume to doubt utterly,—how they will sometimes +upset a boat, or tear it in pieces, to get at the man in it. I can +easily believe in the undertow, but I have no doubt that one shark in a +dozen years is enough to keep up the reputation of a beach a hundred +miles long. I should add, however, that in July we walked on the bank +here a quarter of a mile parallel with a fish about six feet in length, +possibly a shark, which was prowling slowly along within two rods of +the shore. It was of a pale brown color, singularly film-like and +indistinct in the water, as if all nature abetted this child of ocean, +and showed many darker transverse bars or rings whenever it came to the +surface. It is well known that different fishes even of the same +species are colored by the water they inhabit. We saw it go into a +little cove or bathing-tub, where we had just been bathing, where the +water was only four or five feet deep at that time, and after exploring +it go slowly out again; but we continued to bathe there, only observing +first from the bank if the cove was preoccupied. We thought that the +water was fuller of life, more aerated perhaps than that of the Bay, +like soda-water, for we were as particular as young salmon, and the +expectation of encountering a shark did not subtract anything from its +life-giving qualities. + +Sometimes we sat on the wet beach and watched the beach birds, +sand-pipers, and others, trotting along close to each wave, and waiting +for the sea to cast up their breakfast. The former (_Charadrius +melodus_) ran with great rapidity and then stood stock still remarkably +erect and hardly to be distinguished from the beach. The wet sand was +covered with small skipping Sea Fleas, which apparently make a part of +their food. These last are the little scavengers of the beach, and are +so numerous that they will devour large fishes, which have been cast +up, in a very short time. One little bird not larger than a sparrow,—it +may have been a Phalarope,—would alight on the turbulent surface where +the breakers were five or six feet high, and float buoyantly there like +a duck, cunningly taking to its wings and lifting itself a few feet +through the air over the foaming crest of each breaker, but sometimes +outriding safely a considerable billow which hid it some seconds, when +its instinct told it that it would not break. It was a little creature +thus to sport with the ocean, but it was as perfect a success in its +way as the breakers in theirs. There was also an almost uninterrupted +line of coots rising and falling with the waves, a few rods from the +shore, the whole length of the Cape. They made as constant a part of +the ocean’s border as the pads or pickerel-weed do of that of a pond. +We read the following as to the Storm Petrel (_Thalassidroma +Wilsonii_), which is seen in the Bay as well as on the outside. “The +feathers on the breast of the Storm Petrel are, like those of all +swimming birds, water-proof; but substances not susceptible of being +wetted with water are, for that very reason, the best fitted for +collecting oil from its surface. That function is performed by the +feathers on the breast of the Storm Petrels as they touch on the +surface; and though that may not be the only way in which they procure +their food, it is certainly that in which they obtain great part of it. +They dash along till they have loaded their feathers and then they +pause upon the wave and remove the oil with their bills.” + +Thus we kept on along the gently curving shore, seeing two or three +miles ahead at once,—along this ocean side-walk, where there was none +to turn out for, with the middle of the road the highway of nations on +our right, and the sand cliffs of the Cape on our left. We saw this +forenoon a part of the wreck of a vessel, probably the _Franklin_, a +large piece fifteen feet square, and still freshly painted. With a +grapple and a line we could have saved it, for the waves repeatedly +washed it within cast, but they as often took it back. It would have +been a lucky haul for some poor wrecker, for I have been told that one +man who paid three or four dollars for a part of the wreck of that +vessel, sold fifty or sixty dollars’ worth of iron out of it. Another, +the same who picked up the Captain’s valise with the memorable letter +in it, showed me, growing in his garden, many pear and plum trees which +washed ashore from her, all nicely tied up and labelled, and he said +that he might have got five hundred dollars’ worth; for a Mr. Bell was +importing the nucleus of a nursery to be established near Boston. His +turnip-seed came from the same source. Also valuable spars from the +same vessel and from the _Cactus_ lay in his yard. In short the +inhabitants visit the beach to see what they have caught as regularly +as a fisherman his weir or a lumberer his boom; the Cape is their boom. +I heard of one who had recently picked up twenty barrels of apples in +good condition, probably a part of a deck load thrown over in a storm. + +Though there are wreck-masters appointed to look after valuable +property which must be advertised, yet undoubtedly a great deal of +value is secretly carried off. But are we not all wreckers contriving +that some treasure may be washed up on our beach, that we may secure +it, and do we not infer the habits of these Nauset and Barnegat +wreckers from the common modes of getting a living? + +The sea, vast and wild as it is, bears thus the waste and wrecks of +human art to its remotest shore. There is no telling what it may not +vomit up. It lets nothing lie; not even the giant clams which cling to +its bottom. It is still heaving up the tow-cloth of the _Franklin_, and +perhaps a piece of some old pirate’s ship, wrecked more than a hundred +years ago, comes ashore to-day. Some years since, when a vessel was +wrecked here which had nutmegs in her cargo, they were strewn all along +the beach, and for a considerable time were not spoiled by the salt +water. Soon afterward, a fisherman caught a cod which was full of them. +Why, then, might not the Spice-Islanders shake their nutmeg trees into +the ocean, and let all nations who stand in need of them pick them up? +However, after a year, I found that the nutmegs from the _Franklin_ had +become soft. + +You might make a curious list of articles which fishes have +swallowed,—sailors’ open clasp-knives, and bright tin snuff-boxes, not +knowing what was in them,—and jugs, and jewels, and Jonah. The other +day I came across the following scrap in a newspaper. + +“A Religious Fish.—A short time ago, mine host Stewart, of the Denton +Hotel, purchased a rock-fish, weighing about sixty pounds. On opening +it he found in it a certificate of membership of the M. E. Church, +which we read as follows:— + + Member Methodist E. Church. Founded + A. D. 1784. Quarterly Ticket. 18 + Minister. + +‘For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a +far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’—2 Cor. iv. 17. + + +‘O what are all my sufferings here, + If, Lord, thou count me meet +With that enraptured host t’ appear, + And worship at thy feet!’ + + +“The paper was of course in a crumpled and wet condition, but on +exposing it to the sun, and ironing the kinks out of it, it became +quite legible.—_Denton_ (_Md._) _Journal_.” + +From time to time we saved a wreck ourselves, a box or barrel, and set +it on its end, and appropriated it with crossed sticks; and it will lie +there perhaps, respected by brother wreckers, until some more violent +storm shall take it, really lost to man until wrecked again. We also +saved, at the cost of wet feet only, a valuable cord and buoy, part of +a seine, with which the sea was playing, for it seemed ungracious to +refuse the least gift which so great a personage offered you. We +brought this home and still use it for a garden line. I picked up a +bottle half buried in the wet sand, covered with barnacles, but +stoppled tight, and half full of red ale, which still smacked of +juniper,—all that remained I fancied from the wreck of a rowdy +world,—that great salt sea on the one hand, and this little sea of ale +on the other, preserving their separate characters. What if it could +tell us its adventures over countless ocean waves! Man would not be man +through such ordeals as it had passed. But as I poured it slowly out on +to the sand, it seemed to me that man himself was like a half-emptied +bottle of pale ale, which Time had drunk so far, yet stoppled tight for +a while, and drifting about in the ocean of circumstances; but destined +erelong to mingle with the surrounding waves, or be spilled amid the +sands of a distant shore. + +In the summer I saw two men fishing for Bass hereabouts. Their bait was +a bullfrog, or several small frogs in a bunch, for want of squid. They +followed a retiring wave and whirling their lines round and round their +heads with increasing rapidity, threw them as far as they could into +the sea; then retreating, sat down, flat on the sand, and waited for a +bite. It was literally (or _littorally_) walking down to the shore, and +throwing your line into the Atlantic. I should not have known what +might take hold of the other end, whether Proteus or another. At any +rate, if you could not pull him in, why, you might let him go without +being pulled in yourself. And _they_ knew by experience that it would +be a Striped Bass, or perhaps a Cod, for these fishes play along near +the shore. + +From time to time we sat under the lee of a sand-hill on the bank, +thinly covered with coarse Beach-grass, and steadily gazed on the sea, +or watched the vessels going south, all Blessings of the Bay of course. +We could see a little more than half a circle of ocean, besides the +glimpses of the Bay which we got behind us; the sea there was not wild +and dreary in all respects, for there were frequently a hundred sail in +sight at once on the Atlantic. You can commonly count about eighty in a +favorable summer day and pilots sometimes land and ascend the bank to +look out for these which require their services. These had been waiting +for fair weather, and had come out of Boston Harbor together. The same +is the case when they have been assembled in the Vineyard Sound, so +that you may see but few one day, and a large fleet the next. Schooners +with many jibs and stay-sails crowded all the sea road; square-rigged +vessels with their great height and breadth of canvas were ever and +anon appearing out of the far horizon, or disappearing and sinking into +it; here and there a pilot-boat was towing its little boat astern +toward some distant foreigner who had just fired a gun, the echo of +which along the shore sounded like the caving of the bank. We could see +the pilot looking through his glass toward the distant ship which was +putting back to speak with him. He sails many a mile to meet her; and +now she puts her sails aback, and communicates with him +alongside,—sends some important message to the owners, and then bids +farewell to these shores for good and all; or, perchance a propeller +passed and made fast to some disabled craft, or one that had been +becalmed, whose cargo of fruit might spoil. Though silently, and for +the most part incommunicatively, going about their business, they were, +no doubt, a source of cheerfulness and a kind of society to one +another. + +[Illustration: Unloading the day’s catch] + +To-day it was the Purple Sea, an epithet which I should not before have +accepted. There were distinct patches of the color of a purple grape +with the bloom rubbed off. But first and last the sea is of all colors. +Well writes Gilpin concerning “the brilliant hues which are continually +playing on the surface of a quiet ocean,” and this was not too +turbulent at a distance from the shore. “Beautiful,” says he, “no doubt +in a high degree are those glimmering tints which often invest the tops +of mountains; but they are mere coruscations compared with these marine +colors, which are continually varying and shifting into each other in +all the vivid splendor of the rainbow, through the space often of +several leagues.” Commonly, in calm weather, for half a mile from the +shore, where the bottom tinges it, the sea is green, or greenish, as +are some ponds; then blue for many miles, often with purple tinges, +bounded in the distance by a light almost silvery stripe; beyond which +there is generally a dark-blue rim, like a mountain-ridge in the +horizon, as if, like that, it owed its color to the intervening +atmosphere. On another day it will be marked with long streaks, +alternately smooth and rippled, light-colored and dark, even like our +inland meadows in a freshet, and showing which way the wind sets. + +Thus we sat on the foaming shore, looking on the wine-colored ocean,— + +Φίν’ ἔφ’ ἁλὸς πολιῆς, ὁρόων ἐπὶ οἴνοπα πόντον. + + +Here and there was a darker spot on its surface, the shadow of a cloud, +though the sky was so clear that no cloud would have been noticed +otherwise, and no shadow would have been seen on the land, where a much +smaller surface is visible at once. So, distant clouds and showers may +be seen on all sides by a sailor in the course of a day, which do not +necessarily portend rain where he is. In July we saw similar dark-blue +patches where schools of Menhaden rippled the surface, scarcely to be +distinguished from the shadows of clouds. Sometimes the sea was spotted +with them far and wide, such is its inexhaustible fertility. Close at +hand you see their back fin, which is very long and sharp, projecting +two or three inches above water. From time to time also we saw the +white bellies of the Bass playing along the shore. + +It was a poetic recreation to watch those distant sails steering for +half-fabulous ports, whose very names are a mysterious music to our +ears: Fayal, and Babelmandel, ay, and Chagres, and Panama,—bound to the +famous Bay of San Francisco, and the golden streams of Sacramento and +San Joaquin, to Feather River and the American Fork, where Sutter’s +Fort presides, and inland stands the City de los Angeles. It is +remarkable that men do not sail the sea with more expectation. Nothing +remarkable was ever accomplished in a prosaic mood. The heroes and +discoverers have found true more than was previously believed, only +when they were expecting and dreaming of something more than their +contemporaries dreamed of, or even themselves discovered, that is, when +they were in a frame of mind fitted to behold the truth. Referred to +the world’s standard, they are always insane. Even savages have +indirectly surmised as much. Humboldt, speaking of Columbus approaching +the New World, says: “The grateful coolness of the evening air, the +ethereal purity of the starry firmament, the balmy fragrance of +flowers, wafted to him by the land breeze, all led him to suppose (as +we are told by Herrara, in the Decades) that he was approaching the +garden of Eden, the sacred abode of our first parents. The Orinoco +seemed to him one of the four rivers which, according to the venerable +tradition of the ancient world, flowed from Paradise, to water and +divide the surface of the earth, newly adorned with plants.” So even +the expeditions for the discovery of El Dorado, and of the Fountain of +Youth, led to real, if not compensatory discoveries. + +We discerned vessels so far off, when once we began to look, that only +the tops of their masts in the horizon were visible, and it took a +strong intention of the eye, and its most favorable side, to see them +at all, and sometimes we doubted if we were not counting our eyelashes. +Charles Darwin states that he saw, from the base of the Andes, “the +masts of the vessels at anchor in the bay of Valparaiso, although not +less than twenty-six geographical miles distant,” and that Anson had +been surprised at the distance at which his vessels were discovered +from the coast, without knowing the reason, namely, the great height of +the land and the transparency of the air. Steamers may be detected much +farther than sailing vessels, for, as one says, when their hulls and +masts of wood and iron are down, their smoky masts and streamers still +betray them; and the same writer, speaking of the comparative +advantages of bituminous and anthracite coal for war-steamers, states +that, “from the ascent of the columns of smoke above the horizon, the +motions of the steamers in Calais Harbor [on the coast of France] are +at all times observable at Ramsgate [on the English coast], from the +first lighting of the fires to the putting out at sea; and that in +America the steamers burning the fat bituminous coal can be tracked at +sea at least seventy miles before the hulls become visible, by the +dense columns of black smoke pouring out of their chimneys, and +trailing along the horizon.” + +Though there were numerous vessels at this great distance in the +horizon on every side, yet the vast spaces between them, like the +spaces between the stars, far as they were distant from us, so were +they from one another,—nay, some were twice as far from each other as +from us,—impressed us with a sense of the immensity of the ocean, the +“unfruitful ocean,” as it has been called, and we could see what +proportion man and his works bear to the globe. As we looked off, and +saw the water growing darker and darker and deeper and deeper the +farther we looked, till it was awful to consider, and it appeared to +have no relation to the friendly land, either as shore or bottom,—of +what use is a bottom if it is out of sight, if it is two or three miles +from the surface, and you are to be drowned so long before you get to +it, though it were made of the same stuff with your native soil?—over +that ocean, where, as the Veda says, “there is nothing to give support, +nothing to rest upon, nothing to cling to,” I felt that I was a land +animal. The man in a balloon even may commonly alight on the earth in a +few moments, but the sailor’s only hope is that he may reach the +distant shore. I could then appreciate the heroism of the old +navigator. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, of whom it is related that, being +overtaken by a storm when on his return from America, in the year 1583, +far northeastward from where we were, sitting abaft with a book in his +hand, just before he was swallowed up in the deep, he cried out to his +comrades in the _Hind_, as they came within hearing, “We are as near to +Heaven by sea as by land.” I saw that it would not be easy to realize. + +On Cape Cod, the next most eastern land you hear of is St. George’s +Bank (the fishermen tell of “Georges,” “Cashus,” and other sunken lands +which they frequent). Every Cape man has a theory about George’s Bank +having been an island once, and in their accounts they gradually reduce +the shallowness from six, five, four, two fathoms, to somebody’s +confident assertion that he has seen a mackerel-gull sitting on a +piece of dry land there. It reminded me, when I thought of the +shipwrecks which had taken place there, of the Isle of Demons, laid +down off this coast in old charts of the New World. There must be +something monstrous, methinks, in a vision of the sea bottom from over +some bank a thousand miles from the shore, more awful than its imagined +bottomlessness; a drowned continent, all livid and frothing at the +nostrils, like the body of a drowned man, which is better sunk deep +than near the surface. + +I have been surprised to discover from a steamer the shallowness of +Massachusetts Bay itself. Off Billingsgate Point I could have touched +the bottom with a pole, and I plainly saw it variously shaded with +sea-weed, at five or six miles from the shore. This is “The +Shoal-ground of the Cape,” it is true, but elsewhere the bay is not +much deeper than a country pond. We are told that the deepest water in +the English Channel between Shakespeare’s Cliff and Cape Grinéz, in +France, is one hundred and eighty feet; and Guyot says that “the Baltic +Sea has a depth of only one hundred and twenty feet between the coasts +of Germany and those of Sweden,” and “the Adriatic between Venice and +Trieste has a depth of only one hundred and thirty feet.” A pond in my +native town, only half a mile long, is more than one hundred feet deep. + +The ocean is but a larger lake. At midsummer you may sometimes see a +strip of glassy smoothness on it, a few rods in width and many miles +long, as if the surface there were covered with a thin pellicle of oil, +just as on a country pond; a sort of stand-still, you would say, at the +meeting or parting of two currents of air (if it does not rather mark +the unrippled steadiness of a current of water beneath), for sailors +tell of the ocean and land breeze meeting between the fore and aft +sails of a vessel, while the latter are full, the former being suddenly +taken aback. Daniel Webster, in one of his letters describing +blue-fishing off Martha’s Vineyard, referring to those smooth places, +which fishermen and sailors call “slicks,” says: “We met with them +yesterday, and our boatman made for them, whenever discovered. He said +they were caused by the blue-fish chopping up their prey. That is to +say, those voracious fellows get into a school of menhaden, which are +too large to swallow whole, and they bite them into pieces to suit +their tastes. And the oil from this butchery, rising to the surface, +makes the ‘slick.’” + +Yet this same placid Ocean, as civil now as a city’s harbor, a place +for ships and commerce, will erelong be lashed into sudden fury, and +all its caves and cliffs will resound with tumult. It will ruthlessly +heave these vessels to and fro, break them in pieces in its sandy or +stony jaws, and deliver their crews to sea-monsters. It will play with +them like sea-weed, distend them like dead frogs, and carry them about, +now high, now low, to show to the fishes, giving them a nibble. This +gentle Ocean will toss and tear the rag of a man’s body like the father +of mad bulls, and his relatives may be seen seeking the remnants for +weeks along the strand. From some quiet inland hamlet they have rushed +weeping to the unheard-of shore, and now stand uncertain where a sailor +has recently been buried amid the sandhills. + +It is generally supposed that they who have long been conversant with +the Ocean can foretell by certain indications, such as its roar and the +notes of sea-fowl, when it will change from calm to storm; but probably +no such ancient mariner as we dream of exists; they know no more, at +least, than the older sailors do about this voyage of life on which we +are all embarked. Nevertheless, we love to hear the sayings of old +sailors, and their accounts of natural phenomena, which totally ignore, +and are ignored by, science; and possibly they have not always looked +over the gunwale so long in vain. Kalm repeats a story which was told +him in Philadelphia by a Mr. Cock, who was one day sailing to the West +Indies in a small yacht, with an old man on board who was well +acquainted with those seas. “The old man sounding the depth, called to +the mate to tell Mr. Cock to launch the boats immediately, and to put a +sufficient number of men into them, in order to tow the yacht during +the calm, that they might reach the island before them as soon as +possible, as within twenty-four hours there would be a strong +hurricane. Mr. Cock asked him what reasons he had to think so; the old +man replied that, on sounding, he saw the lead in the water at a +distance of many fathoms more than he had seen it before; that +therefore the water was become clear all of a sudden, which he looked +upon as a certain sign of an impending hurricane in the sea.” The +sequel of the story is that, by good fortune and by dint of rowing they +managed to gain a safe harbor before the hurricane had reached its +height; but it finally raged with so much violence that not only many +ships were lost and houses unroofed, but even their own vessel in +harbor was washed so far on shore that several weeks elapsed before it +could be got off. + +The Greeks would not have called the ocean ἀτρύγετος, or unfruitful, +though it does not produce wheat, if they had viewed it by the light of +modern science; for naturalists now assert that “the sea, and not the +land, is the principal seat of life,”—though not of vegetable life. +Darwin affirms that “our most thickly inhabited forests appear almost +as deserts when we come to compare them with the corresponding regions +of the ocean.” Agassiz and Gould tell us that “the sea teems with +animals of all classes, far beyond the extreme point of flowering +plants”; but they add that “experiments of dredging in very deep water +have also taught us that the abyss of the ocean is nearly a +desert”;—“so that modern investigations,” to quote the words of Desor, +“merely go to confirm the great idea which was vaguely anticipated by +the ancient poets and philosophers, that the Ocean is the origin of all +things.” Yet marine animals and plants hold a lower rank in the scale +of being than land animals and plants. “There is no instance known,” +says Desor, “of an animal becoming aquatic in its perfect state, after +having lived in its lower stage on dry land.” but as in the case of the +tadpole, “the progress invariably points towards the dry land.” In +short, the dry land itself came through and out of the water in its way +to the heavens, for, “in going back through the geological ages, we +come to an epoch when, according to all appearances, the dry land did +not exist, and when the surface of our globe was entirely covered with +water.” We looked on the sea, then, once more, not as ἀτρύγετος, or +unfruitful, but as it has been more truly called, the “laboratory of +continents.” + +Though we have indulged in some placid reflections of late, the reader +must not forget that the dash and roar of the waves were incessant. +Indeed, it would be well if he were to read with a large conch-shell at +his ear. But notwithstanding that it was very cold and windy to-day, it +was such a cold as we thought would not cause one to take cold who was +exposed to it, owing to the saltness of the air and the dryness of the +soil. Yet the author of the old Description of Wellfleet says: “The +atmosphere is very much impregnated with saline particles, which, +perhaps, with the great use of fish, and the neglect of cider and +spruce-beer, may be a reason why the people are more subject to sore +mouths and throats than in other places.” + + + + +VII +ACROSS THE CAPE + + +When we have returned from the seaside, we sometimes ask ourselves why +we did not spend more time in gazing at the sea; but very soon the +traveller does not look as the sea more than at the heavens. As for the +interior, if the elevated sand-bar in the midst of the ocean can be +said to have any interior, it was an exceedingly desolate landscape, +with rarely a cultivated or cultivable field in sight. We saw no +villages, and seldom a house, for these are generally on the Bay side. +It was a succession of shrubby hills and valleys, now wearing an +autumnal tint. You would frequently think, from the character of the +surface, the dwarfish trees, and the bearberries around, that you were +on the top of a mountain. The only wood in Eastham was on the edge of +Wellfleet. The pitch-pines were not commonly more than fifteen or +eighteen feet high. The larger ones covered with lichens,—often hung +with the long gray _Usnea_. There is scarcely a white-pine on the +forearm of the Cape. Yet in the northwest part of Eastham, near the +Camp Ground, we saw, the next summer, some quite rural, and even sylvan +retreats, for the Cape, where small rustling groves of oaks and locusts +and whispering pines, on perfectly level ground, made a little +paradise. The locusts, both transplanted and growing naturally about +the houses there, appeared to flourish better than any other tree. +There were thin belts of wood in Wellfleet and Truro, a mile or more +from the Atlantic, but, for the most part, we could see the horizon +through them, or, if extensive, the trees were not large. Both oaks and +pines had often the same flat look with the apple-trees. Commonly, the +oak woods twenty-five years old were a mere scraggy shrubbery nine or +ten feet high, and we could frequently reach to their topmost leaf. +Much that is called “woods” was about half as high as this,—only +patches of shrub-oak, bayberry, beach-plum, and wild roses, overrun +with woodbine. When the roses were in bloom, these patches in the midst +of the sand displayed such a profusion of blossoms, mingled with the +aroma of the bayberry, that no Italian or other artificial rose-garden +could equal them. They were perfectly Elysian, and realized my idea of +an oasis in the desert. Huckleberry-bushes were very abundant, and the +next summer they bore a remarkable quantity of that kind of gall called +Huckleberry-apple, forming quite handsome though monstrous blossoms. +But it must be added, that this shrubbery swarmed with wood-ticks, +sometimes very troublesome parasites, and which it takes very horny +fingers to crack. + +[Illustration: A Truro footpath] + +The inhabitants of these towns have a great regard for a tree, though +their standard for one is necessarily neither large nor high; and when +they tell you of the large trees that once grew here, you must think of +them, not as absolutely large, but large compared with the present +generation. Their “brave old oaks,” of which they speak with so much +respect, and which they will point out to you as relics of the +primitive forest, one hundred or one hundred and fifty, ay, for aught +they know, two hundred years old, have a ridiculously dwarfish +appearance, which excites a smile in the beholder. The largest and most +venerable which they will show you in such a case are, perhaps, not +more than twenty or twenty-five feet high. I was especially amused by +the Liliputian old oaks in the south part of Truro. To the +inexperienced eye, which appreciated their proportions only, they might +appear vast as the tree which saved his royal majesty, but measured, +they were dwarfed at once almost into lichens which a deer might eat up +in a morning. Yet they will tell you that large schooners were once +built of timber which grew in Wellfleet. The old houses also are built +of the timber of the Cape; but instead of the forests in the midst of +which they originally stood, barren heaths, with poverty-grass for +heather, now stretch away on every side. The modern houses are built of +what is called “dimension timber,” _imported_ from Maine, all ready to +be set up, so that commonly they do not touch it again with an axe. +Almost all the wood used for fuel is imported by vessels or currents, +and of course all the coal. I was told that probably a quarter of the +fuel and a considerable part of the lumber used in North Truro was +drift-wood. Many get _all_ their fuel from the beach. + +Of birds not found in the interior of the State,—at least in my +neighborhood,—I heard, in the summer, the Black-throated Bunting +(_Fringilla Americana_) amid the shrubbery, and in the open land the +Upland Plover (_Totanus Bartramius_), whose quivering notes were ever +and anon prolonged into a clear, somewhat plaintive, yet hawk-like +scream, which sounded at a very indefinite distance. The bird may have +been in the next field, though it sounded a mile off. + +To-day we were walking through Truro, a town of about eighteen hundred +inhabitants. We had already come to Pamet River, which empties into the +Bay. This was the limit of the Pilgrims’ journey up the Cape from +Provincetown, when seeking a place for settlement. It rises in a hollow +within a few rods of the Atlantic, and one who lives near its source +told us that in high tides the sea leaked through, yet the wind and +waves preserve intact the barrier between them, and thus the whole +river is steadily driven westward butt-end foremost,—fountain-head, +channel, and light-house at the mouth, all together. + +Early in the afternoon we reached the Highland Light, whose white tower +we had seen rising out of the bank in front of us for the last mile or +two. It is fourteen miles from the Nauset Lights, on what is called the +Clay Pounds, an immense bed of clay abutting on the Atlantic, and, as +the keeper told us, stretching quite across the Cape, which is here +only about two miles wide. We perceived at once a difference in the +soil, for there was an interruption of the desert, and a slight +appearance of a sod under our feet, such as we had not seen for the +last two days. + +After arranging to lodge at the light-house, we rambled across the Cape +to the Bay, over a singularly bleak and barren-looking country, +consisting of rounded hills and hollows, called by geologists diluvial +elevations and depressions,—a kind of scenery which has been compared +to a chopped sea, though this suggests too sudden a transition. There +is a delineation of this very landscape in Hitchcock’s Report on the +Geology of Massachusetts, a work which, by its size at least, reminds +one of a diluvial elevation itself. Looking southward from the +light-house, the Cape appeared like an elevated plateau, sloping very +regularly, though slightly, downward from the edge of the bank on the +Atlantic side, about one hundred and fifty feet above the ocean, to +that on the Bay side. On traversing this we found it to be interrupted +by broad valleys or gullies, which become the hollows in the bank when +the sea has worn up to them. They are commonly at right angles with the +shore, and often extend quite across the Cape. Some of the valleys, +however, are circular, a hundred feet deep without any outlet, as if +the Cape had sunk in those places, or its sands had run out. The few +scattered houses which we passed, being placed at the bottom of the +hollows for shelter and fertility, were, for the most part, concealed +entirely, as much as if they had been swallowed up in the earth. Even a +village with its meeting-house, which we had left little more than a +stone’s throw behind, had sunk into the earth, spire and all, and we +saw only the surface of the upland and the sea on either hand. When +approaching it, we had mistaken the belfry for a summer-house on the +plain. We began to think that we might tumble into a village before we +were aware of it, as into an ant-lion’s hole, and be drawn into the +sand irrecoverably. The most conspicuous objects on the land were a +distant windmill, or a meeting-house standing alone, for only they +could afford to occupy an exposed place. A great part of the township, +however, is a barren, heath-like plain, and perhaps one third of it +lies in common, though the property of individuals. The author of the +old “Description of Truro,” speaking of the soil, says: “The snow, +which would be of essential service to it provided it lay level and +covered the ground, is blown into drifts and into the sea.” This +peculiar open country, with here and there a patch of shrubbery, +extends as much as seven miles, or from Pamet River on the south to +High Head on the north, and from Ocean to Bay. To walk over it makes on +a stranger such an impression as being at sea, and he finds it +impossible to estimate distances in any weather. A windmill or a herd +of cows may seem to be far away in the horizon, yet, after going a few +rods, he will be close upon them. He is also deluded by other kinds of +mirage. When, in the summer, I saw a family a-blueberrying a mile off, +walking about amid the dwarfish bushes which did not come up higher +than their ankles, they seemed to me to be a race of giants, twenty +feet high at least. + +The highest and sandiest portion next the Atlantic was thinly covered +with Beach-grass and Indigo-weed. Next to this the surface of the +upland generally consisted of white sand and gravel, like coarse salt, +through which a scanty vegetation found its way up. It will give an +ornithologist some idea of its barrenness if I mention that the next +June, the month of grass, I found a night-hawk’s eggs there, and that +almost any square rod thereabouts, taken at random, would be an +eligible site for such a deposit. The kildeer-plover, which loves a +similar locality, also drops its eggs there, and fills the air above +with its din. This upland also produced _Cladonia_ lichens, +poverty-grass, savory-leaved aster (_Diplopappus linariifolius_), +mouse-ear, bear-berry, &c. On a few hillsides the savory-leaved aster +and mouse-ear alone made quite a dense sward, said to be very pretty +when the aster is in bloom. In some parts the two species of +poverty-grass (_Hudsonia tomentosa_ and _ericoides_), which deserve a +better name, reign for miles in littli hemispherical tufts or islets, +like moss, scattered over the waste. They linger in bloom there till +the middle of July. Occasionally near the beach these rounded beds, as +also those of the sea-sandwort (_Honkenya peploides_), were filled with +sand within an inch of their tops, and were hard, like large ant-hills, +while the surrounding sand was soft. In summer, if the poverty-grass +grows at the head of a Hollow looking toward the sea, in a bleak +position where the wind rushes up, the northern or exposed half of the +tuft is sometimes all black and dead like an oven-broom, while the +opposite half is yellow with blossoms, the whole hillside thus +presenting a remarkable contrast when seen from the poverty-stricken +and the flourishing side. This plant, which in many places would be +esteemed an ornament, is here despised by many on account of its being +associated with barrenness. It might well be adopted for the Barnstable +coat-of-arms, in a field _sableux_. I should be proud of it. Here and +there were tracts of Beach-grass mingled with the Sea-side Goldenrod +and Beach-pea, which reminded us still more forcibly of the ocean. + +[Illustration: Truro meeting-house on the hill] + +We read that there was not a brook in Truro. Yet there were deer here +once, which must often have panted in vain; but I am pretty sure that I +afterward saw a small fresh-water brook emptying into the south side of +Pamet River, though I was so heedless as not to taste it. At any rate, +a little boy near by told me that he drank at it. There was not a tree +as far as we could see, and that was many miles each way, the general +level of the upland being about the same everywhere. Even from the +Atlantic side we overlooked the Bay, and saw to Manomet Point in +Plymouth, and better from that side because it was the highest. The +almost universal bareness and smoothness of the landscape were as +agreeable as novel, making it so much the more like the deck of a +vessel. We saw vessels sailing south into the Bay, on the one hand, and +north along the Atlantic shore, on the other, all with an aft wind. + +The single road which runs lengthwise the Cape, now winding over the +plain, now through the shrubbery which scrapes the wheels of the stage, +was a mere cart-track in the sand, commonly without any fences to +confine it, and continually changing from this side to that, to harder +ground, or sometimes to avoid the tide. But the inhabitants travel the +waste here and there pilgrim-wise and staff in hand, by narrow +footpaths, through which the sand flows out and reveals the nakedness +of the land. We shuddered at the thought of living there and taking our +afternoon walks over those barren swells, where we could overlook every +step of our walk before taking it, and would have to pray for a fog or +a snow-storm to conceal our destiny. The walker there must soon eat his +heart. + +In the north part of the town there is no house from shore to shore for +several miles, and it is as wild and solitary as the Western +Prairies—used to be. Indeed, one who has seen every house in Truro will +be surprised to hear of the number of the inhabitants, but perhaps five +hundred of the men and boys of this small town were then abroad on +their fishing grounds. Only a few men stay at home to till the sand or +watch for blackfish. The farmers are fishermen-farmers and understand +better ploughing the sea than the land. They do not disturb their sands +much, though there is a plenty of sea-weed in the creeks, to say +nothing of blackfish occasionally rotting the shore. Between the Pond +and East Harbor Village there was an interesting plantation of +pitch-pines, twenty or thirty acres in extent, like those which we had +already seen from the stage. One who lived near said that the land was +purchased by two men for a shilling or twenty-five cents an acre. Some +is not considered worth writing a deed for. This soil or sand, which +was partially covered with poverty and beach grass, sorrel, &c., was +furrowed at intervals of about four feet and the seed dropped by a +machine. The pines had come up admirably and grown the first year three +or four inches, and the second six inches and more. Where the seed had +been lately planted the white sand was freshly exposed in an endless +furrow winding round and round the sides of the deep hollows, in a +vertical spiral manner, which produced a very singular effect, as if +you were looking into the reverse side of a vast banded shield. This +experiment, so important to the Cape, appeared very successful, and +perhaps the time will come when the greater part of this kind of land +in Barnstable County will be thus covered with an artificial pine +forest, as has been done in some parts of France. In that country +12,500 acres of downs had been thus covered in 1811 near Bayonne. They +are called _pignadas_, and according to Loudon “constitute the +principal riches of the inhabitants, where there was a drifting desert +before.” It seemed a nobler kind of grain to raise than corn even. + +[Illustration: A herd of cows] + +A few years ago Truro was remarkable among the Cape towns for the +number of sheep raised in it; but I was told that at this time only two +men kept sheep in the town, and in 1855, a Truro boy ten years old told +me that he had never seen one. They were formerly pastured on the +unfenced lands or general fields, but now the owners were more +particular to assert their rights, and it cost too much for fencing. +The rails are cedar from Maine, and two rails will answer for ordinary +purposes, but four are required for sheep. This was the reason assigned +by one who had formerly kept them for not keeping them any longer. +Fencing stuff is so expensive that I saw fences made with only one +rail, and very often the rail when split was carefully tied with a +string. In one of the villages I saw the next summer a cow tethered by +a rope six rods long, the rope long in proportion as the feed was short +and thin. Sixty rods, ay, all the cables of the Cape, would have been +no more than fair. Tethered in the desert for fear that she would get +into Arabia Felix! I helped a man weigh a bundle of hay which he was +selling to his neighbor, holding one end of a pole from which it swung +by a steel-yard hook, and this was just half his whole crop. In short, +the country looked so barren that I several times refrained from asking +the inhabitants for a string or a piece of wrapping-paper, for fear I +should rob them, for they plainly were obliged to import these things +as well as rails, and where there were no newsboys, I did not see what +they would do for waste paper. + +The objects around us, the make-shifts of fishermen ashore, often made +us look down to see if we were standing on terra firma. In the wells +everywhere a block and tackle were used to raise the bucket, instead of +a windlass, and by almost every house was laid up a spar or a plank or +two full of auger-holes, saved from a wreck. The windmills were partly +built of these, and they were worked into the public bridges. The +light-house keeper, who was having his barn shingled, told me casually +that he had made three thousand good shingles for that purpose out of a +mast. You would sometimes see an old oar used for a rail. Frequently +also some fair-weather finery ripped off a vessel by a storm near the +coast was nailed up against an outhouse. I saw fastened to a shed near +the lighthouse a long new sign with the words “ANGLO SAXON” on it in +large gilt letters, as if it were a useless part which the ship could +afford to lose, or which the sailors had discharged at the same time +with the pilot. But it interested somewhat as if it had been a part of +the Argo, clipped off in passing through the Symplegades. + +To the fisherman, the Cape itself is a sort of store-ship laden with +supplies,—a safer and larger craft which carries the women and +children, the old men and the sick; and indeed sea-phrases are as +common on it as on board a vessel. Thus is it ever with a sea-going +people. The old Northmen used to speak of the “keel-ridge” of the +country, that is, the ridge of the Doffrafield Mountains, as if the +land were a boat turned bottom up. I was frequently reminded of the +Northmen here. The inhabitants of the Cape are often at once farmers +and sea-rovers; they are more than vikings or kings of the bays, for +their sway extends over the open sea also. A farmer in Wellfleet, at +whose house I afterward spent a night, who had raised fifty bushels of +potatoes the previous year, which is a large crop for the Cape, and had +extensive salt-works, pointed to his schooner, which lay in sight, in +which he and his man and boy occasionally ran down the coast a-trading +as far as the Capes of Virginia. This was his market-cart, and his +hired man knew how to steer her. Thus he drove two teams a-field, + +“ere the high _seas_ appeared +Under the opening eyelids of the morn.” + + +Though probably he would not hear much of the “gray fly” on his way to +Virginia. + +A great proportion of the inhabitants of the Cape are always thus +abroad about their teaming on some ocean highway or other, and the +history of one of their ordinary trips would cast the Argonautic +expedition into the shade. I have just heard of a Cape Cod captain who +was expected home in the beginning of the winter from the West Indies, +but was long since given up for lost, till his relations at length have +heard with joy, that, after getting within forty miles of Cape Cod +light, he was driven back by nine successive gales to Key West, between +Florida and Cuba, and was once again shaping his course for home. Thus +he spent his winter. In ancient times the adventures of these two or +three men and boys would have been made the basis of a myth, but now +such tales are crowded into a line of shorthand signs, like an +algebraic formula in the shipping news. “Wherever over the world,” said +Palfrey in his oration at Barnstable, “you see the stars and stripes +floating, you may have good hope that beneath them some one will be +found who can tell you the soundings of Barnstable, or Wellfleet, or +Chatham Harbor.” + +I passed by the home of somebody’s (or everybody’s) Uncle Bill, one day +over on the Plymouth shore. It was a schooner half keeled-up on the +mud: we aroused the master out of a sound sleep at noonday, by thumping +on the bottom of his vessel till he presented himself at the hatchway, +for we wanted to borrow his clam-digger. Meaning to make him a call, I +looked out the next morning, and lo! he had run over to “the Pines” the +evening before, fearing an easterly storm. He outrode the _great_ gale +in the spring of 1851, dashing about alone in Plymouth Bay. He goes +after rockweed, lighters vessels, and saves wrecks. I still saw him +lying in the mud over at “the Pines” in the horizon, which place he +could not leave if he would till flood tide. But he would not then +probably. This waiting for the tide is a singular feature in life by +the sea-shore. A frequent answer is, “Well! you can’t start for two +hours yet.” It is something new to a landsman, and at first he is not +disposed to wait. History says that “two inhabitants of Truro were the +first who adventured to the Falkland Isles in pursuit of whales. This +voyage was undertaken in the year 1774, by the advice of Admiral +Montague of the British navy, and was crowned with success.” + +At the Pond Village we saw a pond three eighths of a mile long densely +filled with cat-tail flags, seven feet high,—enough for all the coopers +in New England. + +[Illustration: Pond Village] + +The western shore was nearly as sandy as the eastern, but the water was +much smoother, and the bottom was partially covered with the slender +grass-like seaweed (_Zostera_), which we had not seen on the Atlantic +side; there were also a few rude sheds for trying fish on the beach +there, which made it appear less wild. In the few marshes on this side +we afterward saw Samphire, Rosemary, and other plants new to us +inlanders. + +In the summer and fall sometimes, hundreds of blackfish (the Social +Whale, _Globicephalus Melas_ of De Kay; called also Black Whale-fish, +Howling Whale, Bottlehead, etc.), fifteen feet or more in length, are +driven ashore in a single school here. I witnessed such a scene in +July, 1855. A carpenter who was working at the lighthouse arriving +early in the morning remarked that he did not know but he had lost +fifty dollars by coming to his work; for as he came along the Bay side +he heard them driving a school of blackfish ashore, and he had debated +with himself whether he should not go and join them and take his share, +but had concluded to come to his work. After breakfast I came over to +this place, about two miles distant, and near the beach met some of the +fishermen returning from their chase. Looking up and down the shore, I +could see about a mile south some large black masses on the sand, which +I knew must be blackfish, and a man or two about them. As I walked +along towards them I soon came to a huge carcass whose head was gone +and whose blubber had been stripped off some weeks before; the tide was +just beginning to move it, and the stench compelled me to go a long way +round. When I came to Great Hollow I found a fisherman and some boys on +the watch, and counted about thirty blackfish, just killed, with many +lance wounds, and the water was more or less bloody around. They were +partly on shore and partly in the water, held by a rope round their +tails till the tide should leave them. A boat had been somewhat stove +by the tail of one. They were a smooth shining black, like +India-rubber, and had remarkably simple and lumpish forms for animated +creatures, with a blunt round snout or head, whale-like, and simple +stiff-looking flippers. The largest were about fifteen feet long, but +one or two were only five feet long, and still without teeth. The +fisherman slashed one with his jackknife, to show me how thick the +blubber was,—about three inches; and as I passed my finger through the +cut it was covered thick with oil. The blubber looked like pork, and +this man said that when they were trying it the boys would sometimes +come round with a piece of bread in one hand, and take a piece of +blubber in the other to eat with it, preferring it to pork scraps. He +also cut into the flesh beneath, which was firm and red like beef, and +he said that for his part he preferred it when fresh to beef. It is +stated that in 1812 blackfish were used as food by the poor of +Bretagne. They were waiting for the tide to leave these fishes high and +dry, that they might strip off the blubber and carry it to their +try-works in their boats, where they try it on the beach. They get +commonly a barrel of oil, worth fifteen or twenty dollars, to a fish. +There were many lances and harpoons in the boats,—much slenderer +instruments than I had expected. An old man came along the beach with a +horse and wagon distributing the dinners of the fishermen, which their +wives had put up in little pails and jugs, and which he had collected +in the Pond Village, and for this service, I suppose, he received a +share of the oil. If one could not tell his own pail, he took the first +he came to. + +As I stood there they raised the cry of “another school,” and we could +see their black backs and their blowing about a mile northward, as they +went leaping over the sea like horses. Some boats were already in +pursuit there, driving them toward the beach. Other fishermen and boys +running up began to jump into the boats and push them off from where I +stood, and I might have gone too had I chosen. Soon there were +twenty-five or thirty boats in pursuit, some large ones under sail, and +others rowing with might and main, keeping outside of the school, those +nearest to the fishes striking on the sides of their boats and blowing +horns to drive them on to the beach. It was an exciting race. If they +succeed in driving them ashore each boat takes one share, and then each +man, but if they are compelled to strike them off shore each boat’s +company take what they strike. I walked rapidly along the shore toward +the north, while the fishermen were rowing still more swiftly to join +their companions, and a little boy who walked by my side was +congratulating himself that his father’s boat was beating another one. +An old blind fisherman whom we met, inquired, “Where are they? I can’t +see. Have they got them?” In the mean while the fishes had turned and +were escaping northward toward Provincetown, only occasionally the back +of one being seen. So the nearest crews were compelled to strike them, +and we saw several boats soon made fast, each to its fish, which, four +or five rods ahead, was drawing it like a race-horse straight toward +the beach, leaping half out of water, blowing blood and water from its +hole, and leaving a streak of foam behind. But they went ashore too far +north for us, though we could see the fishermen leap out and lance them +on the sand. It was just like pictures of whaling which I have seen, +and a fisherman told me that it was nearly as dangerous. In his first +trial he had been much excited, and in his haste had used a lance with +its scabbard on, but nevertheless had thrust it quite through his fish. + +I learned that a few days before this one hundred and eighty blackfish +had been driven ashore in one school at Eastham, a little farther +south, and that the keeper of Billingsgate Point light went out one +morning about the same time and cut his initials on the backs of a +large school which had run ashore in the night, and sold his right to +them to Provincetown for one thousand dollars, and probably +Provincetown made as much more. Another fisherman told me that nineteen +years ago three hundred and eighty were driven ashore in one school at +Great Hollow. In the Naturalists’ Library, it is said that, in the +winter of 1809-10, one thousand one hundred and ten “approached the +shore of Hralfiord, Iceland, and were captured.” De Kay says it is not +known why they are stranded. But one fisherman declared to me that they +ran ashore in pursuit of squid, and that they generally came on the +coast about the last of July. + +About a week afterward, when I came to this shore, it was strewn, as +far as I could see with a glass, with the carcasses of blackfish +stripped of their blubber and their heads cut off; the latter lying +higher up. Walking on the beach was out of the question on account of +the stench. Between Provincetown and Truro they lay in the very path of +the stage. Yet no steps were taken to abate the nuisance, and men were +catching lobsters as usual just off the shore. I was told that they did +sometimes tow them out and sink them; yet I wondered where they got the +stones to sink them with. Of course they might be made into guano, and +Cape Cod is not so fertile that her inhabitants can afford to do +without this manure,—to say nothing of the diseases they may produce. + +After my return home, wishing to learn what was known about the +Blackfish, I had recourse to the reports of the zoological surveys of +the State, and I found that Storer had rightfully omitted it in his +Report on the Fishes, since it is not a fish; so I turned to Emmons’s +Report of the Mammalia, but was surprised to find that the seals and +whales were omitted by him, because he had had no opportunity to +observe them. Considering how this State has risen and thriven by its +fisheries,—that the legislature which authorized the Zoological Survey +sat under the emblem of a codfish,—that Nantucket and New Bedford are +within our limits,—that an early riser may find a thousand or fifteen +hundred dollars’ worth of blackfish on the shore in a morning,—that the +Pilgrims saw the Indians cutting up a blackfish on the shore at +Eastham, and called a part of that shore “Grampus Bay,” from the number +of blackfish they found there, before they got to Plymouth,—and that +from that time to this these fishes have continued to enrich one or two +counties almost annually, and that their decaying carcasses were now +poisoning the air of one county for more than thirty miles,—I thought +it remarkable that neither the popular nor scientific name was to be +found in a report on our mammalia,—a catalogue of the productions of +our land and water. + +We had here, as well as all across the Cape, a fair view of +Provincetown, five or six miles distant over the water toward the west, +under its shrubby sand-hills, with its harbor now full of vessels whose +masts mingled with the spires of its churches, and gave it the +appearance of a quite large seaport town. + +The inhabitants of all the lower Cape towns enjoy thus the prospect of +two seas. Standing on the western or larboard shore, and looking +across to where the distant mainland looms, they can say, This is +Massachusetts Bay; and then, after an hour’s sauntering walk, they may +stand on the starboard side, beyond which no land is seen to loom, and +say, This is the Atlantic Ocean. + +On our way back to the lighthouse, by whose white-washed tower we +steered as securely as the mariner by its light at night, we passed +through a graveyard, which apparently was saved from being blown away +by its slates, for they had enabled a thick bed of huckleberry-bushes +to root themselves amid the graves. We thought it would be worth the +while to read the epitaphs where so many were lost at sea; however, as +not only their lives, but commonly their bodies also, were lost or not +identified, there were fewer epitaphs of this sort than we expected, +though there were not a few. Their graveyard is the ocean. Near the +eastern side we started up a fox in a hollow, the only kind of wild +quadruped, if I except a skunk in a salt-marsh, that we saw in all our +walk (unless painted and box tortoises may be called quadrupeds). He +was a large, plump, shaggy fellow, like a yellow dog, with, as usual, a +white tip to his tail, and looked as if he fared well on the Cape. He +cantered away into the shrub-oaks and bayberry-bushes which chanced to +grow there, but were hardly high enough to conceal him. I saw another +the next summer leaping over the top of a beach-plum a little farther +north, a small arc of his course (which I trust is not yet run), from +which I endeavored in vain to calculate his whole orbit: there were too +many unknown attractions to be allowed for. I also saw the exuviae of a +third fast sinking into the sand, and added the skull to my collection. +Hence I concluded that they must be plenty thereabouts; but a traveller +may meet with more than an inhabitant, since he is more likely to take +an unfrequented route across the country. They told me that in some +years they died off in great numbers by a kind of madness, under the +effect of which they were seen whirling round and round as if in +pursuit of their tails. In Crantz’s account of Greenland, he says: +“They (the foxes) live upon birds and their eggs, and, when they can’t +get them, upon crowberries, mussels, crabs, and what the sea casts +out.” + +Just before reaching the light-house, we saw the sun set in the +Bay,—for standing on that narrow Cape was, as I have said, like being +on the deck of a vessel, or rather at the masthead of a man-of-war, +thirty miles at sea, though we knew that at the same moment the sun was +setting behind our native hills, which were just below the horizon in +that direction. This sight drove everything else quite out of our +heads, and Homer and the Ocean came in again with a rush,— + +Ἐν δ’ ἔπεσ’ Ὠκεανῷ λαμπρὸν φάος ἠελίοιο, + + +the shining torch of the sun fell into the ocean. + + + + +VIII +THE HIGHLAND LIGHT + + +This light-house, known to mariners as the Cape Cod or Highland Light, +is one of our “primary sea-coast lights,” and is usually the first seen +by those approaching the entrance of Massachusetts Bay from Europe. It +is forty-three miles from Cape Ann Light, and forty-one from Boston +Light. It stands about twenty rods from the edge of the bank, which is +here formed of clay. I borrowed the plane and square, level and +dividers, of a carpenter who was shingling a barn near by, and using +one of those shingles made of a mast, contrived a rude sort of +quadrant, with pins for sights and pivots, and got the angle of +elevation of the Bank opposite the light-house, and with a couple of +cod-lines the length of its slope, and so measured its height on the +shingle. It rises one hundred and ten feet above its immediate base, or +about one hundred and twenty-three feet above mean low water. Graham, +who has carefully surveyed the extremity of the Cape, makes it one +hundred and thirty feet. The mixed sand and clay lay at an angle of +forty degrees with the horizon, where I measured it, but the clay is +generally much steeper. No cow nor hen ever gets down it. Half a mile +farther south the bank is fifteen or twenty-five feet higher, and that +appeared to be the highest land in North Truro. Even this vast clay +bank is fast wearing away. Small streams of water trickling down it at +intervals of two or three rods, have left the intermediate clay in the +form of steep Gothic roofs fifty feet high or more, the ridges as sharp +and rugged-looking as rocks; and in one place the bank is curiously +eaten out in the form of a large semicircular crater. + +[Illustration: Dragging a dory up on the beach] + +According to the light-house keeper, the Cape is wasting here on both +sides, though most on the eastern. In some places it had lost many rods +within the last year, and, erelong, the light-house must be moved. We +calculated, _from his data_, how soon the Cape would be quite worn away +at this point, “for,” said he, “I can remember sixty years back.” We +were even more surprised at this last announcement,—that is, at the +slow waste of life and energy in our informant, for we had taken him to +be not more than forty,—than at the rapid wasting of the Cape, and we +thought that he stood a fair chance to outlive the former. + +Between this October and June of the next year I found that the bank +had lost about forty feet in one place, opposite the light-house, and +it was cracked more than forty feet farther from the edge at the last +date, the shore being strewn with the recent rubbish. But I judged that +generally it was not wearing away here at the rate of more than six +feet annually. Any conclusions drawn from the observations of a few +years or one generation only are likely to prove false, and the Cape +may balk expectation by its durability. In some places even a wrecker’s +foot-path down the bank lasts several years. One old inhabitant told us +that when the light-house was built, in 1798, it was calculated that it +would stand forty-five years, allowing the bank to waste one length of +fence each year, “but,” said he, “there it is” (or rather another near +the same site, about twenty rods from the edge of the bank). + +The sea is not gaining on the Cape everywhere, for one man told me of a +vessel wrecked long ago on the north of Provincetown whose “bones” +(this was his word) are still visible many rods within the present line +of the beach, half buried in sand. Perchance they lie alongside the +timbers of a whale. The general statement of the inhabitants is that +the Cape is wasting on both sides, but extending itself on particular +points on the south and west, as at Chatham and Monomoy Beaches, and at +Billingsgate, Long, and Race Points. James Freeman stated in his day +that above three miles had been added to Monomoy Beach during the +previous fifty years, and it is said to be still extending as fast as +ever. A writer in the Massachusetts Magazine, in the last century, +tells us that “when the English first settled upon the Cape, there was +an island off Chatham, at three leagues’ distance, called Webbs’ +Island, containing twenty acres, covered with red-cedar or savin. The +inhabitants of Nantucket used to carry wood from it”; but he adds that +in his day a large rock alone marked the spot, and the water was six +fathoms deep there. The entrance to Nauset Harbor, which was once in +Eastham, has now travelled south into Orleans. The islands in Wellfleet +Harbor once formed a continuous beach, though now small vessels pass +between them. And so of many other parts of this coast. + +Perhaps what the Ocean takes from one part of the Cape it gives to +another,—robs Peter to pay Paul. On the eastern side the sea appears to +be everywhere encroaching on the land. Not only the land is undermined, +and its ruins carried off by currents, but the sand is blown from the +beach directly up the steep bank where it is one hundred and fifty feet +high, and covers the original surface there many feet deep. If you sit +on the edge you will have ocular demonstration of this by soon getting +your eyes full. Thus the bank preserves its height as fast as it is +worn away. This sand is steadily travelling westward at a rapid rate, +“more than a hundred yards,” says one writer, within the memory of +inhabitants now living; so that in some places peat-meadows are buried +deep under the sand, and the peat is cut through it; and in one place a +large peat-meadow has made its appearance on the shore in the bank +covered many feet deep, and peat has been cut there. This accounts for +that great pebble of peat which we saw in the surf. The old oysterman +had told us that many years ago he lost a “crittur” by her being mired +in a swamp near the Atlantic side east of his house, and twenty years +ago he lost the swamp itself entirely, but has since seen signs of it +appearing on the beach. He also said that he had seen cedar stumps “as +big as cart-wheels”(!) on the bottom of the Bay, three miles off +Billingsate Point, when leaning over the side of his boat in pleasant +weather, and that that was dry land not long ago. Another told us that +a log canoe known to have been buried many years before on the Bay side +at East Harbor in Truro, where the Cape is extremely narrow, appeared +at length on the Atlantic side, the Cape having rolled over it, and an +old woman said,—“Now, you see, it is true what I told you, that the +Cape is moving.” + +The bars along the coast shift with every storm, and in many places +there is occasionally none at all. We ourselves observed the effect of +a single storm with a high tide in the night, in July, 1855. It moved +the sand on the beach opposite the light-house to the depth of six +feet, and three rods in width as far as we could see north and south, +and carried it bodily off no one knows exactly where, laying bare in +one place a large rock five feet high which was invisible before, and +narrowing the beach to that extent. There is usually, as I have said, +no bathing on the back-side of the Cape, on account of the undertow, +but when we were there last, the sea had, three months before, cast up +a bar near this lighthouse, two miles long and ten rods wide, over +which the tide did not flow, leaving a narrow cove, then a quarter of a +mile long, between it and the shore, which afforded excellent bathing. +This cove had from time to time been closed up as the bar travelled +northward, in one instance imprisoning four or five hundred whiting and +cod, which died there, and the water as often turned fresh, and finally +gave place to sand. This bar, the inhabitants assured us, might be +wholly removed, and the water six feet deep there in two or three days. + +The light-house keeper said that when the wind blowed strong on to the +shore, the waves ate fast into the bank, but when it blowed off they +took no sand away; for in the former case the wind heaped up the +surface of the water next to the beach, and to preserve its equilibrium +a strong undertow immediately set back again into the sea which carried +with it the sand and whatever else was in the way, and left the beach +hard to walk on; but in the latter case the undertow set on and carried +the sand with it, so that it was particularly difficult for shipwrecked +men to get to land when the wind blowed on to the shore, but easier +when it blowed off. This undertow, meeting the next surface wave on the +bar which itself has made, forms part of the dam over which the latter +breaks, as over an upright wall. The sea thus plays with the land +holding a sand-bar in its mouth awhile before it swallows it, as a cat +plays with a mouse; but the fatal gripe is sure to come at last. The +sea sends its rapacious east wind to rob the land, but before the +former has got far with its prey, the land sends its honest west wind +to recover some of its own. But, according to Lieutenant Davis, the +forms, extent, and distribution of sand-bars and banks are principally +determined, not by winds and waves but by tides. + +Our host said that you would be surprised if you were on the beach when +the wind blew a hurricane directly on to it, to see that none of the +drift-wood came ashore, but all was carried directly northward and +parallel with the shore as fast as a man can walk, by the inshore +current, which sets strongly in that direction at flood tide. The +strongest swimmers also are carried along with it, and never gain an +inch toward the beach. Even a large rock has been moved half a mile +northward along-the beach. He assured us that the sea was never still +on the back-side of the Cape, but ran commonly as high as your head, so +that a great part of the time you could not launch a boat there, and +even in the calmest weather the waves run six or eight feet up the +beach, though then you could get off on a plank. Champlain and +Pourtrincourt could not land here in 1606, on account of the swell (_la +houlle_), yet the savages came off to them in a canoe. In the Sieur de +la Borde’s “Relation des Caraibes,” my edition of which was published +at Amsterdam in 1711, at page 530 he says:— + +“Couroumon a Caraibe, also a star [_i.e._ a god], makes the great +_lames à la mer_, and overturns canoes. _Lames à la mer_ are the long +_vagues_ which are not broken (_entrecoupées_), and such as one sees +come to land all in one piece, from one end of a beach to another, so +that, however little wind there may be, a shallop or a canoe could +hardly land (_aborder terre_) without turning over, or being filled +with water.” + +But on the Bay side the water even at its edge is often as smooth and +still as in a pond. Commonly there are no boats used along this beach. +There was a boat belonging to the Highland Light which the next keeper +after he had been there a year had not launched, though he said that +there was good fishing just off the shore. Generally the Life Boats +cannot be used when needed. When the waves run very high it is +impossible to get a boat off, however skilfully you steer it, for it +will often be completely covered by the curving edge of the approaching +breaker as by an arch, and so filled with water, or it will be lifted +up by its bows, turned directly over backwards, and all the contents +spilled out. A spar thirty feet long is served in the same way. + +I heard of a party who went off fishing back of Wellfleet some years +ago, in two boats, in calm weather, who, when they had laden their +boats with fish, and approached the land again, found such a swell +breaking on it, though there was no wind, that they were afraid to +enter it. At first they thought to pull for Provincetown, but night was +coming on, and that was many miles distant. Their case seemed a +desperate one. As often as they approached the shore and saw the +terrible breakers that intervened, they were deterred. In short, they +were thoroughly frightened. Finally, having thrown their fish +overboard, those in one boat chose a favorable opportunity, and +succeeded, by skill and good luck, in reaching the land, but they were +unwilling to take the responsibility of telling the others when to come +in, and as the other helmsman was inexperienced, their boat was swamped +at once, yet all managed to save themselves. + +Much smaller waves soon make a boat “nail-sick,” as the phrase is. The +keeper said that after a long and strong blow there would be three +large waves, each successively larger than the last, and then no large +ones for some time, and that, when they wished to land in a boat, they +came in on the last and largest wave. Sir Thomas Browne (as quoted in +Brand’s Popular Antiquities, p. 372), on the subject of the tenth wave +being “greater or more dangerous than any other,” after quoting Ovid,— + +“Qui venit hic fluctus, fluctus supereminet omnes +Posterior nono est, undecimo que prior,”— + + +says, “Which, notwithstanding, is evidently false; nor can it be made +out either by observation either upon the shore or the ocean, as we +have with diligence explored in both. And surely in vain we expect +regularity in the waves of the sea, or in the particular motions +thereof, as we may in its general reciprocations, whose causes are +constant, and effects therefore correspondent; whereas its fluctuations +are but motions subservient, which winds, storms, shores, shelves, and +every interjacency, irregulates.” + +We read that the Clay Pounds, were so called “because vessels have had +the misfortune to be pounded against it in gales of wind,” which we +regard as a doubtful derivation. There are small ponds here, upheld by +the clay, which were formerly called the Clay Pits. Perhaps this, or +Clay Ponds, is the origin of the name. Water is found in the clay quite +near the surface; but we heard of one man who had sunk a well in the +sand close by, “till he could see stars at noonday,” without finding +any. Over this bare Highland the wind has full sweep. Even in July it +blows the wings over the heads of the young turkeys, which do not know +enough to head against it; and in gales the doors and windows are blown +in, and you must hold on to the lighthouse to prevent being blown into +the Atlantic. They who merely keep out on the beach in a storm in the +winter are sometimes rewarded by the Humane Society. If you would feel +the full force of a tempest, take up your residence on the top of Mount +Washington, or at the Highland Light, in Truro. + +It was said in 1794 that more vessels were cast away on the east shore +of Truro than anywhere in Barnstable County. Notwithstanding that this +light-house has since been erected, after almost every storm we read of +one or more vessels wrecked here, and sometimes more than a dozen +wrecks are visible from this point at one time. The inhabitants hear +the crash of vessels going to pieces as they sit round their hearths, +and they commonly date from some memorable shipwreck. If the history of +this beach could be written from beginning to end, it would be a +thrilling page in the history of commerce. + +Truro was settled in the year 1700 as _Dangerfield_. This was a very +appropriate name, for I afterward read on a monument in the graveyard, +near Pamet River, the following inscription:— + +Sacred +to the memory of +57 citizens of Truro, +who were lost in seven +vessels, which +foundered at sea in +the memorable gale +of Oct. 3d, 1841. + + +Their names and ages by families were recorded on different sides of +the stone. They are said to have been lost on George’s Bank, and I was +told that only one vessel drifted ashore on the backside of the Cape, +with the boys locked into the cabin and drowned. It is said that the +homes of all were “within a circuit of two miles.” Twenty-eight +inhabitants of Dennis were lost in the same gale; and I read that “in +one day, immediately after this storm, nearly or quite one hundred +bodies were taken up and buried on Cape Cod.” The Truro Insurance +Company failed for want of skippers to take charge of its vessels. But +the surviving inhabitants went a-fishing again the next year as usual. +I found that it would not do to speak of shipwrecks there, for almost +every family has lost some of its members at sea. “Who lives in that +house?” I inquired. “Three widows,” was the reply. The stranger and the +inhabitant view the shore with very different eyes. The former may have +come to see and admire the ocean in a storm; but the latter looks on it +as the scene where his nearest relatives were wrecked. When I remarked +to an old wrecker partially blind, who was sitting on the edge of the +bank smoking a pipe, which he had just lit with a match of dried +beach-grass, that I supposed he liked to hear the sound of the surf, he +answered: “No, I do not like to hear the sound of the surf.” He had +lost at least one son in “the memorable gale,” and could tell many a +tale of the shipwrecks which he had witnessed there. + +In the year 1717, a noted pirate named Bellamy was led on to the bar +off Wellfleet by the captain of a _snow_ which he had taken, to whom he +had offered his vessel again if he would pilot him into Provincetown +Harbor. Tradition says that the latter threw over a burning tar-barrel +in the night, which drifted ashore, and the pirates followed it. A +storm coming on, their whole fleet was wrecked, and more than a hundred +dead bodies lay along the shore. Six who escaped shipwreck were +executed. “At times to this day” (1793), says the historian of +Wellfleet, “there are King William and Queen Mary’s coppers picked up, +and pieces of silver called cob-money. The violence of the seas moves +the sands on the outer bar, so that at times the iron caboose of the +ship [that is, Bellamy’s] at low ebbs has been seen.” Another tells us +that, “For many years after this shipwreck, a man of a very singular +and frightful aspect used every spring and autumn to be seen travelling +on the Cape, who was supposed to have been one of Bellamy’s crew. The +presumption is that he went to some place where money had been secreted +by the pirates, to get such a supply as his exigencies required. When +he died, many pieces of gold were found in a girdle which he constantly +wore.” + +[Illustration: An old wrecker at home] + +As I was walking on the beach here in my last visit, looking for shells +and pebbles, just after that storm, which I have mentioned as moving +the sand to a great depth, not knowing but I might find some cob-money, +I did actually pick up a French crown piece, worth about a dollar and +six cents, near high-water mark, on the still moist sand, just under +the abrupt, caving base of the bank. It was of a dark slate color, and +looked like a flat pebble, but still bore a very distinct and handsome +head of Louis XV., and the usual legend on the reverse. _Sit Nomen +Domini Benedictum_ (Blessed be the Name of the Lord), a pleasing +sentiment to read in the sands of the sea-shore, whatever it might be +stamped on, and I also made out the date, 1741. Of course, I thought at +first that it was that same old button which I have found so many +times, but my knife soon showed the silver. Afterward, rambling on the +bars at low tide, I cheated my companion by holding up round shells +(_Scutellæ_) between my fingers, whereupon he quickly stripped and came +off to me. + +In the Revolution, a British ship of war called the Somerset was +wrecked near the Clay Pounds, and all on board, some hundreds in +number, were taken prisoners. My informant said that he had never seen +any mention of this in the histories, but that at any rate he knew of a +silver watch, which one of those prisoners by accident left there, +which was still going to tell the story. But this event is noticed by +some writers. + +The next summer I saw a sloop from Chatham dragging for anchors and +chains just off this shore. She had her boats out at the work while +she shuffled about on various tacks, and, when anything was found, drew +up to hoist it on board. It is a singular employment, at which men are +regularly hired and paid for their industry, to hunt to-day in pleasant +weather for anchors which have been lost,—the sunken faith and hope of +mariners, to which they trusted in vain; now, perchance, it is the +rusty one of some old pirate’s ship or Norman fisherman, whose cable +parted here two hundred years ago; and now the best bower anchor of a +Canton or a California ship, which has gone about her business. If the +roadsteads of the spiritual ocean could be thus dragged, what rusty +flukes of hope deceived and parted chain-cables of faith might again be +windlassed aboard! enough to sink the finder’s craft, or stock new +navies to the end of time. The bottom of the sea is strewn with +anchors, some deeper and some shallower, and alternately covered and +uncovered by the sand, perchance with a small length of iron cable +still attached,—to which where is the other end? So many unconcluded +tales to be continued another time. So, if we had diving-bells adapted +to the spiritual deeps, we should see anchors with their cables +attached, as thick as eels in vinegar, all wriggling vainly toward +their holding-ground. But that is not treasure for us which another man +has lost; rather it is for us to seek what no other man has found or +can find,—not be Chatham men, dragging for anchors. + +The annals of this voracious beach! who could write them, unless it +were a shipwrecked sailor? How many who have seen it have seen it only +in the midst of danger and distress, the last strip of earth which +their mortal eyes beheld. Think of the amount of suffering which a +single strand has witnessed. The ancients would have represented it as +a sea-monster with open jaws, more terrible than Scylla and Charybdis. +An inhabitant of Truro told me that about a fortnight after the _St. +John_ was wrecked at Cohasset he found two bodies on the shore at the +Clay Pounds. They were those of a man, and a corpulent woman. The man +had thick boots on, though his head was off, but “it was alongside.” It +took the finder some weeks to get over the sight. Perhaps they were man +and wife, and whom God had joined the ocean currents had not put +asunder. Yet by what slight accidents at first may they have been +associated in their drifting. Some of the bodies of those passengers +were picked up far out at sea, boxed up and sunk; some brought ashore +and buried. There are more consequences to a shipwreck than the +underwriters notice. The Gulf Stream may return some to their native +shores, or drop them in some out-of-the-way cave of Ocean, where time +and the elements will write new riddles with their bones.—But to return +to land again. + +In this bank, above the clay, I counted in the summer, two hundred +holes of the Bank Swallow within a space six rods long, and there were +at least one thousand old birds within three times that distance, +twittering over the surf. I had never associated them in my thoughts +with the beach before. One little boy who had been a-birds-nesting had +got eighty swallows’ eggs for his share! Tell it not to the Humane +Society. There were many young birds on the clay beneath, which had +tumbled out and died. Also there were many Crow-blackbirds hopping +about in the dry fields, and the Upland Plover were breeding close by +the light-house. The keeper had once cut off one’s wing while mowing, +as she sat on her eggs there. This is also a favorite resort for +gunners in the fall to shoot the Golden Plover. As around the shores of +a pond are seen devil’s-needles, butterflies, etc., so here, to my +surprise, I saw at the same season great devil’s-needles of a size +proportionably larger, or nearly as big as my finger, incessantly +coasting up and down the edge of the bank, and butterflies also were +hovering over it, and I never saw so many dorr-bugs and beetles of +various kinds as strewed the beach. They had apparently flown over the +bank in the night, and could not get up again, and some had perhaps +fallen into the sea and were washed ashore. They may have been in part +attracted by the light-house lamps. + +The Clay Pounds are a more fertile tract than usual. We saw some fine +patches of roots and corn here. As generally on the Cape, the plants +had little stalk or leaf, but ran remarkably to seed. The corn was +hardly more than half as high as in the interior, yet the ears were +large and full, and one farmer told us that he could raise forty +bushels on an acre without manure, and sixty with it. The heads of the +rye also were remarkably large. The Shadbush (_Amelanchier_), Beach +Plums, and Blueberries (_Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum_), like the +apple-trees and oaks, were very dwarfish, spreading over the sand, but +at the same time very fruitful. The blueberry was but an inch or two +high, and its fruit often rested on the ground, so that you did not +suspect the presence of the bushes, even on those bare hills, until you +were treading on them. I thought that this fertility must be owing +mainly to the abundance of moisture in the atmosphere, for I observed +that what little grass there was was remarkably laden with dew in the +morning, and in summer dense imprisoning fogs frequently last till +midday, turning one’s beard into a wet napkin about his throat, and the +oldest inhabitant may lose his way within a stone’s throw of his house +or be obliged to follow the beach for a guide. The brick house attached +to the light-house was exceedingly damp at that season, and, +writing-paper lost all its stiffness in it. It was impossible to dry +your towel after bathing, or to press flowers without their mildewing. +The air was so moist that we rarely wished to drink, though we could at +all times taste the salt on our lips. Salt was rarely used at table, +and our host told us that his cattle invariably refused it when it was +offered them, they got so much with their grass and at every breath, +but he said that a sick horse or one just from the country would +sometimes take a hearty draught of salt water, and seemed to like it +and be the better for it. + +It was surprising to see how much water was contained in the terminal +bud of the sea-side golden-rod, standing in the sand early in July, and +also how turnips, beets, carrots, etc., flourished even in pure sand. A +man travelling by the shore near there not long before us noticed +something green growing in the pure sand of the beach, just at +high-water mark, and on approaching found it to be a bed of beets +flourishing vigorously, probably from seed washed out of the +_Franklin_. Also beets and turnips came up in the sea-weed used for +manure in many parts of the Cape. This suggests how various plants may +have been dispersed over the world to distant islands and continents. +Vessels, with seeds in their cargoes, destined for particular ports, +where perhaps they were not needed, have been cast away on desolate +islands, and though their crews perished, some of their seeds have been +preserved. Out of many kinds a few would find a soil and climate +adapted to them, become naturalized, and perhaps drive out the native +plants at last, and so fit the land for the habitation of man. It is an +ill wind that blows nobody any good, and for the time lamentable +shipwrecks may thus contribute a new vegetable to a continent’s stock, +and prove on the whole a lasting blessing to its inhabitants. Or winds +and currents might effect the same without the intervention of man. +What indeed are the various succulent plants which grow on the beach +but such beds of beets and turnips, sprung originally from seeds which +perhaps were cast on the waters for this end, though we do not know the +_Franklin_ which they came out of? In ancient times some Mr. Bell (?) +was sailing this way in his ark with seeds of rocket, salt-wort, +sandwort, beachgrass, samphire, bayberry, poverty-grass, etc., all +nicely labelled with directions, intending to establish a nursery +somewhere; and did not a nursery get established, though he thought +that he had failed? + +About the light-house I observed in the summer the pretty _Polygala +polygama_, spreading ray-wise flat on the ground, white pasture +thistles (_Cirsium pumilum_), and amid the shrubbery the _Smilax +glauca_, which is commonly said not to grow so far north; near the edge +of the banks about half a mile southward, the broom crow-berry +(_Empetrum Conradii_), for which Plymouth is the only locality in +Massachusetts usually named, forms pretty green mounds four or five +feet in diameter by one foot high,—soft, springy beds for the wayfarer. +I saw it afterward in Provincetown, but prettiest of all the scarlet +pimpernel, or poor-man’s weather-glass (_Anagallis-arvensis_), greets +you in fair weather on almost every square yard of sand. From Yarmouth, +I have received the _Chrysopsis falcata_ (golden aster), and _Vaccinium +stamineum_ (Deerberry or Squaw Huckleberry), with fruit not edible, +sometimes as large as a cranberry (Sept. 7). + +[Illustration: The Highland Light] + +The Highland Light-house,[1] where we were staying, is a +substantial-looking building of brick, painted white, and surmounted by +an iron cap. Attached to it is the dwelling of the keeper, one story +high, also of brick, and built by government. As we were going to spend +the night in a light-house, we wished to make the most of so novel an +experience, and therefore told our host that we would like to accompany +him when he went to light up. At rather early candle-light he lighted a +small Japan lamp, allowing it to smoke rather more than we like on +ordinary occasions, and told us to follow him. He led the way first +through his bedroom, which was placed nearest to the light-house, and +then through a long, narrow, covered passage-way, between whitewashed +walls like a prison entry, into the lower part of the light-house, +where many great butts of oil were arranged around; thence we ascended +by a winding and open iron stairway, with a steadily increasing scent +of oil and lamp-smoke, to a trap-door in an iron floor, and through +this into the lantern. It was a neat building, with everything in +apple-pie order, and no danger of anything rusting there for want of +oil. The light consisted of fifteen argand lamps, placed within smooth +concave reflectors twenty-one inches in diameter, and arranged in two +horizontal circles one above the other, facing every way excepting +directly down the Cape. These were surrounded, at a distance of two or +three feet, by large plate-glass windows, which defied the storms, with +iron sashes, on which rested the iron cap. All the iron work, except +the floor, was painted white. And thus the light-house was completed. +We walked slowly round in that narrow space as the keeper lighted each +lamp in succession, conversing with him at the same moment that many a +sailor on the deep witnessed the lighting of the Highland Light. His +duty was to fill and trim and light his lamps, and keep bright the +reflectors. He filled them every morning, and trimmed them commonly +once in the course of the night. He complained of the quality of the +oil which was furnished. This house consumes about eight hundred +gallons in a year, which cost not far from one dollar a gallon; but +perhaps a few lives would be saved if better oil were provided. Another +light-house keeper said that the same proportion of winter-strained oil +was sent to the southernmost light-house in the Union as to the most +northern. Formerly, when this light-house had windows with small and +thin panes, a severe storm would sometimes break the glass, and then +they were obliged to put up a wooden shutter in haste to save their +lights and reflectors,—and sometimes in tempests, when the mariner +stood most in need of their guidance, they had thus nearly converted +the light-house into a dark lantern, which emitted only a few feeble +rays, and those commonly on the land or lee side. He spoke of the +anxiety and sense of responsibility which he felt in cold and stormy +nights in the winter; when he knew that many a poor fellow was +depending on him, and his lamps burned dimly, the oil being chilled. +Sometimes he was obliged to warm the oil in a kettle in his house at +midnight, and fill his lamps over again,—for he could not have a fire +in the light-house, it produced such a sweat on the windows. His +successor told me that he could not keep too hot a fire in such a case. +All this because the oil was poor. The government lighting the mariners +on its wintry coast with summer-strained oil, to save expense! That +were surely a summer-strained mercy. + +This keeper’s successor, who kindly entertained me the next year stated +that one extremely cold night, when this and all the neighboring lights +were burning summer oil, but he had been provident enough to reserve a +little winter oil against emergencies, he was waked up with anxiety, +and found that his oil was congealed, and his lights almost +extinguished; and when, after many hours’ exertion, he had succeeded in +replenishing his reservoirs with winter oil at the wick end, and with +difficulty had made them burn, he looked out and found that the other +lights in the neighborhood, which were usually visible to him, had gone +out, and he heard afterward that the Pamet River and Billingsgate +Lights also had been extinguished. + +Our host said that the frost, too, on the windows caused him much +trouble, and in sultry summer nights the moths covered them and dimmed +his lights; sometimes even small birds flew against the thick plate +glass, and were found on the ground beneath in the morning with their +necks broken. In the spring of 1855 he found nineteen small +yellow-birds, perhaps goldfinches or myrtle-birds, thus lying dead +around the light-house; and sometimes in the fall he had seen where a +golden plover had struck the glass in the night, and left the down and +the fatty part of its breast on it. + +Thus he struggled, by every method, to keep his light shining before +men. Surely the light-house keeper has a responsible, if an easy, +office. When his lamp goes out, he goes out; or, at most, only one such +accident is pardoned. + +I thought it a pity that some poor student did not live there, to +profit by all that light, since he would not rob the mariner. “Well,” +he said, “I do sometimes come up here and read the newspaper when they +are noisy down below.” Think of fifteen argand lamps to read the +newspaper by! Government oil!—light, enough, perchance, to read the +Constitution by! I thought that he should read nothing less than his +Bible by that light. I had a classmate who fitted for college by the +lamps of a light-house, which was more light, we think, than the +University afforded. + +When we had come down and walked a dozen rods from the light-house, we +found that we could not get the full strength of its light on the +narrow strip of land between it and the shore, being too low for the +focus, and we saw only so many feeble and rayless stars; but at forty +rods inland we could see to read, though we were still indebted to only +one lamp. Each reflector sent forth a separate “fan” of light,—one +shone on the windmill, and one in the hollow, while the intervening +spaces were in shadow. This light is said to be visible twenty nautical +miles and more from an observer fifteen feet above the level of the +sea. We could see the revolving light at Race Point, the end of the +Cape, about nine miles distant, and also the light on Long Point, at +the entrance of Provincetown Harbor, and one of the distant Plymouth +Harbor Lights, across the Bay, nearly in a range with the last, like a +star in the horizon. The keeper thought that the other Plymouth Light +was concealed by being exactly in a range with the Long Point Light. He +told us that the mariner was sometimes led astray by a mackerel +fisher’s lantern, who was afraid of being run down in the night, or +even by a cottager’s light, mistaking them for some well-known light on +the coast, and, when he discovered his mistake, was wont to curse the +prudent fisher or the wakeful cottager without reason. + +Though it was once declared that Providence placed this mass of clay +here on purpose to erect a light-house on, the keeper said that the +light-house should have been erected half a mile farther south, where +the coast begins to bend, and where the light could be seen at the same +time with the Nauset Lights, and distinguished from them. They now talk +of building one there. It happens that the present one is the more +useless now, so near the extremity of the Cape, because other +light-houses have since been erected there. + +Among the many regulations of the Light-house Board, hanging against +the wall here, many of them excellent, perhaps, if there were a +regiment stationed here to attend to them, there is one requiring the +keeper to keep an account of the number of vessels which pass his light +during the day. But there are a hundred vessels in sight at once, +steering in all directions, many on the very verge of the horizon, and +he must have more eyes than Argus, and be a good deal farther-sighted, +to tell which are passing his light. It is an employment in some +respects best suited to the habits of the gulls which coast up and down +here, and circle over the sea. + +I was told by the next keeper, that on the 8th of June following, a +particularly clear and beautiful morning, he rose about half an hour +before sunrise, and having a little time to spare, for his custom was +to extinguish his lights at sunrise, walked down toward the shore to +see what he might find. When he got to the edge of the bank he looked +up, and, to his astonishment, saw the sun rising, and already part way +above the horizon. Thinking that his clock was wrong, he made haste +back, and though it was still too early by the clock, extinguished his +lamps, and when he had got through and come down, he looked out the +window, and, to his still greater astonishment, saw the sun just where +it was before, two-thirds above the horizon. He showed me where its +rays fell on the wall across the room. He proceeded to make a fire, and +when he had done, there was the sun still at the same height. +Whereupon, not trusting to his own eyes any longer, he called up his +wife to look at it, and she saw it also. There were vessels in sight on +the ocean, and their crews, too, he said, must have seen it, for its +rays fell on them. It remained at that height for about fifteen minutes +by the clock, and then rose as usual, and nothing else extraordinary +happened during that day. Though accustomed to the coast, he had never +witnessed nor heard of such a phenomenon before. I suggested that there +might have been a cloud in the horizon invisible to him, which rose +with the sun, and his clock was only as accurate as the average; or +perhaps, as he denied the possibility of this, it was such a looming of +the sun as is said to occur at Lake Superior and elsewhere. Sir John +Franklin, for instance, says in his Narrative, that when he was on the +shore of the Polar Sea, the horizontal refraction varied so much one +morning that “the upper limb of the sun twice appeared at the horizon +before it finally rose.” + +He certainly must be a son of Aurora to whom the sun looms, when there +are so many millions to whom it _glooms_ rather, or who never see it +till an hour _after_ it has risen. But it behooves us old stagers to +keep our lamps trimmed and burning to the last, and not trust to the +sun’s looming. + +This keeper remarked that the centre of the flame should be exactly +opposite the centre of the reflectors, and that accordingly, if he was +not careful to turn down his wicks in the morning, the sun falling on +the reflectors on the south side of the building would set fire to +them, like a burning-glass, in the coldest day, and he would look up at +noon and see them all lighted! When your light is ready to give light, +it is readiest to receive it, and the sun will light it. His successor +said that he had never known them to blaze in such a case, but merely +to smoke. + +I saw that this was a place of wonders. In a sea turn or shallow fog +while I was there the next summer, it being clear overhead, the edge of +the bank twenty rods distant, appeared like a mountain pasture in the +horizon. I was completely deceived by it, and I could then understand +why mariners sometimes ran ashore in such cases, especially in the +night, supposing it to be far away, though they could see the land. +Once since this, being in a large oyster boat two or three hundred +miles from here, in a dark night, when there was a thin veil of mist on +land and water, we came so near to running on to the land before our +skipper was aware of it, that the first warning was my hearing the +sound of the surf under my elbow. I could almost have jumped ashore, +and we were obliged to go about very suddenly to prevent striking. The +distant light for which we were steering, supposing it a light-house +five or six miles off, came through the cracks of a fisherman’s bunk +not more than six rods distant. + +The keeper entertained us handsomely in his solitary little ocean +house. He was a man of singular patience and intelligence, who, when +our queries struck him, rung as clear as a bell in response. The +light-house lamps a few feet distant shone full into my chamber, and +made it as bright as day, so I knew exactly how the Highland Light bore +all that night, and I was in no danger of being wrecked. Unlike the +last, this was as still as a summer night. I thought, as I lay there, +half awake and half asleep, looking upward through the window at the +lights above my head, how many sleepless eyes from far out on the Ocean +stream—mariners of all nations spinning their yarns through the various +watches of the night—were directed toward my couch. + + [1] The light-house has since been rebuilt, and shows a _Fresnel_ + light. + + + + +IX +THE SEA AND THE DESERT + + +The light-house lamps were still burning, though now with a silvery +lustre, when I rose to see the sun come out of the Ocean; for he still +rose eastward of us; but I was convinced that he must have come out of +a dry bed beyond that stream, though he seemed to come out of the +water. + +“The sun once more touched the fields, +Mounting to heaven from the fair flowing +Deep-running Ocean.” + + +Now we saw countless sails of mackerel fishers abroad on the deep, one +fleet in the north just pouring round the Cape, another standing down +toward Chatham, and our host’s son went off to join some lagging member +of the first which had not yet left the Bay. + +Before we left the light-house we were obliged to anoint our shoes +faithfully with tallow, for walking on the beach, in the salt water and +the sand, had turned them red and crisp. To counterbalance this, I have +remarked that the seashore, even where muddy, as it is not here, is +singularly clean; for notwithstanding the spattering of the water and +mud and squirting of the clams while walking to and from the boat, your +best black pants retain no stain nor dirt, such as they would acquire +from walking in the country. + +We have heard that a few days after this, when the Provincetown Bank +was robbed, speedy emissaries from Provincetown made particular +inquiries concerning us at this light-house. Indeed, they traced us all +the way down the Cape, and concluded that we came by this unusual route +down the back-side and on foot, in order that we might discover a way +to get off with our booty when we had committed the robbery. The Cape +is so long and narrow, and so bare withal, that it is wellnigh +impossible for a stranger to visit it without the knowledge of its +inhabitants generally, unless he is wrecked on to it in the night. So, +when this robbery occurred, all their suspicions seem to have at once +centred on us two travellers who had just passed down it. If we had not +chanced to leave the Cape so soon, we should probably have been +arrested. The real robbers were two young men from Worcester County who +travelled with a centre-bit, and are said to have done their work very +neatly. But the only bank that we pried into was the great Cape Cod +sand-bank, and we robbed it only of an old French crown piece, some +shells and pebbles, and the materials of this story. + +Again we took to the beach for another day (October 13), walking along +the shore of the resounding sea, determined to get it into us. We +wished to associate with the Ocean until it lost the pond-like look +which it wears to a country-man. We still thought that we could see the +other side. Its surface was still more sparkling than the day before, +and we beheld “the countless smilings of the ocean waves”; though some +of them were pretty broad grins, for still the wind blew and the +billows broke in foam along the beach. The nearest beach to us on the +other side, whither we looked, due east, was on the coast of Galicia, +in Spain, whose capital is Santiago, though by old poets’ reckoning it +should have been Atlantis or the Hesperides; but heaven is found to be +farther west now. At first we were abreast of that part of Portugal +_entre Douro e Mino_, and then Galicia and the port of Pontevedra +opened to us as we walked along; but we did not enter, the breakers ran +so high. The bold headland of Cape Finisterre, a little north of east, +jutted toward us next, with its vain brag, for we flung back,—“Here is +Cape Cod,—Cape Land’s-Beginning.” A little indentation toward the +north,—for the land loomed to our imaginations by a common mirage,—we +knew was the Bay of Biscay, and we sang:— + +“There we lay, till next day. + In the Bay of Biscay O!” + + +A little south of east was Palos, where Columbus weighed anchor, and +farther yet the pillars which Hercules set up; concerning which when we +inquired at the top of our voices what was written on them,—for we had +the morning sun in our faces, and could not see distinctly,—the +inhabitants shouted _Ne plus ultra_ (no more beyond), but the wind bore +to us the truth only, _plus ultra_ (more beyond), and over the Bay +westward was echoed _ultra_ (beyond). We spoke to them through the surf +about the Far West, the true Hesperia, ἕω πέρας or end of the day, the +This Side Sundown, where the sun was extinguished in the _Pacific_, and +we advised them to pull up stakes and plant those pillars of theirs on +the shore of California, whither all our folks were gone,—the only _ne_ +plus ultra now. Whereat they looked crestfallen on their cliffs, for we +had taken the wind out of all their sails. + +We could not perceive that any of their leavings washed up here, though +we picked up a child’s toy, a small dismantled boat, which may have +been lost at Pontevedra. + +The Cape became narrower and narrower as we approached its wrist +between Truro and Provincetown, and the shore inclined more decidedly +to the west. At the head of East Harbor Creek, the Atlantic is +separated but by half a dozen rods of sand from the tide-waters of the +Bay. From the Clay Pounds the bank flatted off for the last ten miles +to the extremity at Race Point, though the highest parts, which are +called “islands” from their appearance at a distance on the sea, were +still seventy or eighty feet above the Atlantic, and afforded a good +view of the latter, as well as a constant view of the Bay, there being +no trees nor a hill sufficient to interrupt it. Also the sands began to +invade the land more and more, until finally they had entire possession +from sea to sea, at the narrowest part. For three or four miles between +Truro and Provincetown there were no inhabitants from shore to shore, +and there were but three or four houses for twice that distance. + +As we plodded along, either by the edge of the ocean, where the sand +was rapidly drinking up the last wave that wet it, or over the +sand-hills of the bank, the mackerel fleet continued to pour round the +Cape north of us, ten or fifteen miles distant, in countless numbers, +schooner after schooner, till they made a city on the water. They were +so thick that many appeared to be afoul of one another; now all +standing on this tack, now on that. We saw how well the New-Englanders +had followed up Captain John Smith’s suggestions with regard to the +fisheries, made in 1616,—to what a pitch they had carried “this +contemptible trade of fish,” as he significantly styles it, and were +now equal to the Hollanders whose example he holds up for the English +to emulate; notwithstanding that “in this faculty,” as he says, “the +former are so naturalized, and of their vents so certainly acquainted, +as there is no likelihood they will ever be paralleled, having two or +three thousand busses, flat-bottoms, sword-pinks, todes, and such like, +that breeds them sailors, mariners, soldiers, and merchants, never to +be wrought out of that trade and fit for any other.” We thought that it +would take all these names and more to describe the numerous craft +which we saw. Even then, some years before our “renowned sires” with +their “peerless dames” stepped on Plymouth Rock, he wrote, +“Newfoundland doth yearly freight neir eight hundred sail of ships with +a silly, lean, skinny, poor-john, and cor fish,” though all their +supplies must be annually transported from Europe. Why not plant a +colony here then, and raise those supplies on the spot? “Of all the +four parts of the world,” says he, “that I have yet seen, not +inhabited, could I have but means to transport a colony, I would rather +live here than anywhere. And if it did not maintain itself, were we but +once indifferently well fitted, let us starve.” Then “fishing before +your doors,” you “may every night sleep quietly ashore, with good cheer +and what fires you will, or, when you please, with your wives and +family.” Already he anticipates “the new towns in New England in memory +of their old,”—and who knows what may be discovered in the “heart and +entrails” of the land, “seeing even the very edges,” etc., etc. + +[Illustration: Towing along shore] + +All this has been accomplished, and more, and where is Holland now? +Verily the Dutch have taken it. There was no long interval between the +suggestion of Smith and the eulogy of Burke. + +Still one after another the mackerel schooners hove in sight round the +head of the Cape, “whitening all the sea road,” and we watched each one +for a moment with an undivided interest. It seemed a pretty sport. Here +in the country it is only a few idle boys or loafers that go a-fishing +on a rainy day; but there it appeared as if every able-bodied man and +helpful boy in the Bay had gone out on a pleasure excursion in their +yachts, and all would at last land and have a chowder on the Cape. The +gazetteer tells you gravely how many of the men and boys of these towns +are engaged in the whale, cod, and mackerel fishery, how many go to the +banks of Newfoundland, or the coast of Labrador, the Straits of Belle +Isle or the Bay of Chaleurs (Shalore the sailors call it); as if I were +to reckon up the number of boys in Concord who are engaged during the +summer in the perch, pickerel, bream, hornpout, and shiner fishery, of +which no one keeps the statistics,—though I think that it is pursued +with as much profit to the moral and intellectual man (or boy), and +certainly with less danger to the physical one. + +One of my playmates, who was apprenticed to a printer, and was somewhat +of a wag, asked his master one afternoon if he might go a-fishing, and +his master consented. He was gone three months. When he came back, he +said that he had been to the Grand Banks, and went to setting type +again as if only an afternoon had intervened. + +I confess I was surprised to find that so many men spent their whole +day, ay, their whole lives almost, a-fishing. It is remarkable what a +serious business men make of getting their dinners, and how universally +shiftlessness and a grovelling taste take refuge in a merely ant-like +industry. Better go without your dinner, I thought, than be thus +everlastingly fishing for it like a cormorant. Of course, _viewed from +the shore_, our pursuits in the country appear not a whit less +frivolous. + +I once sailed three miles on a mackerel cruise myself. It was a Sunday +evening after a very warm day in which there had been frequent +thunder-showers, and I had walked along the shore from Cohasset to +Duxbury. I wished to get over from the last place to Clark’s Island, +but no boat could stir, they said, at that stage of the tide, they +being left high on the mud. At length I learned that the tavern-keeper, +Winsor, was going out mackerelling with seven men that evening, and +would take me. When there had been due delay, we one after another +straggled down to the shore in a leisurely manner, as if waiting for +the tide still, and in India-rubber boots, or carrying our shoes in our +hands, waded to the boats, each of the crew bearing an armful of wood, +and one a bucket of new potatoes besides. Then they resolved that each +should bring one more armful of wood, and that would be enough. They +had already got a barrel of water, and had some more in the schooner. +We shoved the boats a dozen rods over the mud and water till they +floated, then rowing half a mile to the vessel climbed aboard, and +there we were in a mackerel schooner, a fine stout vessel of +forty-three tons, whose name I forget. The baits were not dry on the +hooks. There was the mill in which they ground the mackerel, and the +trough to hold it, and the long-handled dipper to cast it overboard +with; and already in the harbor we saw the surface rippled with schools +of small mackerel, the real _Scomber vernalis_. The crew proceeded +leisurely to weigh anchor and raise their two sails, there being a fair +but very slight wind;—and the sun now setting clear and shining on the +vessel after the thundershowers, I thought that I could not have +commenced the voyage under more favorable auspices. They had four +dories and commonly fished in them, else they fished on the starboard +side aft where their fines hung ready, two to a man. The boom swung +round once or twice, and Winsor cast overboard the foul juice of +mackerel mixed with rain-water which remained in his trough, and then +we gathered about the helmsman and told stories. I remember that the +compass was affected by iron in its neighborhood and varied a few +degrees. There was one among us just returned from California, who was +now going as passenger for his health and amusement. They expected to +be gone about a week, to begin fishing the next morning, and to carry +their fish fresh to Boston. They landed me at Clark’s Island, where the +Pilgrims landed, for my companions wished to get some milk for the +voyage. But I had seen the whole of it. The rest was only going to sea +and catching the mackerel. Moreover, it was as well that I did not +remain with them, considering the small quantity of supplies they had +taken. + +Now I saw the mackerel fleet _on its fishing-ground_, though I was not +at first aware of it. So my experience was complete. + +It was even more cold and windy to-day than before, and we were +frequently glad to take shelter behind a sand-hill. None of the +elements were resting. On the beach there is a ceaseless activity, +always something going on, in storm and in calm, winter and summer, +night and day. Even the sedentary man here enjoys a breadth of view +which is almost equivalent to motion. In clear weather the laziest may +look across the Bay as far as Plymouth at a glance, or over the +Atlantic as far as human vision reaches, merely raising his eyelids; or +if he is too lazy to look after all, he can hardly help hearing the +ceaseless dash and roar of the breakers. The restless ocean may at any +moment cast up a whale or a wrecked vessel at your feet. All the +reporters in the world, the most rapid stenographers, could not report +the news it brings. No creature could move slowly where there was so +much life around. The few wreckers were either going or coming, and the +ships and the sand-pipers, and the screaming gulls overhead; nothing +stood still but the shore. The little beach-birds trotted past close to +the water’s edge, or paused but an instant to swallow their food, +keeping time with the elements. I wondered how they ever got used to +the sea, that they ventured so near the waves. Such tiny inhabitants +the land brought forth! except one fox. And what could a fox do, +looking on the Atlantic from that high bank? What is the sea to a fox? +Sometimes we met a wrecker with his cart and dog,—and his dog’s faint +bark at us wayfarers, heard through the roaring of the surf, sounded +ridiculously faint. To see a little trembling dainty-footed cur stand +on the margin of the ocean, and ineffectually bark at a beach-bird, +amid the roar of the Atlantic! Come with design to bark at a whale, +perchance! That sound will do for farmyards. All the dogs looked out of +place there, naked and as if shuddering at the vastness; and I thought +that they would not have been there had it not been for the countenance +of their masters. Still less could you think of a cat bending her steps +that way, and shaking her wet foot over the Atlantic; yet even this +happens sometimes, they tell me. In summer I saw the tender young of +the Piping Plover, like chickens just hatched, mere pinches of down on +two legs, running in troops, with a faint peep, along the edge of the +waves. I used to see packs of half-wild dogs haunting the lonely beach +on the south shore of Staten Island, in New York Bay, for the sake of +the carrion there cast up; and I remember that once, when for a long +time I had heard a furious barking in the tall grass of the marsh, a +pack of half a dozen large dogs burst forth on to the beach, pursuing a +little one which ran straight to me for protection, and I afforded it +with some stones, though at some risk to myself; but the next day the +little one was the first to bark at me. under these circumstances I +could not but remember the words of the poet:— + +“Blow, blow, thou winter wind, +Thou art not so unkind + As _his_ ingratitude; +Thy tooth is not so keen, +Because thou art not seen, + Although thy breath be rude. + +“Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, +Thou dost not bite so nigh + As benefits forgot; +Though thou the waters warp, +Thy sting is not so sharp + As friend remembered not.” + + +Sometimes, when I was approaching the carcass of a horse or ox which +lay on the beach there, where there was no living creature in sight, a +dog would unexpectedly emerge from it and slink away with a mouthful of +offal. + +The sea-shore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point +from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The +waves forever rolling to the land are too far-travelled and untamable +to be familiar. Creeping along the endless beach amid the sun-squall +and the foam, it occurs to us that we, too, are the product of +sea-slime. + +It is a wild, rank place, and there is no flattery in it. Strewn with +crabs, horse-shoes, and razor-clams, and whatever the sea casts up,—a +vast _morgue_, where famished dogs may range in packs, and crows come +daily to glean the pittance which the tide leaves them. The carcasses +of men and beasts together lie stately up upon its shelf, rotting and +bleaching in the sun and waves, and each tide turns them in their beds, +and tucks fresh sand under them. There is naked Nature, inhumanly +sincere, wasting no thought on man, nibbling at the cliffy shore where +gulls wheel amid the spray. + +We saw this forenoon what, at a distance, looked like a bleached log +with a branch still left on it. It proved to be one of the principal +bones of a whale, whose carcass, having been stripped of blubber at sea +and cut adrift, had been washed up some months before. It chanced that +this was the most conclusive evidence which we met with to prove, what +the Copenhagen antiquaries assert, that these shores were the +_Furdustrandas_ which Thorhall, the companion of Thorfinn during his +expedition to Vinland in 1007. sailed past in disgust. It appears that +after they had left the Cape and explored the country about +Straum-Fiordr (Buzzards’ Bay!), Thorhall, who was disappointed at not +getting any wine to drink there, determined to sail north again in +search of Vinland. Though the antiquaries have given us the original +Icelandic. I prefer to quote their translation, since theirs is the +only Latin which I know to have been aimed at Cape Cod. + +“Cum parati erant, sublato +velo, cecinit Thorhallus: +Eò redeamus, ubi conterranei +sunt nostri! faciamus aliter, +expansi arenosi peritum, +lata navis explorare curricula: +dum procellam incitantes gladii +moræ impatientes, qui terram +collaudant, Furdustrandas +inhabitant et coquunt balænas.” + + +In other words: “When they were ready and their sail hoisted, Thorhall +sang: Let us return thither where our fellow-countrymen are. Let us +make a bird[1] skilful to fly through the heaven of sand,[2] to explore +the broad track of ships; while warriors who impel to the tempest of +swords,[3] who praise the land, inhabit Wonder-Strands, _and cook +whales_.’” And so he sailed north past Cape Cod, as the antiquaries +say, “and was shipwrecked on to Ireland.” + +Though once there were more whales cast up here, I think that it was +never more wild than now. We do not associate the idea of antiquity +with the ocean, nor wonder how it looked a thousand years ago, as we do +of the land, for it was equally wild and unfathomable always. The +Indians have left no traces on its surface, but it is the same to the +civilized man and the savage. The aspect of the shore only has changed. +The ocean is a wilderness reaching round the globe, wilder than a +Bengal jungle, and fuller of monsters, washing the very wharves of our +cities and the gardens of our sea-side residences. Serpents, bears, +hyenas, tigers, rapidly vanish as civilization advances, but the most +populous and civilized city cannot scare a shark far from its wharves. +It is no further advanced than Singapore, with its tigers, in this +respect. The Boston papers had never told me that there were seals in +the harbor. I had always associated these with the Esquimaux and other +outlandish people. Yet from the parlor windows all along the coast you +may see families of them sporting on the flats. They were as strange to +me as the merman would be. Ladies who never walk in the woods, sail +over the sea. To go to sea! Why, it is to have the experience of +Noah,—to realize the deluge. Every vessel is an ark. + +We saw no fences as we walked the beach, no birchen _riders_, highest +of rails, projecting into the sea to keep the cows from wading round, +nothing to remind us that man was proprietor of the shore. Yet a Truro +man did tell us that owners of land on the east side of that town were +regarded as owning the beach, in order that they might have the control +of it so far as to defend themselves against the encroachments of the +sand and the beach-grass,—for even this friend is sometimes regarded as +a foe; but he said that this was not the case on the Bay side. Also I +have seen in sheltered parts of the Bay temporary fences running to +low-water mark, the posts being set in sills or sleepers placed +transversely. + +After we had been walking many hours, the mackerel fleet still hovered +in the northern horizon nearly in the same direction, but farther off, +hull down. Though their sails were set they never sailed away, nor yet +came to anchor, but stood on various tacks as close together as vessels +in a haven, and we in our ignorance thought that they were contending +patiently with adverse winds, beating eastward; but we learned +afterward that they were even then on their fishing-ground, and that +they caught mackerel without taking in their mainsails or coming to +anchor, “a smart breeze” (thence called a mackerel breeze) “being,” as +one says, “considered most favorable” for this purpose. We counted +about two hundred sail of mackerel fishers within one small arc of the +horizon, and a nearly equal number had disappeared southward. Thus they +hovered about the extremity of the Cape, like moths round a candle; the +lights at Race Point and Long Point being bright candles for them at +night,—and at this distance they looked fair and white, as if they had +not yet flown into the light, but nearer at hand afterward, we saw how +some had formerly singed their wings and bodies. + +A village seems thus, where its able-bodied men are all ploughing the +ocean together, as a common field. In North Truro the women and girls +may sit at their doors, and see where their husbands and brothers are +harvesting their mackerel fifteen or twenty miles off, on the sea, with +hundreds of white harvest wagons, just as in the country the farmers’ +wives sometimes see their husbands working in a distant hillside field. +But the sound of no dinner-horn can reach the fisher’s ear. + +Having passed the narrowest part of the waist of the Cape, though still +in Truro, for this township is about twelve miles long on the shore, we +crossed over to the Bay side, not half a mile distant, in order to +spend the noon on the nearest shrubby sand-hill in Provincetown, called +Mount Ararat, which rises one hundred feet above the ocean. On our way +thither we had occasion to admire the various beautiful forms and +colors of the sand, and we noticed an interesting mirage, which I have +since found that Hitchcock also observed on the sands of the Cape. We +were crossing a shallow valley in the Desert, where the smooth and +spotless sand sloped upward by a small angle to the horizon on every +side, and at the lowest part was a long chain of clear but shallow +pools. As we were approaching these for a drink in a diagonal direction +across the valley, they appeared inclined at a slight but decided angle +to the horizon, though they were plainly and broadly connected with one +another, and there was not the least ripple to suggest a current; so +that by the time we had reached a convenient part of one we seemed to +have ascended several feet. They appeared to lie by magic on the side +of the vale, like a mirror left in a slanting position. It was a very +pretty mirage for a Provincetown desert, but not amounting to what, in +Sanscrit, is called “the thirst of the gazelle,” as there was real +water here for a base, and we were able to quench our thirst after all. + +Professor Rafn, of Copenhagen, thinks that the mirage which I noticed, +but which an old inhabitant of Provincetown, to whom I mentioned it, +had never seen nor heard of, had something to do with the name +“Furdustrandas,” i.e. Wonder-Strands, given, as I have said, in the old +Icelandic account of Thorfinn’s expedition to Vinland in the year 1007, +to a part of the coast on which he landed. But these sands are more +remarkable for their length than for their mirage, which is common to +all deserts, and the reason for the name which the Northmen themselves +give,—“because it took a long time to sail by them,”—is sufficient and +more applicable to these shores. However, if you should sail all the +way from Greenland to Buzzards’ Bay along the coast, you would get +sight of a good many sandy beaches. But whether Thorfinn saw the mirage +here or not, Thor-eau, one of the same family, did; and perchance it +was because Lief the Lucky had, in a previous voyage, taken Thor-er and +his people off the rock in the middle of the sea, that Thor-eau was +born to see it. + +This was not the only mirage which I saw on the Cape. That half of the +beach next the bank is commonly level, or nearly so, while the other +slopes downward to the water. As I was walking upon the edge of the +bank in Wellfleet at sundown, it seemed to me that the inside half of +the beach sloped upward toward the water to meet the other, forming a +ridge ten or twelve feet high the whole length of the shore, but higher +always opposite to where I stood; and I was not convinced of the +contrary till I descended the bank, though the shaded outlines left by +the waves of a previous tide but half-way down the apparent declivity +might have taught me better. A stranger may easily detect what is +strange to the oldest inhabitant, for the strange is his province. The +old oysterman, speaking of gull-shooting, had said that you must aim +under, when firing down the bank. + +A neighbor tells me that one August, looking through a glass from +Naushon to some vessels which were sailing along near Martha’s +Vineyard, the water about them appeared perfectly smooth, so that they +were reflected in it, and yet their full sails proved that it must be +rippled, and they who were with him thought that it was mirage, _i.e._ +a reflection from a haze. + +From the above-mentioned sand-hill we over-looked Provincetown and its +harbor, now emptied of vessels, and also a wide expanse of ocean. As we +did not wish to enter Provincetown before night, though it was cold and +windy, we returned across the Deserts to the Atlantic side, and walked +along the beach again nearly to Race Point, being still greedy of the +sea influence. All the while it was not so calm as the reader may +suppose, but it was blow, blow, blow,—roar, roar, roar,—tramp, tramp, +tramp,—without interruption. The shore now trended nearly east and +west. + +Before sunset, having already seen the mackerel fleet returning into +the Bay, we left the sea-shore on the north of Provincetown, and made +our way across the Desert to the eastern extremity of the town. From +the first high sand-hill, covered with beach-grass and bushes to its +top, on the edge of the desert, we overlooked the shrubby hill and +swamp country which surrounds Provincetown on the north, and protects +it, in some measure, from the invading sand. Notwithstanding the +universal barrenness, and the contiguity of the desert, I never saw an +autumnal landscape so beautifully painted as this was. It was like the +richest rug imaginable spread over an uneven surface; no damask nor +velvet, nor Tyrian dye or stuffs, nor the work of any loom, could ever +match it. There was the incredibly bright red of the Huckleberry, and +the reddish brown of the Bayberry, mingled with the bright and living +green of small Pitch-Pines, and also the duller green of the Bayberry, +Boxberry, and Plum, the yellowish green of the Shrub-oaks, and the +various golden and yellow and fawn-colored tints of the Birch and Maple +and Aspen,—each making its own figure, and, in the midst, the few +yellow sand-slides on the sides of the hills looked like the white +floor seen through rents in the rug. Coming from the country as I did, +and many autumnal woods as I had seen, this was perhaps the most novel +and remarkable sight that I saw on the Cape. Probably the brightness of +the tints was enhanced by contrast with the sand which surrounded this +tract. This was a part of the furniture of Cape Cod. We had for days +walked up the long and bleak piazza which runs along her Atlantic side, +then over the sanded floor of her halls, and now we were being +introduced into her boudoir. The hundred white sails crowding round +Long Point into Provincetown Harbor, seen over the painted hills in +front, looked like toy ships upon a mantel-piece. + +The peculiarity of this autumnal landscape consisted in the lowness and +thickness of the shrubbery, no less than in the brightness of the +tints. It was like a thick stuff of worsted or a fleece, and looked as +if a giant could take it up by the hem, or rather the tasselled fringe +which trailed out on the sand, and shake it, though it needed not to be +shaken. But no doubt the dust would fly in that case, for not a little +has accumulated underneath it. Was it not such an autumnal landscape as +this which suggested our high-colored rugs and carpets? Hereafter when +I look on a richer rug than usual, and study its figures, I shall +think, there are the huckleberry hills, and there the denser swamps of +boxberry and blueberry: there the shrub-oak patches and the bayberries, +there the maples and the birches and the pines. What other dyes are to +be compared to these? They were warmer colors than I had associated +with the New England coast. + +After threading a swamp full of boxberry, and climbing several hills +covered with shrub-oaks, without a path, where shipwrecked men would be +in danger of perishing in the night, we came down upon the eastern +extremity of the four planks which run the whole length of Provincetown +street. This, which is the last town on the Cape, lies mainly in one +street along the curving beach fronting the southeast. The sand-hills, +covered with shrubbery and interposed with swamps and ponds, rose +immediately behind it in the form of a crescent, which is from half a +mile to a mile or more wide in the middle, and beyond these is the +desert, which is the greater part of its territory, stretching to the +sea on the east and west and north. The town is compactly built in the +narrow space, from ten to fifty rods deep, between the harbor and the +sand-hills, and contained at that time about twenty-six hundred +inhabitants. The houses, in which a more modern and pretending style +has at length prevailed over the fisherman’s hut, stand on the inner or +plank side of the street, and the fish and store houses, with the +picturesque-looking windmills of the Salt-works, on the water side. The +narrow portion of the beach between, forming the street, about eighteen +feet wide, the only one where one carriage could pass another, if there +was more than one carriage in the town, looked much “heavier” than any +portion of the beach or the desert which we had walked on, it being +above the reach of the highest tide, and the sand being kept loose by +the occasional passage of a traveller. We learned that the four planks +on which we were walking had been bought by the town’s share of the +Surplus Revenue, the disposition of which was a bone of contention +between the inhabitants, till they wisely resolved thus to put it under +foot. Yet some, it was said, were so provoked because they did not +receive their particular share in money, that they persisted in walking +in the sand a long time after the sidewalk was built. This is the only +instance which I happen to know in which the surplus revenue proved a +blessing to any town. A surplus revenue of dollars from the treasury to +stem the greater evil of a surplus revenue of sand from the ocean. They +expected to make a hard road by the time these planks were worn out. +Indeed, they have already done so since we were there, and have almost +forgotten their sandy baptism. + +As we passed along we observed the inhabitants engaged in curing either +fish or the coarse salt hay which they had brought home and spread on +the beach before their doors, looking as yellow as if they had raked it +out of the sea. The front-yard plots appeared like what indeed they +were, portions of the beach fenced in, with Beach-grass growing in +them, as if they were sometimes covered by the tide. You might still +pick up shells and pebbles there. There were a few trees among the +houses, especially silver abeles, willows, and balm-of-Gileads; and one +man showed me a young oak which he had transplanted from behind the +town, thinking it an apple-tree. But every man to his trade. Though he +had little woodcraft, he was not the less weatherwise, and gave us one +piece of information; viz., he had observed that when a thunder-cloud +came up with a flood-tide it did not rain. This was the most completely +maritime town that we were ever in. It was merely a good harbor, +surrounded by land dry, if not firm,—an inhabited beach, whereon +fishermen cured and stored their fish, without any back country. When +ashore the inhabitants still walk on planks. A few small patches have +been reclaimed from the swamps, containing commonly half a dozen square +rods only each. We saw one which was fenced with four lengths of rail; +also a fence made wholly of hogshead-staves stuck in the ground. These, +and such as these, were all the cultivated and cultivable land in +Provincetown. We were told that there were thirty or forty acres in +all, but we did not discover a quarter part so much, and that was well +dusted with sand, and looked as if the desert was claiming it. They are +now turning some of their swamps into Cranberry Meadows on quite an +extensive scale. + +[Illustration: A cranberry meadow] + +Yet far from being out of the way, Provincetown is directly in the way +of the navigator, and he is lucky who does not run afoul of it in the +dark. It is situated on one of the highways of commerce, and men from +all parts of the globe touch there in the course of a year. + +The mackerel fleet had nearly all got in before us, it being Saturday +night, excepting that division which had stood down towards Chatham in +the morning; and from a hill where we went to see the sun set in the +Bay we counted two hundred goodly looking schooners at anchor in the +harbor at various distances from the shore, and more were yet coming +round the Cape. As each came to anchor, it took in sail and swung round +in the wind, and lowered its boat. They belonged chiefly to Wellfleet, +Truro, and Cape Ann. This was that city of canvas which we had seen +hull down in the horizon. Near at hand, and under bare poles, they were +unexpectedly black-looking vessels, μέλαιναι νῆες. A fisherman told us +that there were fifteen hundred vessels in the mackerel fleet, and that +he had counted three hundred and fifty in Provincetown Harbor at one +time. Being obliged to anchor at a considerable distance from the shore +on account of the shallowness of the water, they made the impression of +a larger fleet than the vessels at the wharves of a large city. As they +had been manœuvring out there all day seemingly for our entertainment, +while we were walking north-westward along the Atlantic, so now we +found them flocking into Provincetown Harbor at night, just as we +arrived, as if to meet us, and exhibit themselves close at hand. +Standing by Race Point and Long Point with various speed, they reminded +me of fowls coming home to roost. + +These were genuine New England vessels. It is stated in the Journal of +Moses Prince, a brother of the annalist, under date of 1721, at which +time he visited Gloucester, that the first vessel of the class called +schooner was built at Gloucester about eight years before, by Andrew +Robinson; and late in the same century one Cotton Tufts gives us the +tradition with some particulars, which he learned on a visit to the +same place. According to the latter, Robinson having constructed a +vessel which he masted and rigged in a peculiar manner, on her going +off the stocks a bystander cried out, “_O, how she scoons!_” whereat +Robinson replied, “_A schooner let her be!_” “From which time,” says +Tufts, “vessels thus masted and rigged have gone by the name of +schooners; before which, vessels of this description were not known in +Europe.” (See Mass. Hist. Coll., Vol. IX., 1st Series, and Vol. I., 4th +Series.) Yet I can hardly believe this, for a schooner has always +seemed to me—the typical vessel. + +According to C. E. Potter of Manchester, New Hampshire, the very word +_schooner_ is of New England origin, being from the Indian _schoon_ or +_scoot_, meaning to rush, as Schoodic, from _scoot_ and _anke_, a place +where water rushes. N. B. Somebody of Gloucester was to read a paper on +this matter before a genealogical society, in Boston, March 3, 1859, +according to the _Boston Journal_, q. v. + +Nearly all who come out must walk on the four planks which I have +mentioned, so that you are pretty sure to meet all the inhabitants of +Provincetown who come out in the course of a day, provided you keep out +yourself. This evening the planks were crowded with mackerel fishers, +to whom we gave and from whom we took the wall, as we returned to our +hotel. This hotel was kept by a tailor, his shop on the one side of the +door, his hotel on the other, and his day seemed to be divided between +carving meat and carving broadcloth. + +The next morning, though it was still more cold and blustering than the +day before, we took to the Deserts again, for we spent our days wholly +out of doors, in the sun when there was any, and in the wind which +never failed. After threading the shrubby hill country at the southwest +end of the town, west of the Shank-Painter Swamp, whose expressive +name—for we understood it at first as a landsman naturally would—gave +it importance in our eyes, we crossed the sands to the shore south of +Race Point and three miles distant, and thence roamed round eastward +through the desert to where we had left the sea the evening before. We +travelled five or six miles after we got out there, on a curving line, +and might have gone nine or ten, over vast platters of pure sand, from +the midst of which we could not see a particle of vegetation, excepting +the distant thin fields of Beach-grass, which crowned and made the +ridges toward which the sand sloped upward on each side;—all the while +in the face of a cutting wind as cold as January; indeed, we +experienced no weather so cold as this for nearly two months afterward. +This desert extends from the extremity of the Cape, through +Provincetown into Truro, and many a time as we were traversing it we +were reminded of “Riley’s Narrative” of his captivity in the sands of +Arabia, notwithstanding the cold. Our eyes magnified the patches of +Beach-grass into cornfields in the horizon, and we probably exaggerated +the height of the ridges on account of the mirage. I was pleased to +learn afterward, from Kalm’s Travels in North America, that the +inhabitants of the Lower St. Lawrence call this grass (_Calamagrostis +arenaria_), and also Sea-lyme grass (_Elymus arenarius_), _seigle de +me_; and he adds, “I have been assured that these plants grow in great +plenty in Newfoundland, and on other North American shores; the places +covered with them looking, at a distance, like cornfields; which might +explain the passage in our northern accounts [he wrote in 1749] of the +excellent wine land [_Vinland det goda_, Translator], which mentions +that they had found whole fields of wheat growing wild.” + +The Beach-grass is “two to four feet high, of a seagreen color,” and it +is said to be widely diffused over the world. In the Hebrides it is +used for mats, pack-saddles, bags, hats, etc.; paper has been made of +it at Dorchester in this State, and cattle eat it when tender. It has +heads somewhat like rye, from six inches to a foot in length, and it is +propagated both by roots and seeds. To express its love for sand, some +botanists have called it _Psamma arenaria_, which is the Greek for +sand, qualified by the Latin for sandy,—or sandy sand. As it is blown +about by the wind, while it is held fast by its roots, it describes +myriad circles in the sand as accurately as if they were made by +compasses. + +It was the dreariest scenery imaginable. The only animals which we saw +on the sand at that time were spiders, which are to be found almost +everywhere whether on snow or ice-water or sand,—and a +venomous-looking, long, narrow worm, one of the myriapods, or +thousand-legs. We were surprised to see spider-holes in that flowing +sand with an edge as firm as that of a stoned well. + +In June this sand was scored with the tracks of turtles both large and +small, which had been out in the night, leading to and from the swamps. +I was told by a _terræ filius_ who has a “farm” on the edge of the +desert, and is familiar with the fame of Provincetown, that one man had +caught twenty-five snapping-turtles there the previous spring. His own +method of catching them was to put a toad on a mackerel-hook and cast +it into a pond, tying the line to a stump or stake on shore. Invariably +the turtle when hooked crawled up the line to the stump, and was found +waiting there by his captor, however long afterward. He also said that +minks, muskrats, foxes, coons, and wild mice were found there, but no +squirrels. We heard of sea-turtle as large as a barrel being found on +the beach and on East Harbor marsh, but whether they were native there, +or had been lost out of some vessel, did not appear. Perhaps they were +the Salt-water Terrapin, or else the Smooth Terrapin, found thus far +north. Many toads were met with where there was nothing but sand and +beach-grass. In Truro I had been surprised at the number of large +light-colored toads everywhere hopping over the dry and sandy fields, +their color corresponding to that of the sand. Snakes also are common +on these pure sand beaches, and I have never been so much troubled by +mosquitoes as in such localities. At the same season strawberries grew +there abundantly in the little hollows on the edge of the desert +standing amid the beach-grass in the sand, and the fruit of the +shadbush or Amelanchier, which the inhabitants call Josh-pears (some +think from juicy?), is very abundant on the hills. I fell in with an +obliging man who conducted me to the best locality for strawberries. He +said that he would not have shown me the place if he had not seen that +I was a stranger, and could not anticipate him another year; I +therefore feel bound in honor not to reveal it. When we came to a pond, +he being the native did the honors and carried me over on his +shoulders, like Sindbad. One good turn deserves another, and if he ever +comes our way I will do as much for him. + +In one place we saw numerous dead tops of trees projecting through the +otherwise uninterrupted desert, where, as we afterward learned, thirty +or forty years before a flourishing forest had stood, and now, as the +trees were laid bare from year to year, the inhabitants cut off their +tops for fuel. + +We saw nobody that day outside of the town; it was too wintry for such +as had seen the Back-side before, or for the greater number who never +desire to see it, to venture out; and we saw hardly a track to show +that any had ever crossed this desert. Yet I was told that some are +always out on the Back-side night and day in severe weather, looking +for wrecks, in order that they may get the job of discharging the +cargo, or the like,—and thus shipwrecked men are succored. But, +generally speaking, the inhabitants rarely visit these sands. One who +had lived in Provincetown thirty years told me that he had not been +through to the north side within that time. Sometimes the natives +themselves come near perishing by losing their way in snow-storms +behind the town. + +The wind was not a Sirocco or Simoon, such as we associate with the +desert, but a New England northeaster,—and we sought shelter in vain +under the sand-hills, for it blew all about them, rounding them into +cones, and was sure to find us out on whichever side we sat. From time +to time we lay down and drank at little pools in the sand, filled with +pure fresh water, all that was left, probably, of a pond or swamp. The +air was filled with dust like snow, and cutting sand which made the +face tingle, and we saw what it must be to face it when the weather was +drier, and, if possible, windier still,—to face a migrating sand-bar in +the air, which has picked up its duds and is off,—to be whipped with a +cat, not o’ nine-tails, but of a myriad of tails, and each one a sting +to it. A Mr. Whitman, a former minister of Wellfleet, used to write to +his inland friends that the blowing sand scratched the windows so that +he was obliged to have one new pane set every week, that he might see +out. + +On the edge of the shrubby woods the sand had the appearance of an +inundation which was overwhelming them, terminating in an abrupt bank +many feet higher than the surface on which they stood, and having +partially buried the outside trees. The moving sand-hills of England, +called Dunes or Downs, to which these have been likened, are either +formed of sand cast up by the sea, or of sand taken from the land +itself in the first place by the wind, and driven still farther inward. +It is here a tide of sand impelled by waves and wind, slowly flowing +from the sea toward the town. The northeast winds are said to be the +strongest, but the northwest to move most sand, because they are the +driest. On the shore of the Bay of Biscay many villages were formerly +destroyed in this way. Some of the ridges of beach-grass which we saw +were planted by government many years ago, to preserve the harbor of +Provincetown and the extremity of the Cape. I talked with some who had +been employed in the planting. In the “Description of the Eastern +Coast,” which I have already referred to, it is said: “Beach-grass +during the spring and summer grows about two feet and a half. If +surrounded by naked beach, the storms of autumn and winter heap up the +sand on all sides, and cause it to rise nearly to the top of the plant. +In the ensuing spring the grass mounts anew; is again covered with sand +in the winter; and thus a hill or ridge continues to ascend as long as +there is a sufficient base to support it, or till the circumscribing +sand, being also covered with beach-grass, will no longer yield to the +force of the winds.” Sand-hills formed in this way are sometimes one +hundred feet high and of every variety of form, like snow-drifts, or +Arab tents, and are continually shifting. The grass roots itself very +firmly. When I endeavored to pull it up, it usually broke off ten +inches or a foot below the surface, at what had been the surface the +year before, as appeared by the numerous offshoots there, it being a +straight, hard, round shoot, showing by its length how much the sand +had accumulated the last year; and sometimes the dead stubs of a +previous season were pulled up with it from still deeper in the sand, +with their own more decayed shoot attached,—so that the age of a +sand-hill, and its rate of increase for several years, is pretty +accurately recorded in this way. + +[Illustration: The sand dunes drifting in upon the trees] + +Old Gerard, the English herbalist, says, p. 1250: “I find mention in +Stowe’s Chronicle, in Anno 1555, of a certain pulse or pease, as they +term it, wherewith the poor people at that time, there being a great +dearth, were miraculously helped: he thus mentions it. In the month of +August (saith he), in Suffolke, at a place by the sea side all of hard +stone and pibble, called in those parts a shelf, lying between the +towns of Orford and Aldborough, where neither grew grass nor any earth +was ever seen; it chanced in this barren place suddenly to spring up +without any tillage or sowing, great abundance of peason, whereof the +poor gathered (as men judged) above one hundred quarters, yet remained +some ripe and some blossoming, as many as ever there were before: to +the which place rode the Bishop of Norwich and the Lord Willoughby, +with others in great number, who found nothing but hard, rocky stone +the space of three yards under the roots of these peason, which roots +were great and long, and very sweet.” He tells us also that Gesner +learned from Dr. Cajus that there were enough there to supply thousands +of men. He goes on to say that “they without doubt grew there many +years before, but were not observed till hunger made them take notice +of them, and quickened their invention, which commonly in our people is +very dull, especially in finding out food of this nature. My worshipful +friend Dr. Argent hath told me that many years ago he was in this +place, and caused his man to pull among the beach with his hands, and +follow the roots so long until he got some equal in length unto his +height, yet could come to no ends of them.” Gerard never saw them, and +is not certain what kind they were. + +In Dwight’s Travels in New England it is stated that the inhabitants of +Truro were formerly regularly warned under the authority of law in the +month of April yearly, to plant beachgrass, as elsewhere they are +warned to repair the highways. They dug up the grass in bunches, which +were afterward divided into several smaller ones, and set about three +feet apart, in rows, so arranged as to break joints and obstruct the +passage of the wind. It spread itself rapidly, the weight of the seeds +when ripe bending the heads of the grass, and so dropping directly by +its side and vegetating there. In this way, for instance, they built up +again that part of the Cape between Truro and Provincetown where the +sea broke over in the last century. They have now a public road near +there, made by laying sods, which were full of roots, bottom upward and +close together on the sand, double in the middle of the track, then +spreading brush evenly over the sand on each side for half a dozen +feet, planting beachgrass on the banks in regular rows, as above +described, and sticking a fence of brush against the hollows. + +The attention of the general government was first attracted to the +danger which threatened Cape Cod Harbor from the inroads of the sand, +about thirty years ago, and commissioners were at that time appointed +by Massachusetts, to examine the premises. They reported in June, 1825, +that, owing to “the trees and brush having been cut down, and the +beach-grass destroyed on the seaward side of the Cape, opposite the +Harbor,” the original surface of the ground had been broken up and +removed by the wind toward the Harbor,—during the previous fourteen +years,—over an extent of “one half a mile in breadth, and about four +and a half miles in length.”—“The space where a few years since were +some of the highest lands on the Cape, covered with trees and bushes,” +presenting “an extensive waste of undulating sand”;—and that, during +the previous twelve months, the sand “had approached the Harbor an +average distance of fifty rods, for an extent of four and a half +miles!” and unless some measures were adopted to check its progress, it +would in a few years destroy both the harbor and the town. They +therefore recommended that beach-grass be set out on a curving line +over a space ten rods wide and four and a half miles long, and that +cattle, horses, and sheep be prohibited from going abroad, and the +inhabitants from cutting the brush. + +I was told that about thirty thousand dollars in all had been +appropriated to this object, though it was complained that a great part +of this was spent foolishly, as the public money is wont to be. Some +say that while the government is planting beach-grass behind the town +for the protection of the harbor, the inhabitants are rolling the sand +into the harbor in wheelbarrows, in order to make house-lots. The +Patent-Office has recently imported the seed of this grass from +Holland, and distributed it over the country, but probably we have as +much as the Hollanders. + +Thus Cape Cod is anchored to the heavens, as it were, by a myriad +little cables of beach-grass, and, if they should fail, would become a +total wreck, and erelong go to the bottom. Formerly, the cows were +permitted to go at large, and they ate many strands of the cable by +which the Cape is moored, and well-nigh set it adrift, as the bull did +the boat which was moored with a grass rope; but now they are not +permitted to wander. + +A portion of Truro which has considerable taxable property on it has +lately been added to Provincetown, and I was told by a Truro man that +his townsmen talked of petitioning the legislature to set off the next +mile of their territory also to Provincetown, in order that she might +have her share of the lean as well as the fat, and take care of the +road through it; for its whole value is literally to hold the Cape +together, and even this it has not always done. But Provincetown +strenuously declines the gift. + +The wind blowed so hard from the northeast that, cold as it was, we +resolved to see the breakers on the Atlantic side, whose din we had +heard all the morning; so we kept on eastward through the Desert, till +we struck the shore again northeast of Provincetown, and exposed +ourselves to the full force of the piercing blast. There are extensive +shoals there over which the sea broke with great force. For half a mile +from the shore it was one mass of white breakers, which, with the wind, +made such a din that we could hardly hear ourselves speak. Of this part +of the coast it is said: “A northeast storm, the most violent and fatal +to seamen, as it is frequently accompanied with snow, blows directly on +the land: a strong current sets along the shore; add to which that +ships, during the operation of such a storm, endeavor to work +northward, that they may get into the bay. Should they be unable to +weather Race Point, the wind drives them on the shore, and a shipwreck +is inevitable. Accordingly, the strand is everywhere covered with the +fragments of vessels.” But since the Highland Light was erected, this +part of the coast is less dangerous, and it is said that more +shipwrecks occur south of that light, where they were scarcely known +before. + +[Illustration: The white breakers on the Atlantic side] + +This was the stormiest sea that we witnessed,—more _tumultuous_, my +companion affirmed, than the rapids of Niagara, and, of course, on a +far greater scale. It was the ocean in a gale, a clear, cold day, with +only one sail in sight, which labored much, as if it were anxiously +seeking a harbor. It was high tide when we reached the shore, and in +one place, for a considerable distance, each wave dashed up so high +that it was difficult to pass between it and the bank. Further south, +where the bank was higher, it would have been dangerous to attempt it. +A native of the Cape has told me that, many years ago, three boys, his +playmates, having gone to this beach in Wellfleet to visit a wreck, +when the sea receded ran down to the wreck, and when it came in ran +before it to the bank, but the sea following fast at their heels, +caused the bank to cave and bury them alive. + +It was the roaring sea, θάλασσα ἠχήεσσα,— + +ἀμφὶ δὲ τ’ ἄκραι +Ἠϊόνες βοόωσιν, ἐρευγομένης ἁλὸς ἔξω. + + +And the summits of the bank +Around resound, the sea being vomited forth. + + +As we stood looking on this scene we were gradually convinced that +fishing here and in a pond were not, in all respects, the same, and +that he who waits for fair weather and a calm sea may never see the +glancing skin of a mackerel, and get no nearer to a cod than the wooden +emblem in the State House. + +Having lingered on the shore till we were well-nigh chilled to death by +the wind, and were ready to take shelter in a Charity-house, we turned +our weather-beaten faces toward Provincetown and the Bay again, having +now more than doubled the Cape. + + [1] _I. e._ a vessel. + + + [2] The sea, which is arched over its sandy bottom like a heaven. + + + [3] Battle. + + + + +X +PROVINCETOWN + + +Early the next morning I walked into a fish-house near our hotel, where +three or four men were engaged in trundling out the pickled fish on +barrows, and spreading them to dry. They told me that a vessel had +lately come in from the Banks with forty-four thousand codfish. Timothy +Dwight says that, just before he arrived at Provincetown, “a schooner +come in from the Great Bank with fifty-six thousand fish, almost one +thousand five hundred quintals, taken in a single voyage; the main deck +being, on her return, eight inches under water in calm weather.” The +cod in this fish-house, just out of the pickle, lay packed several feet +deep, and three or four men stood on them in cowhide boots, pitching +them on to the barrows with an instrument which had a single iron +point. One young man, who chewed tobacco, spat on the fish repeatedly. +Well, sir, thought I, when that older man sees you he will speak to +you. But presently I saw the older man do the same thing. It reminded +me of the figs of Smyrna. “How long does it take to cure these fish?” I +asked. + +“Two good drying days, sir,” was the answer. + +I walked across the street again into the hotel to breakfast, and mine +host inquired if I would take “hashed fish or beans.” I took beans, +though they never were a favorite dish of mine. I found next summer +that this was still the only alternative proposed here, and the +landlord was still ringing the changes on these two words. In the +former dish there was a remarkable proportion of fish. As you travel +inland the potato predominates. It chanced that I did not taste fresh +fish of any kind on the Cape, and I was assured that they were not so +much used there as in the country. That is where they are cured, and +where, sometimes, travellers are cured of eating them. No fresh meat +was slaughtered in Provincetown, but the little that was used at the +public houses was brought from Boston by the steamer. + +[Illustration: In Provincetown harbor] + +A great many of the houses here were surrounded by fish-flakes close up +to the sills on all sides, with only a narrow passage two or three feet +wide, to the front door; so that instead of looking out into a flower +or grass plot, you looked on to so many square rods of cod turned wrong +side outwards. These parterres were said to be least like a +flower-garden in a good drying day in mid-summer. There were flakes of +every age and pattern, and some so rusty and overgrown with lichens +that they looked as if they might have served the founders of the +fishery here. Some had broken down under the weight of successive +harvests. The principal employment of the inhabitants at this time +seemed to be to trundle out their fish and spread them in the morning, +and bring them in at night. I saw how many a loafer who chanced to be +out early enough got a job at wheeling out the fish of his neighbor who +was anxious to improve the whole of a fair day. Now, then, I knew where +salt fish were caught. They were everywhere lying on their backs, their +collar-bones standing out like the lapels of a man-o’-war-man’s jacket, +and inviting all things to come and rest in their bosoms; and all +things, with a few exceptions, accepted the invitation. I think, by the +way, that if you should wrap a large salt fish round a small boy, he +would have a coat of such a fashion as I have seen many a one wear to +muster. Salt fish were stacked up on the wharves, looking like corded +wood, maple and yellow birch with the bark left on. I mistook them for +this at first, and such in one sense they were,—fuel to maintain our +vital fires,—an eastern wood which grew on the Grand Banks. Some were +stacked in the form of huge flower-pots, being laid in small circles +with the tails outwards, each circle successively larger than the +preceding until the pile was three or four feet high, when the circles +rapidly diminished, so as to form a conical roof. On the shores of New +Brunswick this is covered with birch-bark, and stones are placed upon +it, and being thus rendered impervious to the rain, it is left to +season before being packed for exportation. + +It is rumored that in the fall the cows here are sometimes fed on +cod’s-heads! The godlike part of the cod, which, like the human head, +is curiously and wonderfully made, forsooth has but little less brain +in it,—coming to such an end I to be craunched by cows I I felt my own +skull crack from sympathy. What if the heads of men were to be cut off +to feed the cows of a superior order of beings who inhabit the islands +in the ether? Away goes your fine brain, the house of thought and +instinct, to swell the cud of a ruminant animal!—However, an inhabitant +assured me that they did not make a practice of feeding cows on +cod’s-heads; the cows merely would eat them sometimes; but I might live +there all my days and never see it done. A cow wanting salt would also +sometimes lick out all the soft part of a cod on the flakes. This he +would have me believe was the foundation of this fish-story. + +It has been a constant traveller’s tale and perhaps slander, now for +thousands of years, the Latins and Greeks have repeated it, that this +or that nation feeds its cattle, or horses, or sheep, on fish, as may +be seen in Ælian and Pliny, but in the Journal of Nearchus, who was +Alexander’s admiral, and made a voyage from the Indus to the Euphrates +three hundred and twenty-six years before Christ, it is said that the +inhabitants of a portion of the intermediate coast, whom he called +Ichthyophagi or Fish-eaters, not only ate fishes raw and also dried and +pounded in a whale’s vertebra for a mortar and made into a paste, but +gave them to their cattle, there being no grass on the coast; and +several modern travellers—Braybosa, Niebuhr, and others—make the same +report. Therefore in balancing the evidence I am still in doubt about +the Provincetown cows. As for other domestic animals, Captain King in +his continuation of Captain Cook’s Journal in 1779, says of the dogs of +Kamtschatka, “Their food in the winter consists entirely of the heads, +entrail, and backbones of salmon, which are put aside and dried for +that purpose; and with this diet they are fed but sparingly.” (Cook’s +Journal, Vol. VII., p. 315.) + +As we are treating of fishy matters, let me insert what Pliny says, +that “the commanders of the fleets of Alexander the Great have related +that the Gedrosi, who dwell on the banks of the river Arabis, are in +the habit of making the doors of their houses with the jaw-bones of +fishes, and raftering the roofs with their bones.” Strabo tells the +same of the Ichthyophagi. “Hardouin remarks that the Basques of his day +were in the habit of fencing their gardens with the ribs of the whale, +which sometimes exceeded twenty feet in length; and Cuvier says that at +the present time the jaw-bone of the whale is used in Norway for the +purpose of making beams or posts for buildings.” (Bohn’s ed., trans, of +Pliny, Vol. II., p. 361.) Herodotus says the inhabitants on Lake +Prasias in Thrace (living on piles) “give fish for fodder to their +horses and beasts of burden.” + +Provincetown was apparently what is called a flourishing town. Some of +the inhabitants asked me if I did not think that they appeared to be +well off generally. I said that I did, and asked how many there were in +the almshouse. “O, only one or two, infirm or idiotic,” answered they. +The outward aspect of the houses and shops frequently suggested a +poverty which their interior comfort and even richness disproved. You +might meet a lady daintily dressed in the Sabbath morning, wading in +among the sandhills, from church, where there appeared no house fit to +receive her, yet no doubt the interior of the house answered to the +exterior of the lady. As for the interior of the inhabitants I am still +in the dark about it. I had a little intercourse with some whom I met +in the street, and was often agreeably disappointed by discovering the +intelligence of rough, and what would be considered unpromising +specimens. Nay, I ventured to call on one citizen the next summer, by +special invitation. I found him sitting in his front doorway, that +Sabbath evening, prepared for me to come in unto him; but unfortunately +for his reputation for keeping open house, there was stretched across +his gateway a circular cobweb of the largest kind and quite entire. +This looked so ominous that I actually turned aside and went in the +back way. + +This Monday morning was beautifully mild and calm, both on land and +water, promising us a smooth passage across the Bay, and the fishermen +feared that it would not be so good a drying day as the cold and windy +one which preceded it. There could hardly have been a greater contrast. +This was the first of the Indian summer days, though at a late hour in +the morning we found the wells in the sand behind the town still +covered with ice, which had formed in the night. What with wind and sun +my most prominent feature fairly cast its slough. But I assure you it +will take more than two good drying days to cure me of rambling. After +making an excursion among the hills in the neighborhood of the +Shank-Painter Swamp, and getting a little work done in its line, we +took our seat upon the highest sand-hill overlooking the town, in +mid-air, on a long plank stretched across between two hillocks of sand, +where some boys were endeavoring in vain to fly their kite; and there +we remained the rest of that forenoon looking out over the placid +harbor, and watching for the first appearance of the steamer from +Wellfleet, that we might be in readiness to go on board when we heard +the whistle off Long Point. + +We got what we could out of the boys in the meanwhile. Provincetown +boys are of course all sailors and have sailors’ eyes. When we were at +the Highland Light the last summer, seven or eight miles from +Provincetown Harbor, and wished to know one Sunday morning if the +_Olata_, a well-known yacht, had got in from Boston, so that we could +return in her, a Provincetown boy about ten years old, who chanced to +be at the table, remarked that she had. I asked him how he knew. “I +just saw her come in,” said he. When I expressed surprise that he could +distinguish her from other vessels so far, he said that there were not +so many of those two-topsail schooners about but that he could tell +her. Palfrey said, in his oration at Barnstable, the duck does not take +to the water with a surer instinct than the Barnstable boy. [He might +have said the Cape Cod boy as well.] He leaps from his leading-strings +into the shrouds, it is but a bound from the mother’s lap to the +masthead. He boxes the compass in his infant soliloquies. He can hand, +reef, and steer by the time he flies a kite. + +This was the very day one would have chosen to sit upon a hill +overlooking sea and land, and muse there. The mackerel fleet was +rapidly taking its departure, one schooner after another, and standing +round the Cape, like fowls leaving their roosts in the morning to +disperse themselves in distant fields. The turtle-like sheds of the +salt-works were crowded into every nook in the hills, immediately +behind the town, and their now idle windmills lined the shore. It was +worth the while to see by what coarse and simple chemistry this almost +necessary of life is obtained, with the sun for journeyman, and a +single apprentice to do the chores for a large establishment. It is a +sort of tropical labor, pursued too in the sunniest season; more +interesting than gold or diamond-washing, which, I fancy, it somewhat +resembles at a distance. In the production of the necessaries of life +Nature is ready enough to assist man. So at the potash works which I +have seen at Hull, where they burn the stems of the kelp and boil the +ashes. Verily, chemistry is not a splitting of hairs when you have got +half a dozen raw Irishmen in the laboratory. It is said, that owing to +the reflection of the sun from the sand-hills, and there being +absolutely no fresh water emptying into the harbor, the same number of +superficial feet yields more salt here than in any other part of the +county. A little rain is considered necessary to clear the air, and +make salt fast and good, for as paint does not dry, so water does not +evaporate in dog-day weather. But they were now, as elsewhere on the +Cape, breaking up their salt-works and selling them for lumber. + +From that elevation we could overlook the operations of the inhabitants +almost as completely as if the roofs had been taken off. They were +busily covering the wicker-worked flakes about their houses with salted +fish, and we now saw that the back yards were improved for this purpose +as much as the front; where one man’s fish ended another’s began. In +almost every yard we detected some little building from which these +treasures were being trundled forth and systematically spread, and we +saw that there was an art as well as a knack even in spreading fish, +and that a division of labor was profitably practised. One man was +withdrawing his fishes a few inches beyond the nose of his neighbor’s +cow which had stretched her neck over a paling to get at them. It +seemed a quite domestic employment, like drying clothes, and indeed in +some parts of the county the women take part in it. + +I noticed in several places on the Cape a sort of clothes-_flakes_. +They spread brush on the ground, and fence it round, and then lay their +clothes on it, to keep them from the sand. This is a Cape Cod +clothes-yard. + +The sand is the great enemy here. The tops of some of the hills were +enclosed and a board put up, forbidding all persons entering the +enclosure, lest their feet should disturb the sand, and set it +a-blowing or a-sliding. The inhabitants are obliged to get leave from +the authorities to cut wood behind the town for fish-flakes, +bean-poles, pea-brush, and the like, though, as we were told, they may +transplant trees from one part of the township to another without +leave. The sand drifts like snow, and sometimes the lower story of a +house is concealed by it, though it is kept off by a wall. The houses +were formerly built on piles, in order that the driving sand might pass +under them. We saw a few old ones here still standing on their piles, +but they were boarded up now, being protected by their younger +neighbors. There was a school-house, just under the hill on which we +sat, filled with sand up to the tops of the desks, and of course the +master and scholars had fled. Perhaps they had imprudently left the +windows open one day, or neglected to mend a broken pane. Yet in one +place was advertised “Fine sand for sale here,”—I could hardly believe +my eyes,—probably some of the street sifted,—a good instance of the +fact that a man confers a value on the most worthless thing by mixing +himself with it, according to which rule we must have conferred a value +on the whole back-side of Cape Cod;—but I thought that if they could +have advertised “Fat Soil,” or perhaps “Fine sand got rid of,” ay, and +“Shoes emptied here,” it would have been more alluring. As we looked +down on the town, I thought that I saw one man, who probably lived +beyond the extremity of the planking, steering and tacking for it in a +sort of snow-shoes, but I may have been mistaken. In some pictures of +Provincetown the persons of the inhabitants are not drawn below the +ankles, so much being supposed to be buried in the sand. Nevertheless, +natives of Provincetown assured me that they could walk in the middle +of the road without trouble even in slippers, for they had learned how +to put their feet down and lift them up without taking in any sand. One +man said that he should be surprised if he found half a dozen grains of +sand in his pumps at night, and stated, moreover, that the young ladies +had a dexterous way of emptying their shoes at each step, which it +would take a stranger a long time to learn. The tires of the +stage-wheels were about five inches wide; and the wagon-tires generally +on the Cape are an inch or two wider, as the sand is an inch or two +deeper than elsewhere. I saw a baby’s wagon with tires six inches wide +to keep it near the surface. The more tired the wheels, the less tired +the horses. Yet all the time that we were in Provincetown, which was +two days and nights, we saw only one horse and cart, and they were +conveying a coffin. They did not try such experiments there on common +occasions. The next summer I saw only the two-wheeled horse-cart which +conveyed me thirty rods into the harbor on my way to the steamer. Yet +we read that there were two horses and two yoke of oxen here in 1791, +and we were told that there were several more when we were there, +beside the stage team. In Barber’s Historical Collections, it is said, +“So rarely are wheel-carriages seen in the place that they are a matter +of some curiosity to the younger part of the community. A lad who +understood navigating the ocean much better than land travel, on seeing +a man driving a wagon in the street, expressed his surprise at his +being able to drive so straight without the assistance of a rudder.” +There was no rattle of carts, and there would have been no rattle if +there had been any carts. Some saddle-horses that passed the hotel in +the evening merely made the sand fly with a rustling sound like a +writer sanding his paper copiously, but there was no sound of their +tread. No doubt there are more horses and carts there at present. A +sleigh is never seen, or at least is a great novelty on the Cape, the +snow being either absorbed by the sand or blown into drifts. + +Nevertheless, the inhabitants of the Cape generally do not complain of +their “soil,” but will tell you that it is good enough for them to dry +their fish on. + +Notwithstanding all this sand, we counted three meeting-houses, and +four school-houses nearly as large, on this street, though some had a +tight board fence about them to preserve the plot within level and +hard. Similar fences, even within a foot of many of the houses, gave +the town a less cheerful and hospitable appearance than it would +otherwise have had. They told us that, on the whole, the sand had made +no progress for the last ten years, the cows being no longer permitted +to go at large, and every means being taken to stop the sandy tide. + +In 1727 Provincetown was “invested with peculiar privileges,” for its +encouragement. Once or twice it was nearly abandoned; but now lots on +the street fetch a high price, though titles to them were first +obtained by possession and improvement, and they are still transferred +by quitclaim deeds merely, the township being the property of the +State. But though lots were so valuable on the street, you might in +many places throw a stone over them to where a man could still obtain +land, or sand, by squatting on or improving it. + +[Illustration: Provincetown—A bit of the village from the wharf] + +Stones are very rare on the Cape. I saw a very few small stones used +for pavements and for bank walls, in one or two places in my walk, but +they are so scarce that, as I was informed, vessels have been forbidden +to take them from the beach for ballast, and therefore their crews used +to land at night and steal them. I did not hear of a rod of regular +stone wall below Orleans. Yet I saw one man underpinning a new house in +Eastham with some “rocks,” as he called them, which he said a neighbor +had collected with great pains in the course of years, and finally made +over to him. This I thought was a gift worthy of being recorded,—equal +to a transfer of California “rocks,” almost. Another man who was +assisting him, and who seemed to be a close observer of nature, hinted +to me the locality of a rock in that neighborhood which was “forty-two +paces in circumference and fifteen feet high,” for he saw that I was a +stranger, and, probably, would not carry it off. Yet I suspect that the +locality of the few large rocks on the forearm of the Cape is well +known to the inhabitants generally. I even met with one man who had got +a smattering of mineralogy, but where he picked it up I could not +guess. I thought that he would meet with some interesting geological +nuts for him to crack, if he should ever visit the mainland, Cohasset, +or Marblehead for instance. + +The well stones at the Highland Light were brought from Hingham, but +the wells and cellars of the Cape are generally built of brick, which +also are imported. The cellars, as well as the wells, are made in a +circular form, to prevent the sand from pressing in the wall. The +former are only from nine to twelve feet in diameter, and are said to +be very cheap, since a single tier of brick will suffice for a cellar +of even larger dimensions. Of course, if you live in the sand, you will +not require a large cellar to hold your roots. In Provincetown, when +formerly they suffered the sand to drive under their houses, +obliterating all rudiments of a cellar, they did not raise a vegetable +to put into one. One farmer in Wellfleet, who raised fifty bushels of +potatoes, showed me his cellar under a corner of his house, not more +than nine feet in diameter, looking like a cistern: but he had another +of the same size under his barn. + +You need dig only a few feet almost anywhere near the shore of the Cape +to find fresh water. But that which we tasted was invariably poor. +though the inhabitants called it good, as if they were comparing it +with salt water. In the account of Truro, it is said. “Wells dug near +the shore are dry at low water, or rather at what is called young +flood, but are replenished with the flowing of the tide,”—- the salt +water, which is lowest in the sand, apparently forcing the fresh up. +When you express your surprise at the greenness of a Provincetown +garden on the beach, in a dry season, they will sometimes tell you that +the tide forces the moisture up to them. It is an interesting fact that +low sand-bars in the midst of the ocean, perhaps even those which are +laid bare only at low tide, are reservoirs of fresh water at which the +thirsty mariner can supply himself. They appear, like huge sponges, to +hold the rain and dew which fall on them, and which, by capillary +attraction, are prevented from mingling with the surrounding brine. + +The Harbor of Provincetown—which, as well as the greater part of the +Bay, and a wide expanse of ocean, we overlooked from our perch—is +deservedly famous. It opens to the south, is free from rocks, and is +never frozen over. It is said that the only ice seen in it drifts in +sometimes from Barnstable or Plymouth. Dwight remarks that “The storms +which prevail on the American coast generally come from the east; and +there is no other harbor on a windward shore within two hundred miles.” +J. D. Graham, who has made a very minute and thorough survey of this +harbor and the adjacent waters, states that “its capacity, depth of +water, excellent anchorage, and the complete shelter it affords from +all winds, combine to render it one of the most valuable ship harbors +on our coast.” It is _the_ harbor of the Cape and of the fishermen of +Massachusetts generally. It was known to navigators several years at +least before the settlement of Plymouth. In Captain John Smith’s map of +New England, dated 1614, it bears the name of Milford Haven, and +Massachusetts Bay that of Stuard’s Bay. His Highness, Prince Charles, +changed the name of Cape Cod to Cape James; but even princes have not +always power to change a name for the worse, and as Cotton Mather said, +Cape Cod is “a name which I suppose it will never lose till shoals of +codfish be seen swimming on its highest hills.” + +Many an early voyager was unexpectedly caught by this hook, and found +himself embayed. On successive maps, Cape Cod appears sprinkled over +with French, Dutch, and English names, as it made part of New France, +New Holland, and New England. On one map Provincetown Harbor is called +“Fuic (bownet?) Bay,” Barnstable Bay “Staten Bay,” and the sea north of +it “Mare del Noort,” or the North Sea. On another, the extremity of the +Cape is called “Staten Hoeck,” or the States Hook. On another, by +Young, this has Noord Zee, Staten hoeck or Hit hoeck, but the copy at +Cambridge has no date; the whole Cape is called “Niew Hollant,” (after +Hudson); and on another still, the shore between Race Point and Wood +End appears to be called “Bevechier.” In Champlain’s admirable Map of +New France, including the oldest recognizable map of what is now the +New England coast with which I am acquainted, Cape Cod is called C. +Blan (i.e. Cape White), from the color of its sands, and Massachusetts +Bay is Baye Blanche. It was visited by De Monts and Champlain in 1605, +and the next year was further explored by Poitrincourt and Champlain. +The latter has given a particular account of these explorations in his +“Voyages,” together with separate charts and soundings of two of its +harbors,—_Malle Barre_, the Bad Bar (Nauset Harbor?), a name now +applied to what the French called _Cap Baturier_; and _Port Fortune_, +apparently Chatham Harbor. Both these names are copied on the map of +“Novi Belgii,” in Ogilvy’s America. He also describes minutely the +manners and customs of the savages, and represents by a plate the +savages surprising the French and killing five or six of them. The +French afterward killed some of the natives, and wished, by way of +revenge, to carry off some and make them grind in their hand-mill at +Port Royal. + +It is remarkable that there is not in English any adequate or correct +account of the French exploration of what is now the coast of New +England, between 1604 and 1608, though it is conceded that they then +made the first permanent European settlement on the continent of North +America north of St. Augustine. If the lions had been the painters it +would have been otherwise. This omission is probably to be accounted +for partly by the fact that the _early edition_ of Champlain’s +“Voyages” had not been consulted for this purpose. This contains by far +the most particular, and, I think, the most interesting chapter of what +we may call the Ante-Pilgrim history of New England, extending to one +hundred and sixty pages quarto; but appears to be unknown equally to +the historian and the orator on Plymouth Rock. Bancroft does not +mention Champlain at all among the authorities for De Monts’s +expedition, nor does he say that he ever visited the coast of New +England. Though he bore the title of pilot to De Monts, he was, in +_another sense_, the leading spirit, as well as the historian of the +expedition. Holmes, Hildreth, and Barry, and apparently all our +historians who mention Champlain, refer to the edition of 1632, in +which all the separate charts of our harbors, etc., and about one-half +the narrative, are omitted; for the author explored so many lands +afterward that he could afford to forget a part of what he had done. +Hildreth, speaking of De Monts’s expedition, says that “he looked into +the Penobscot [in 1605], which Pring had discovered two years before,” +saying nothing about Champlain’s extensive exploration of it for De +Monts in 1604 (Holmes says 1608, and refers to Purchas); also that he +followed in the track of Pring along the coast “to Cape Cod, which he +called Malabarre.” (Haliburton had made the same statement before him +in 1829. He called it Cap Blanc, and Malle Barre (the Bad Bar) was the +name given to a harbor on the east side of the Cape). Pring says +nothing about a river there. Belknap says that Weymouth discovered it +in 1605. Sir F. Gorges, says, in his narration (Maine Hist. Coll., Vol. +II., p. 19), 1658, that Pring in 1606 “made a perfect discovery of all +the rivers and harbors.” This is the most I can find. Bancroft makes +Champlain to have discovered more western rivers in Maine, not naming +the Penobscot; he, however, must have been the discoverer of distances +on this river (see Belknap, p. 147). Pring was absent from England only +about six months, and sailed by this part of Cape Cod (Malabarre) +because it yielded no sassafras, while the French, who probably had +not heard of Pring, were patiently for years exploring the coast in +search of a place of settlement, sounding and surveying its harbors. + +John Smith’s map, published in 1616, from observations in 1614-15, is +by many regarded as the oldest map of New England. It is the first that +was made after this country was called New England, for he so called +it; but in Champlain’s “Voyages,” edition 1613 (and Lescarbot, in 1612, +quotes a still earlier account of his voyage), there is a map of it +made when it was known to Christendom as New France, called _Carte +Géographique de la Nouvelle Franse faictte par le Sieur de Champlain +Saint Tongois Cappitaine ordinaire pour le roi en la Marine,—faict l’en +1612_, from his observations between 1604 and 1607; a map extending +from Labrador to Cape Cod and westward _to the Great Lakes_, and +crowded with information, geographical, ethnographical, zoölogical, and +botanical. He even gives the variation of the compass as observed by +himself at that date on many parts of the coast. This, taken together +with the many _separate charts_ of harbors and their soundings on a +large scale, which this volume contains,—among the rest. _Qui ni be +quy_ (Kennebec), _Chouacoit R._ (Saco R.), _Le Beau port, Port St. +Louis_ (near Cape Ann), and others on our coast,—but _which are not in +the edition of 1632_, makes this a completer map of the New England and +adjacent northern coast than was made for half a century afterward, +almost, we might be allowed to say, till another Frenchman, Des Barres, +made another for us, which only our late Coast Survey has superseded. +Most of the maps of this coast made for a long time after betray their +indebtedness to Champlain. He was a skilful navigator, a man of +science, and geographer to the King of France. He crossed the Atlantic +about twenty times, and made nothing of it; often in a small vessel in +which few would dare to go to sea today; and on one occasion making the +voyage from Tadoussac to St. Malo in eighteen days. He was in this +neighborhood, that is, between Annapolis, Nova Scotia, and Cape Cod, +observing the land and its inhabitants, and making a map of the coast, +from May, 1604, to September, 1607, _or about three and a half years_, +and he has described minutely his method of surveying harbors. By his +own account, a part of his map was engraved in 1604 (?). When +Pont-Gravé and others returned to France in 1606, he remained at Port +Royal with Poitrincourt, “in order,” says he, “by the aid of God, to +finish the chart of the coasts which I had begun”; and again in his +volume, printed before John Smith visited this part of America, he +says: “It seems to me that I have done my duty as far as I could, if I +have not forgotten to put in my said chart whatever I saw, and give a +particular knowledge to the public of what had never been described nor +discovered so particularly as I have done it, although some other may +have heretofore written of it; but it was a very small affair in +comparison with what we have discovered within the last ten years.” + +It is not generally remembered, if known, by the descendants of the +Pilgrims, that when their forefathers were spending their first +memorable winter in the New World, they had for neighbors a colony of +French no further off than Port Royal (Annapolis, Nova Scotia), three +hundred miles distant (Prince seems to make it about five hundred +miles); where, in spite of many vicissitudes, they had been for fifteen +years. They built a grist-mill there as early as 1606; also made bricks +and turpentine on a stream, Williamson says, in 1606. De Monts, who was +a Protestant, brought his minister with him, who came to blows with the +Catholic priest on the subject of religion. Though these founders of +Acadie endured no less than the Pilgrims, and about the same proportion +of them—thirty-five out of seventy-nine (Williamson’s Maine says +thirty-six out of seventy)—died the first winter at St. Croix, 1604-5, +sixteen years earlier, no orator, to my knowledge, has ever celebrated +their enterprise (Williamson’s History of Maine does considerably), +while the trials which their successors and descendants endured at the +hands of the English have furnished a theme for both the historian and +poet. (See Bancroft’s History and Longfellow’s Evangeline.) The remains +at their fort at St. Croix were discovered at the end of the last +century, and helped decide where the true St. Croix, our boundary, was. + +The very gravestones of those Frenchmen are probably older than the +oldest English monument in New England north of the Elizabeth Islands, +or perhaps anywhere in New England, for if there are any traces of +Gosnold’s storehouse left, his strong works are gone. Bancroft says, +advisedly, in 1834, “It requires a believing eye to discern the ruins +of the fort”; and that there were no ruins of a fort in 1837. Dr. +Charles T. Jackson tells me that, in the course of a geological survey +in 1827, he discovered a gravestone, a slab of trap rock, on Goat +Island, opposite Annapolis (Port Royal), in Nova Scotia, bearing a +Masonic coat-of-arms and the date 1606, which is fourteen years earlier +than the landing of the Pilgrims. This was left in the possession of +Judge Haliburton, of Nova Scotia. + +There were Jesuit priests in what has since been called New England, +converting the savages at Mount Desert, then St. Savior, in +1613,—having come over to Port Royal in 1611, though they were almost +immediately interrupted by the English, years before the Pilgrims came +hither to enjoy their own religion. This according to Champlain. +Charlevoix says the same; and after coming from France in 1611, went +west from Port Royal along the coast as far as the Kennebec in 1612, +and was often carried from Port Royal to Mount Desert. + +Indeed, the Englishman’s history of _New_ England commences only when +it ceases to be _New_ France. Though Cabot was the first to discover +the continent of North America, Champlain, in the edition of his +“Voyages” printed in 1632, after the English had for a season got +possession of Quebec and Port Royal, complains with no little justice: +“The common consent of all Europe is to represent New France as +extending at least to the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth degrees of +latitude, as appears by the maps of the world printed in Spain, Italy, +Holland, Flanders, Germany, and England, until they possessed +themselves of the coasts of New France, where are Acadie, the Etchemins +(Maine and New Brunswick), the Almouchicois (Massachusetts?), and the +Great River St. Lawrence, where they have imposed, according to their +fancy, such names as New England, Scotland, and others; but it is not +easy to efface the memory of a thing which is known to all +Christendom.” + +That Cabot merely landed on the uninhabitable shore of Labrador, gave +the English no just title to New England, or to the United States, +generally, any more than to Patagonia. His careful biographer (Biddle) +is not certain in what voyage he ran down the coast of the United +States as is reported, and no one tells us what he saw. Miller, in the +New York Hist. Coll., Vol. I., p. 28, says he does not appear to have +landed anywhere. Contrast with this Verrazzani’s tarrying fifteen days +at one place on the New England coast, and making frequent excursions +into the interior thence. It chances that the latter’s letter to +Francis I., in 1524, contains “the earliest original account extant of +the Atlantic coast of the United States”; and even from that time the +northern part of it began to be called _La Terra Francese_, or French +Land. A part of it was called New Holland before it was called New +England. The English were very backward to explore and settle the +continent which they had stumbled upon. The French preceded them both +in their attempts to colonize the continent of North America (Carolina +and Florida, 1562-4), and in their first permanent settlement (Port +Royal, 1605); and the right of possession, naturally enough, was the +one which England mainly respected and recognized in the case of Spain, +of Portugal, and also of France, from the time of Henry VII. + +The explorations of the French gave to the world the first valuable +maps of these coasts. Denys of Honfleur made a map of the Gulf of St. +Lawrence in 1506. No sooner had Cartier explored the St. Lawrence, in +1535, than there began to be published by his countrymen remarkably +accurate charts of that river as far up as Montreal. It is almost all +of the continent north of Florida that you recognize on charts for more +than a generation afterward,—though Verrazzani’s rude plot (made under +French auspices) was regarded by Hackluyt, more than fifty years after +his voyage (in 1524), as the most accurate representation of our coast. +The French trail is distinct. They went measuring and sounding, and +when they got home had something to show for their voyages and +explorations. There was no danger of their charts being lost, as +Cabot’s have been. + +The most distinguished navigators of that day were Italians, or of +Italian descent, and Portuguese. The French and Spaniards, though less +advanced in the science of navigation than the former, possessed more +imagination and spirit of adventure than the English, and were better +fitted to be the explorers of a new continent even as late as 1751. + +This spirit it was which so early carried the French to the Great Lakes +and the Mississippi on the north, and the Spaniard to the same river on +the south. It was long before our frontiers reached their settlements +in the west, and a _voyageur_ or _coureur de bois_ is still our +conductor there. Prairie is a French word, as Sierra is a Spanish one. +Augustine in Florida, and Santa Fé in New Mexico [1582], both built by +the Spaniards, are considered the oldest towns in the United States. +Within the memory of the oldest man, the Anglo-Americans were confined +between the Appalachian Mountains and the sea, “a space not two hundred +miles broad,” while the Mississippi was by treaty the eastern boundary +of New France. (See the pamphlet on settling the Ohio, London, 1763, +bound up with the travels of Sir John Bartram.) So far as inland +discovery was concerned, the adventurous spirit of the English was that +of sailors who land but for a day, and their enterprise the enterprise +of traders. Cabot spoke like an Englishman, as he was, if he said, as +one reports, in reference to the discovery of the American Continent, +when he found it running toward the north, that it was a great +disappointment to him, being in his way to India; but we would rather +add to than detract from the fame of so great a discoverer. + +Samuel Penhallow, in his history (Boston, 1726), p. 51, speaking of +“Port Royal and Nova Scotia,” says of the last that its “first seizure +was by Sir Sebastian Cobbet for the crown of Great Britain, in the +reign of King Henry VII.; but lay dormant till the year 1621,” when Sir +William Alexander got a patent of it, and possessed it some years; and +afterward Sir David Kirk was proprietor of it, but erelong, “to the +surprise of all thinking men, it was given up unto the French.” + +Even as late as 1633 we find Winthrop, the first Governor of the +Massachusetts Colony, who was not the most likely to be misinformed, +who, moreover, has the _fame_, at least, of having discovered Wachusett +Mountain (discerned it forty miles inland), talking about the “Great +Lake” and the “hideous swamps about it,” near which the Connecticut and +the “Potomack” took their rise; and among the memorable events of the +year 1642 he chronicles Darby Field, an Irishman’s expedition to the +“White hill,” from whose top he saw eastward what he “judged to be the +Gulf of Canada,” and westward what he “judged to be the great lake +which Canada River comes out of,” and where he found much “Muscovy +glass,” and “could rive out pieces of forty feet long and seven or +eight broad.” While the very inhabitants of New England were thus +fabling about the country a hundred miles inland, which was a _terra +incognita_ to them,—or rather many years before the earliest date +referred to,—Champlain, the _first Governor of Canada_, not to mention +the inland discoveries of Cartier,[1] Roberval, and others, of the +preceding century, and his own earlier voyage, had already gone to war +against the Iroquois in their forest forts, and penetrated to the Great +Lakes and wintered there, before a Pilgrim had heard of New England. + +In Champlain’s “Voyages,” printed in 1613, there is a plate +representing a fight in which he aided the Canada Indians against the +Iroquois, near the south end of Lake Champlain, in July, 1609, eleven +years before the settlement of Plymouth. Bancroft says he joined the +Algonquins in an expedition against the Iroquois, or Five Nations, in +the northwest of New York. This is that “Great Lake,” which the +English, hearing some rumor of from the French, long after, locate in +an “Imaginary Province called Laconia, and spent several years about +1630 in the vain attempt to discover.” (Sir Ferdinand Gorges, in Maine +Hist. Coll., Vol. II., p. 68.) Thomas Morton has a chapter on this +“Great Lake.” In the edition of Champlain’s map dated 1632, the Falls +of Niagara appear; and in a great lake northwest of _Mer Douce_ (Lake +Huron) there is an island represented, over which is written, “_Isle ou +il y a une mine de cuivre_,”—“Island where there is a mine of copper.” +This will do for an offset to our Governor’s “Muscovy Glass.” Of all +these adventures and discoveries we have a minute and faithful account, +giving facts and dates as well as charts and soundings, all scientific +and Frenchman-like, with scarcely one fable or traveller’s story. + +Probably Cape Cod was visited by Europeans long before the seventeenth +century. It may be that Cabot himself beheld it. Verrazzani, in 1524, +according to his own account, spent fifteen days on our coast, in +latitude 41° 40 minutes (some suppose in the harbor of Newport), and +often went five or six leagues into the interior there, and he says +that he sailed thence at once one hundred and fifty leagues +northeasterly, _always in sight of the coast_. There is a chart in +Hackluyt’s “Divers Voyages,” made according to Verrazzani’s plot, which +last is praised for its accuracy by Hackluyt, but I cannot distinguish +Cape Cod on it, unless it is the “C. Arenas,” which is in the right +latitude, though ten degrees west of “Claudia,” which is thought to be +Block Island. + +The “Biographic Universelle” informs us that “An ancient manuscript +chart drawn in 1529 by Diego Ribeiro, a Spanish cosmographer, has +preserved the memory of the voyage of Gomez [a Portuguese sent out by +Charles the Fifth]. One reads in it under (_au dessous_) the place +occupied by the States of New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, +_Terre d’Etienne Gomez, qu’il découvrit en_ 1525 (Land of Etienne +Gomez, which he discovered in 1525).” This chart, with a memoir, was +published at Weimar in the last century. + +Jean Alphonse, Roberval’s pilot in Canada in 1642, one of the most +skilful navigators of his time, and who has given remarkably minute and +accurate direction for sailing up the St. Lawrence, showing that he +knows what he is talking about, says in his “_Routier_” (it is in +Hackluyt), “I have been at a bay as far as the forty-second degree, +between Norimbegue [the Penobscot?] and Florida, but I have not +explored the bottom of it, and I do not know whether it passes from one +land to the other,” _i.e._ to Asia. (“ J’ai été à une Baye jusques par +les 42e degres entre la Norimbegue et la Floride; mais je n’en ai pas +cherché le fond, et ne sçais pas si elle passe d’une terre à l’autre.”) +This may refer to Massachusetts Bay, if not possibly to the western +inclination of the coast a little farther south. When he says, “I have +no doubt that the Norimbegue enters into the river of Canada,” he is +perhaps so interpreting some account which the Indians had given +respecting the route from the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic by the St. +John, or Penobscot, or possibly even the Hudson River. + +We hear rumors of this country of “Norumbega” and its great city from +many quarters. In a discourse by a great French sea-captain in +Ramusio’s third volume (1556-65), this is said to be the name given to +the land by its inhabitants, and Verrazzani is called the discoverer of +it; another in 1607 makes the natives call it, or the river, Aguncia. +It is represented as an island on an accompanying chart. It is +frequently spoken of by old writers as a country of indefinite extent, +between Canada and Florida, and it appears as a large island with Cape +Breton at its eastern extremity, on the map made according to +Verrazzani’s plot in Hackluyt’s “Divers Voyages.” These maps and rumors +may have been the origin of the notion, common among the early +settlers, that New England was an island. The country and city of +Norumbega appear about where Maine now is on a map in Ortelius +(“Theatrum Orbis Terrarum,” Antwerp, 1570), and the “R. Grande” is +drawn where the Penobscot or St. John might be. + +In 1604, Champlain being sent by the Sieur de Monts to explore the +coast of Norumbegue, sailed up the Penobscot twenty-two or twenty-three +leagues from “Isle Haute,” or till he was stopped by the falls. He +says: “I think that this river is that which many pilots and historians +call Norumbegue, and which the greater part have described as great and +spacious, with numerous islands; and its entrance in the forty-third or +forty-third and one half or, according to others, the forty-fourth +degree of latitude, more or less.” He is convinced that “the greater +part” of those who speak of a great city there have never seen it, but +repeat a mere rumor, but he thinks that some have seen the mouth of the +river since it answers to their description. + +Under date of 1607 Champlain writes: “Three or four leagues north of +the Cap de Poitrincourt [near the head of the Bay of Fundy in Nova +Scotia] we found a cross, which was very old, covered with moss and +almost all decayed, which was an evident sign that there had formerly +been Christians there.” + +Also the following passage from Lescarbot will show how much the +neighboring coasts were frequented by Europeans in the sixteenth +century. Speaking of his return from Port Royal to France in 1607, he +says: “At last, within four leagues of Campseau [the Gut of Canso], we +arrived at a harbor [in Nova Scotia], where a worthy old gentleman from +St. John de Lus, named Captain Savale, was fishing, who received us +with the utmost courtesy. And as this harbor, which is small, but very +good, has no name, I have given it on my geographical chart the name of +Savalet. [It is on Champlain’s map also.] This worthy man told us that +this voyage was the forty-second which he had made to those parts, and +yet the Newfoundlanders [_Terre neuviers_] make only one a year. He was +wonderfully content with his fishery, and informed us that he made +daily fifty crowns’ worth of cod, and that his voyage would be worth +ten thousand francs. He had sixteen men in his employ; and his vessel +was of eighty tons, which could carry a hundred thousand dry cod.” +(Histoire de la Nouvelle France, 1612.) They dried their fish on the +rocks on shore. + +The “Isola della Réna” (Sable Island?) appears on the chart of “Nuova +Francia” and Norumbega, accompanying the “Discourse” above referred to +in Ramusio’s third volume, edition 1556-65. Champlain speaks of there +being at the Isle of Sable, in 1604, “grass pastured by oxen (_bœufs_) +and cows which the Portuguese carried there more than sixty years ago,” +_i.e._ sixty years before 1613; in a later edition he says, which came +out of a Spanish vessel which was lost in endeavoring to settle on the +Isle of Sable; and he states that De la Roche’s men, who were left on +this island seven years from 1598, lived on the flesh of these cattle +which they found “_en quantie)_,” and built houses out of the wrecks of +vessels which came to the island (“perhaps Gilbert’s”), there being no +wood or stone. Lescarbot says that they lived “on fish and the milk of +cows left there about eighty years before by Baron de Leri and Saint +Just.” Charlevoix says they ate up the cattle and then lived on fish. +Haliburton speaks of cattle left there as a rumor. De Leri and Saint +Just had suggested plans of colonization on the Isle of Sable as early +as 1515 (1508?) according to Bancroft, referring to Charlevoix. These +are but a few of the instances which I might quote. + +Cape Cod is commonly said to have been discovered in 1602. We will +consider at length under what circumstances, and with what observation +and expectations, the first Englishmen whom history clearly discerns +approached the coast of New England. According to the accounts of +Archer and Brereton (both of whom accompanied Gosnold), on the 26th of +March, 1602, old style, Captain Bartholomew Gosnold set sail from +Falmouth, England, for the North part of Virginia, in a small bark +called the _Concord_, they being in all, says one account, “thirty-two +persons, whereof eight mariners and sailors, twelve purposing upon the +discovery to return with the ship for England, the rest remain there +for population.” This is regarded as “the first attempt of the English +to make a settlement within the limits of New England.” Pursuing a new +and a shorter course than the usual one by the Canaries, “the 14th of +April following” they had sight of Saint Mary’s, an island of the +Azores. As their sailors were few and “none of the best” (I use their +own phrases), and they were “going upon an unknown coast,” they were +not “overbold to stand in with the shore but in open weather”; so they +made their first discovery of land with the lead. The 23d of April the +ocean appeared yellow, but on taking up some of the water in a bucket, +“it altered not either in color or taste from the sea azure.” The 7th +of May they saw divers birds whose names they knew, and many others in +their “English tongue of no name.” The 8th of May “the water changed to +a yellowish green, where at seventy fathoms” they “had ground.” The +9th, they had upon their lead “many glittering stones,”—“which might +promise some mineral matter in the bottom.” The 10th, they were over a +bank which they thought to be near the western end of St. John’s +Island, and saw schools of fish. The 12th, they say, “continually +passed fleeting by us sea-oare, which seemed to have their movable +course towards the northeast.” On the 13th, they observed “great beds +of weeds, much wood, and divers things else floating by,” and “had +smelling of the shore much as from the southern Cape and Andalusia in +Spain.” On Friday, the 14th, early in the morning they descried land on +the north, in the latitude of forty-three degrees, apparently some part +of the coast of Maine. Williamson (History of Maine) says it certainly +could not have been south of the central Isle of Shoals. Belknap +inclines to think it the south side of Cape Ann. Standing fair along by +the shore, about twelve o’clock the same day, they came to anchor and +were visited by eight savages, who came off to them “in a Biscay +shallop, with sail and oars,”—“an iron grapple, and a kettle of +copper.” These they at first mistook for “Christians distressed.” One +of them was “apparelled with a waistcoat and breeches of black serge, +made after our sea-fashion, hoes and shoes on his feet; all the rest +(saving one that had a pair of breeches of blue cloth) were naked.” +They appeared to have had dealings with “some Basques of St. John de +Luz, and to understand much more than we,” say the English, “for want +of language, could comprehend.” But they soon “set sail westward, +leaving them and their coast.” (This was a remarkable discovery for +discoverers.) + +“The 15th day,” writes Gabriel Archer, “we had again sight of the land, +which made ahead, being as we thought an island, by reason of a large +sound that appeared westward between it and the main, for coming to the +west end thereof, we did perceive a large opening, we called it Shoal +Hope. Near this cape we came to anchor in fifteen fathoms, where we +took great store of cod-fish, for which we altered the name and called +it Cape Cod. Here we saw skulls of herring, mackerel, and other small +fish, in great abundance. This is a low sandy shoal, but without +danger; also we came to anchor again in sixteen fathoms, fair by the +land in the latitude of forty-two degrees. This Cape is well near a +mile broad, and lieth northeast by east. The captain went here ashore, +and found the ground to be full of peas, strawberries, whortleberries, +etc., as then unripe, the sand also by the shore somewhat deep; the +firewood there by us taken in was of cypress, birch, witch-hazel, and +beach. A young Indian came here to the captain, armed with his bow and +arrows, and had certain plates of copper hanging at his ears; he showed +a willingness to help us in our occasions.” + +“The 16th we trended the coast southerly, which was all champaign and +full of grass, but the islands somewhat woody.” + +Or, according to the account of John Brereton, “riding here,” that is, +where they first communicated with the natives, “in no very good +harbor, and withal doubting the weather, about three of the clock the +same day in the afternoon we weighed, and standing southerly off into +sea the rest of that day and the night following, with a fresh gale of +wind, in the morning we found ourselves embayed with a mighty headland; +but coming to an anchor about nine of the clock the same day, within a +league of the shore, we hoisted out the one half of our shallop, and +Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, myself and three others, went ashore, +being a white sandy and very bold shore; and marching all that +afternoon with our muskets on our necks, on the highest hills which we +saw (the weather very hot), at length we perceived this headland to be +parcel of the main, and sundry islands lying almost round about it; so +returning towards evening to our shallop (for by that time the other +part was brought ashore and set together), we espied an Indian, a young +man of proper stature, and of a pleasing countenance, and after some +familiarity with him, we left him at the sea side, and returned to our +ship, where in five or six hours’ absence we had pestered our ship so +with codfish, that we threw numbers of them overboard again; and surely +I am persuaded that in the months of March, April, and May, there is +upon this coast better fishing, and in as great plenty, as in +Newfoundland; for the skulls of mackerel, herrings, cod, and other +fish, that we daily saw as we went and came from the shore, were +wonderful,” etc. + +“From this place we sailed round about this headland, almost all the +points of the compass, the shore very bold; but as no coast is free +from dangers, so I am persuaded this is as free as any. The land +somewhat low, full of goodly woods, but in some places plain.” + +It is not quite clear on which side of the Cape they landed. If it was +inside, as would appear from Brereton’s words, “From this place we +sailed round about this headland almost all the points of the compass,” +it must have been on the western shore either of Truro or Wellfleet. To +one sailing south into Barnstable Bay along the Cape, the only “white, +sandy, and very bold shore” that appears is in these towns, though the +bank is not so high there as on the eastern side. At a distance of four +or five miles the sandy cliffs there look like a long fort of yellow +sandstone, they are so level and regular, especially in Wellfleet,—the +fort of the land defending itself against the encroachments of the +Ocean. They are streaked here and there with a reddish sand as if +painted. Farther south the shore is more flat, and less _obviously_ and +abruptly sandy, and a little tinge of green here and there in the +marshes appears to the sailor like a rare and precious emerald. But in +the Journal of Pring’s Voyage the next year (and Salterne, who was with +Pring, had accompanied Gosnold) it is said, “Departing hence [_i.e._ +from Savage Rocks] we bore unto that great gulf which Captain Gosnold +overshot the year before.”[2] + +So they sailed round the Cape, calling the southeasterly extremity +“Point Cave,” till they came to an island which they named Martha’s +Vineyard (now called No Man’s Land), and another on which they dwelt +awhile, which they named Elizabeth’s Island, in honor of the Queen, one +of the group since so called, now known by its Indian name Cuttyhunk. +There they built a small storehouse, the first house built by the +English in New England, whose cellar could recently still be seen, made +partly of stones taken from the beach. Bancroft says (edition of 1837), +the ruins of the fort can no longer be discerned. They who were to have +remained becoming discontented, all together set sail for England with +a load of sassafras and other commodities, on the 18th of June +following. + +The next year came Martin Pring, looking for sassafras, and thereafter +they began to come thick and fast, until long after sassafras had lost +its reputation. + +These are the oldest accounts which we have of Cape Cod, unless, +perchance, Cape Cod is, as some suppose, the same with that +“Kial-ar-nes” or Keel-Cape, on which, according to old Icelandic +manuscripts, Thorwald, son of Eric the Red, after sailing many days +southwest from Greenland, broke his keel in the year 1004; and where, +according to another, in some respects less trustworthy manuscript, +Thor-finn Karlsefue (“that is, one who promises or is destined to be an +able or great man”; he is said to have had a son born in New England, +from whom Thorwaldsen the sculptor was descended), sailing past, in the +year 1007, with his wife Gudrida, Snorre Thorbrandson, Biarne +Grinolfson, and Thorhall Garnlason, distinguished Norsemen, in three +ships containing “one hundred and sixty men and all sorts of live +stock” (probably the first Norway rats among the rest), having the land +“on the right side” of them, “roved ashore,” and found “_ör-æfi_ +(trackless deserts),” and “_Strand-ir láng-ar ok sand-ar_ (long narrow +beaches and sand-hills),” and “called the shores _Furdustrand-ir_ +(Wonder-Strands), because the sailing by them seemed long.” + +According to the Icelandic manuscripts, _Thorwald_ was the first, +then,—unless possibly one Biarne Heriulfson (_i.e._ son of Heriulf) who +had been seized with a great desire to travel, sailing from Iceland to +Greenland in the year 986 to join his father who had migrated thither, +for he had resolved, says the manuscript, “to spend the following +winter, like all the preceding ones, with his father,”—being driven far +to the southwest by a storm, when it cleared up saw the low land of +Cape Cod looming faintly in the distance; but this not answering to the +description of Greenland, he put his vessel about, and, sailing +northward along the coast, at length reached Greenland and his father. +At any rate, he may put forth a strong claim to be regarded as the +discoverer of the American continent. + +These Northmen were a hardy race, whose younger sons inherited the +ocean, and traversed it without chart or compass, and they are said to +have been “the first who learned the art of sailing on a wind.” +Moreover, they had a habit of casting their door-posts overboard and +settling wherever they went ashore. But as Biarne, and Thorwald, and +Thorfinn have not mentioned the latitude and longitude distinctly +enough, though we have great respect for them as skilful and +adventurous navigators, we must for the present remain in doubt as to +what capes they did see. We think that they were considerably further +north. + +If time and space permitted, I could present the claims of other +several worthy persons. Lescarbot, in 1609, asserts that the French +sailors had been accustomed to frequent the Newfoundland Banks from +time immemorial, “for the codfish with which they feed almost all +Europe and supply all sea-going vessels,” and accordingly “the language +of the nearest lands is half Basque”; and he quotes Postel, a learned +but extravagant French author, born in 1510, only six years after the +Basques, Bretons, and Normans are said to have discovered the Grand +Bank and adjacent islands, as saying, in his _Charte Géographique_, +which we have not seen: “Terra haec ob lucrosissimam piscationis +utilitatem summa litterarum memoria a Gallis adiri solita, et ante +mille sexcentos annos frequentari solita est; sed eo quod sit urbibus +inculta et vasta, spreta est.” “This land, on account of its very +lucrative fishery, was accustomed to be visited by the Gauls from the +very dawn of history, and more than sixteen hundred years ago was +accustomed to be frequented; but because it was unadorned with cities, +and waste, it was despised.” + +It is the old story. Bob Smith discovered the mine, but I discovered it +to the world. And now Bob Smith is putting in his claim. + +But let us not laugh at Postel and his visions. He was perhaps better +posted up than we; and if he does seem to draw the long bow, it may be +because he had a long way to shoot,—quite across the Atlantic, If +America was found and lost again once, as most of us believe, then why +not twice? especially as there were likely to be so few records of an +earlier discovery. Consider what stuff history is made of,—that for the +most part it is merely a story agreed on by posterity. Who will tell us +even how many Russians were engaged in the battle of the Chernaya, the +other day? Yet no doubt, Mr. Scriblerus, the historian, will fix on a +definite number for the schoolboys to commit to their excellent +memories. What, then, of the number of Persians at Salamis? The +historian whom I read knew as much about the position of the parties +and their tactics in the last-mentioned affair, as they who describe a +recent battle in an article for the press now-a-days, before the +particulars have arrived. I believe that, if I were to live the life of +mankind over again myself (which I would not be hired to do), with the +Universal History in my hands, I should not be able to tell what was +what. + +Earlier than the date Postel refers to, at any rate. Cape Cod lay in +utter darkness to the civilized world, though even then the sun rose +from eastward out of the sea every day, and, rolling over the Cape, +went down westward into the Bay. It was even then Cape and Bay,—ay, the +Cape of _Codfish_, and the Bay of the _Massachusetts_, perchance. + +Quite recently, on the 11th of November, 1620, old style, as is well +known, the Pilgrims in the _Mayflower_ came to anchor in Cape Cod +harbor. They had loosed from Plymouth, England, the 6th of September, +and, in the words of “Mourts’ Relation,” “after many difficulties in +boisterous storms, at length, by God’s providence, upon the 9th of +November, we espied land, which we deemed to be Cape Cod, and so +afterward it proved. Upon the 11th of November we came to anchor in the +bay, which is a good harbor and pleasant bay, circled round except in +the entrance, which is about four miles over from land to land, +compassed about to the very sea with oaks, pines, juniper, sassafras, +and other sweet wood. It is a harbor wherein a thousand sail of ships +may safely ride. There we relieved ourselves with wood and water, and +refreshed our people, while our shallop was fitted to coast the bay, to +search for an habitation.” There we put up at Fuller’s Hotel, passing +by the Pilgrim House as too high for us (we learned afterward that we +need not have been so particular), and we refreshed ourselves with +hashed fish and beans, beside taking in a supply of liquids (which were +not intoxicating), while our legs were refitted to coast the back-side. +Further say the Pilgrims: “We could not come near the shore by three +quarters of an English mile, because of shallow water; which was a +great prejudice to us; for our people going on shore were forced to +wade a bow-shot or two in going aland, which caused many to get colds +and coughs; for it was many times freezing cold weather.” They +afterwards say: “It brought much weakness amongst us”; and no doubt it +led to the death of some at Plymouth. + +The harbor of Provincetown is very shallow near the shore, especially +about the head, where the Pilgrims landed. When I left this place the +next summer, the steamer could not get up to the wharf, but we were +carried out to a large boat in a cart as much as thirty rods in shallow +water, while a troop of little boys kept us company, wading around, and +thence we pulled to the steamer by a rope. The harbor being thus +shallow and sandy about the shore, coasters are accustomed to run in +here to paint their vessels, which are left high and dry when the tide +goes down. + +It chanced that the Sunday morning that we were there, I had joined a +party of men who were smoking and lolling over a pile of boards on one +of the wharves (_nihil humanum a me, etc_.), when our landlord, who was +a sort of tithing-man, went off to stop some sailors who were engaged +in painting their vessel. Our party was recruited from time to time by +other citizens, who came rubbing their eyes as if they had just got out +of bed; and one old man remarked to me that it was the custom there to +lie abed very late on Sunday, it being a day of rest. I remarked that, +as I thought, they might as well let the men paint, for all us. It was +not noisy work, and would not disturb our devotions. But a young man in +the company, taking his pipe out of his mouth, said that it was a plain +contradiction of the law of God, which he quoted, and if they did not +have some such regulation, vessels would run in there to tar, and rig, +and paint, and they would have no Sabbath at all. This was a good +argument enough, if he had not put it in the name of religion. The next +summer, as I sat on a hill there one sultry Sunday afternoon the +meeting-house windows being open, my meditations were interrupted by +the noise of a preacher who shouted like a boatswain, profaning the +quiet atmosphere, and who, I fancied, must have taken off his coat. Few +things could have been more disgusting or disheartening. I wished the +tithing-man would stop him. + +[Illustration: The day of rest] + +The Pilgrims say: “There was the greatest store of fowl that ever we +saw.” + +We saw no fowl there, except gulls of various kinds; but the greatest +store of them that ever we saw was on a flat but slightly covered with +water on the east side of the harbor, and we observed a man who had +landed there from a boat creeping along the shore in order to get a +shot at them, but they all rose and flew away in a great scattering +flock, too soon for him, having apparently got their dinners, though he +did not get his. + +It is remarkable that the Pilgrims (or their reporter) describe this +part of the Cape, not only as well wooded, but as having a deep and +excellent soil, and hardly mention the word _sand_. Now what strikes +the voyager is the barrenness and desolation of the land. _They_ found +“the ground or earth sand-hills, much like the downs in Holland, but +much better the crust of the earth, a spit’s depth, excellent black +earth.” _We_ found that the earth had lost its crust,—if, in-deed, it +ever had any,—and that there was no soil to speak of. We did not see +enough black earth in Provincetown to fill a flower-pot, unless in the +swamps. They found it “all wooded with oaks, pines, sassafras, juniper, +birch, holly, vines, some ash, walnut; the wood for the most part open +and without underwood, fit either to go or ride in.” We saw scarcely +anything high enough to be called a tree, except a little low wood at +the east end of the town, and the few ornamental trees in its +yards,—only a few small specimens of some of the above kinds on the +sand-hills in the rear; but it was all thick shrubbery, without any +large wood above it, very unfit either to go or ride in. The greater +part of the land was a perfect desert of yellow sand, rippled like +waves by the wind, in which only a little Beach-grass grew here and +there. They say that, just after passing the head of East Harbor Creek, +the boughs and bushes “tore” their “very armor in pieces” (the same +thing happened to such armor as we wore, when out of curiosity we took +to the bushes); or they came to deep valleys, “full of brush, +wood-gaile, and long grass,” and “found springs of fresh water.” + +For the most part we saw neither bough nor bush, not so much as a shrub +to tear our clothes against if we would, and a sheep would lose none of +its fleece, even if it found herbage enough to make fleece grow there. +We saw rather beach and poverty-grass, and merely sorrel enough to +color the surface. I suppose, then, by Woodgaile they mean the +Bayberry. + +All accounts agree in affirming that this part of the Cape was +_comparatively_ well wooded a century ago. But notwithstanding the +great changes which have taken place in these respects, I cannot but +think that we must make some allowance for the greenness of the +Pilgrims in these matters, which caused them to see green. We do not +believe that the trees were large or the soil was deep here. Their +account may be true particularly, but it is generally false. They saw +literally, as well as figuratively, but one side of the Cape. They +naturally exaggerated the fairness and attractiveness of the land, for +they were glad to get to any land at all after that anxious voyage. +Everything appeared to them of the color of the rose, and had the scent +of juniper and sassafras. Very different is the general and off-hand +account given by Captain John Smith, who was on this coast six years +earlier, and speaks like an old traveller, voyager, and soldier, who +had seen too much of the world to exaggerate, or even to dwell long, on +a part of it. In his “Description of New England,” printed in 1616, +after speaking of Accomack, since called Plymouth, he says: “Cape Cod +is the next presents itself, which is only a headland of high hills of +sand, overgrown with shrubby pines, _hurts_ [i.e. whorts, or +whortleberries], and such trash, but an excellent harbor for all +weathers. This Cape is made by the main sea on the one side, and a +great bay on the other, in form of a sickle.” Champlain had already +written, “Which we named _Cap Blanc_ (Cape White), because they were +sands and downs (_sables et dunes_) which appeared thus.” + +When the Pilgrims get to Plymouth their reporter says again, “The land +for the crust of the earth is a spit’s depth,”—that would seem to be +their recipe for an earth’s crust,—“excellent black mould and fat in +some places.” However, according to Bradford himself, whom some +consider the author of part of “Mourt’s Relation,” they who came over +in the _Fortune_ the next year were somewhat daunted when “they came +into the harbor of Cape Cod, and there saw nothing but a naked and +barren place.” They soon found out their mistake with respect to the +goodness of Plymouth soil. Yet when at length, some years later, when +they were fully satisfied of the poorness of the place which they had +chosen, “the greater part,” says Bradford, “consented to a removal to a +place called Nausett,” they agreed to remove all together to Nauset, +now Eastham, which was jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire; and +some of the most respectable of the inhabitants of Plymouth did +actually remove thither accordingly. + +It must be confessed that the Pilgrims possessed but few of the +qualities of the modern pioneer. They were not the ancestors of the +American backwoodsmen. They did not go at once into the woods with +their axes. They were a family and church, and were more anxious to +keep together, though it were on the sand, than to explore and colonize +a New World. When the above-mentioned company removed to Eastham, the +church at Plymouth was left, to use Bradford’s expression, “like an +ancient mother grown old, and forsaken of her children.” Though they +landed on Clark’s Island in Plymouth harbor, the 9th of December (O. +S.), and the 16th all hands came to Plymouth, and the 18th they rambled +about the mainland, and the 19th decided to settle there, it was the +8th of January before Francis Billington went with one of the master’s +mates to look at the magnificent pond or lake now called “Billington +Sea,” about two miles distant, which he had discovered from the top of +a tree, and mistook for a great sea. And the 7th of March “Master +Carver with five others went to the great ponds which seem to be +excellent fishing,” both which points are within the compass of an +ordinary afternoon’s ramble,—however wild the country. It is true they +were busy at first about their building, and were hindered in that by +much foul weather; but a party of emigrants to California or Oregon, +with no less work on their hands,—and more hostile Indians,—would do as +much exploring the first afternoon, and the Sieur de Champlain would +have sought an interview with the savages, and examined the country as +far as the Connecticut, and made a map of it, before Billington had +climbed his tree. Or contrast them only with the French searching for +copper about the Bay of Fundy in 1603, tracing up small streams with +Indian guides. Nevertheless, the Pilgrims were pioneers and the +ancestors of pioneers, in a far grander enterprise. + +By this time we saw the little steamer _Naushon_ entering the harbor, +and heard the sound of her whistle, and came down from the hills to +meet her at the wharf. So we took leave of Cape Cod and its +inhabitants. We liked the manners of the last, what little we saw of +them, very much. They were particularly downright and good-humored. The +old people appeared remarkably well preserved, as if by the saltness of +the atmosphere, and after having once mistaken, we could never be +certain whether we were talking to a coeval of our grandparents, or to +one of our own age. They are said to be more purely the descendants of +the Pilgrims than the inhabitants of any other part of the State. We +were told that “sometimes, when the court comes together at Barnstable, +they have not a single criminal to try, and the jail is shut up.” It +was “to let” when we were there. Until quite recently there was no +regular lawyer below Orleans. Who then will complain of a few regular +man-eating sharks along the back-side? + +One of the ministers of Truro, when I asked what the fishermen did in +the winter, answered that they did nothing but go a-visiting, sit about +and tell stories,—though they worked hard in summer. Yet it is not a +long vacation they get. I am sorry that I have not been there in the +winter to hear their yarns. Almost every Cape man is Captain of some +craft or other,—every man at least who is at the head of his own +affairs, though it is not every one that is, for some heads have the +force of _Alpha privative_, negativing all the efforts which Nature +would fain make through them. The greater number of men are merely +corporals. It is worth the while to talk with one whom his neighbors +address as Captain, though his craft may have long been sunk, and he +may be holding by his teeth to the shattered mast of a pipe alone, and +only gets half-seas-over in a figurative sense, now. He is pretty sure +to vindicate his right to the title at last,—can tell one or two good +stories at least. + +For the most part we saw only the back-side of the towns, but our story +is true as far as it goes. We might have made more of the Bay side, but +we were inclined to open our eyes widest at the Atlantic. We did not +care to see those features of the Cape in which it is inferior or +merely equal to the mainland, but only those in which it is peculiar or +superior. We cannot say how its towns look in front to one who goes to +meet them; we went to see the ocean behind them. They were merely the +raft on which we stood, and we took notice of the barnacles which +adhered to it, and some carvings upon it. + +Before we left the wharf we made the acquaintance of a passenger whom +we had seen at the hotel. When we asked him which way he came to +Provincetown, he answered that he was cast ashore at Wood End, Saturday +night, in the same storm in which the _St. John_ was wrecked. He had +been at work as a carpenter in Maine, and took passage for Boston in a +schooner laden with lumber. When the storm came up, they endeavored to +get into Provincetown harbor. “It was dark and misty,” said he, “and as +we were steering for Long Point Light we suddenly saw the land near +us,—for our compass was out of order,—varied several degrees [a mariner +always casts the blame on his compass],—but there being a mist on +shore, we thought it was farther off than it was, and so held on, and +we immediately struck on the bar. Says the Captain, ‘We are all lost.’ +Says I to the Captain, ‘Now don’t let her strike again this way; head +her right on.’ The Captain thought a moment, and then headed her on. +The sea washed completely over us, and wellnigh took the breath out of +my body. I held on to the running rigging, but I have learned to hold +on to the standing rigging the next time.” “Well, were there any +drowned?” I asked. “No; we all got safe to a house at Wood End, at +midnight, wet to our skins, and half frozen to death.” He had +apparently spent the time since playing checkers at the hotel, and was +congratulating himself on having beaten a tall fellow-boarder at that +game. “The vessel is to be sold at auction to-day,” he added. (We had +heard the sound of the crier’s bell which advertised it.) “The Captain +is rather down about it, but I tell him to cheer up and he will soon +get another vessel.” + +At that moment the Captain called to him from the wharf. He looked like +a man just from the country, with a cap made of a woodchuck’s skin, and +now that I had heard a part of his history, he appeared singularly +destitute,—a Captain without any vessel, only a greatcoat! and that +perhaps a borrowed one! Not even a dog followed him; only his title +stuck to him. I also saw one of the crew. They all had caps of the same +pattern, and wore a subdued look, in addition to their naturally +aquiline features, as if a breaker—a “comber”—had washed over them. As +we passed Wood End, we noticed the pile of lumber on the shore which +had made the cargo of their vessel. + +About Long Point in the summer you commonly see them catching lobsters +for the New York market, from small boats just off the shore, or +rather, the lobsters catch themselves, for they cling to the netting on +which the bait is placed of their own accord, and thus are drawn up. +They sell them fresh for two cents apiece. Man needs to know but little +more than a lobster in order to catch him in his traps. The mackerel +fleet had been getting to sea, one after another, ever since midnight, +and as we were leaving the Cape we passed near to many of them under +sail, and got a nearer view than we had had;—half a dozen red-shirted +men and boys, leaning over the rail to look at us, the skipper shouting +back the number of barrels he had caught, in answer to our inquiry. All +sailors pause to watch a steamer, and shout in welcome or derision. In +one a large Newfoundland dog put his paws on the rail and stood up as +high as any of them, and looked as wise. But the skipper, who did not +wish to be seen no better employed than a dog, rapped him on the nose +and sent him below. Such is human justice! I thought I could hear him +making an effective appeal down there from human to divine justice. He +must have had much the cleanest breast of the two. + +[Illustration: A Provincetown fishing-vessel] + +Still, many a mile behind us across the Bay, we saw the white sails of +the mackerel fishers hovering round Cape Cod, and when they were all +hull-down, and the low extremity of the Cape was also down, their white +sails still appeared on both sides of it, around where it had sunk, +like a city on the ocean, proclaiming the rare qualities of Cape Cod +Harbor. But before the extremity of the Cape had completely sunk, it +appeared like a filmy sliver of land lying flat on the ocean, and later +still a mere reflection of a sand-bar on the haze above. Its name +suggests a homely truth, but it would be more poetic if it described +the impression which it makes on the beholder. Some capes have +peculiarly suggestive names. There is Cape Wrath, the northwest point +of Scotland, for instance; what a good name for a cape lying far away +dark over the water under a lowering sky! + +Mild as it was on shore this morning, the wind was cold and piercing on +the water. Though it be the hottest day in July on land, and the voyage +is to last but four hours, take your thickest clothes with you, for you +are about to float over melted icebergs. When I left Boston in the +steamboat on the 25th of June the next year, it was a quite warm day on +shore. The passengers were dressed in their thinnest clothes, and at +first sat under their umbrellas, but when we were fairly out on the +Bay, such as had only their coats were suffering with the cold, and +sought the shelter of the pilot’s house and the warmth of the chimney. +But when we approached the harbor of Provincetown, I was surprised to +perceive what an influence that low and narrow strip of sand, only a +mile or two in width, had over the temperature of the air for many +miles around. We penetrated into a sultry atmosphere where our thin +coats were once more in fashion, and found the inhabitants sweltering. + +Leaving far on one side Manomet Point in Plymouth and the Scituate +shore, after being out of sight of land for an hour or two, for it was +rather hazy, we neared the Cohasset Rocks again at Minot’s Ledge, and +saw the great Tupelo-tree on the edge of Scituate, which lifts its +dome, like an umbelliferous plant, high over the surrounding forest, +and is conspicuous for many miles over land and water. Here was the new +iron light-house, then unfinished, in the shape of an egg-shell painted +red, and placed high on iron pillars, like the ovum of a sea monster +floating on the waves,—destined to be phosphorescent. As we passed it +at half-tide we saw the spray tossed up nearly to the shell. A man was +to live in that egg-shell day and night, a mile from the shore. When I +passed it the next summer it was finished and two men lived in it, and +a light-house keeper said that they told him that in a recent gale it +had rocked so as to shake the plates off the table. Think of making +your bed thus in the crest of a breaker! To have the waves, like a pack +of hungry wolves, eying you always, night and day, and from time to +time making a spring at you, almost sure to have you at last. And not +one of all those voyagers can come to your relief,—but when your light +goes out, it will be a sign that the light of your life has gone out +also. What a place to compose a work on breakers! This light-house was +the cynosure of all eyes. Every passenger watched it for half an hour +at least; yet a colored cook belonging to the boat, whom I had seen +come out of his quarters several times to empty his dishes over the +side with a flourish, chancing to come out just as we were abreast of +this light, and not more than forty rods from it, and were all gazing +at it, as he drew back his arm, caught sight of it, and with surprise +exclaimed, “What’s that?” He had been employed on this boat for a year, +and passed this light every weekday, but as he had never chanced to +empty his dishes just at that point, had never seen it before. To look +at lights was the pilot’s business; he minded the kitchen fire. It +suggested how little some who voyaged round the world could manage to +see. You would almost as easily believe that there are men who never +yet chanced to come out at the right time to see the sun. What avails +it though a light be placed on the top of a hill, if you spend all your +life directly under the hill? It might as well be under a bushel. This +light-house, as is well known, was swept away in a storm in April, +1851, and the two men in it, and the next morning not a vestige of it +was to be seen from the shore. + +A Hull man told me that he helped set up a white-oak pole on Minot’s +Ledge some years before. It was fifteen inches in diameter, forty-one +feet high, sunk four feet in the rock, and was secured by four +guys,—but it stood only one year. Stone piled up cob-fashion near the +same place stood eight years. + +When I crossed the Bay in the _Melrose_ in July, we hugged the Scituate +shore as long as possible, in order to take advantage of the wind. Far +out on the Bay (off this shore) we scared up a brood of young ducks, +probably black ones, bred hereabouts, which the packet had frequently +disturbed in her trips. A townsman, who was making the voyage for the +first time, walked slowly round into the rear of the helmsman, when we +were in the middle of the Bay, and looking out over the sea, before he +sat down there, remarked with as much originality as was possible for +one who used a borrowed expression, “This is a great country.” He had +been a timber merchant, and I afterwards saw him taking the diameter of +the mainmast with his stick, and estimating its height. I returned from +the same excursion in the _Olata_, a very handsome and swift-sailing +yacht, which left Provincetown at the same time with two other packets, +the _Melrose_ and _Frolic_. At first there was scarcely a breath of air +stirring, and we loitered about Long Point for an hour in company,—with +our heads over the rail watching the great sand-circles and the fishes +at the bottom in calm water fifteen feet deep. But after clearing the +Cape we rigged a flying-jib, and, as the Captain had prophesied, soon +showed our consorts our heels. There was a steamer six or eight miles +northward, near the Cape, towing a large ship toward Boston. Its smoke +stretched perfectly horizontal several miles over the sea, and by a +sudden change in its direction, warned us of a change in the wind +before we felt it. The steamer appeared very far from the ship, and +some young men who had frequently used the Captain’s glass, but did not +suspect that the vessels were connected, expressed surprise that they +kept about the same distance apart for so many hours. At which the +Captain dryly remarked, that probably they would never get any nearer +together. As long as the wind held we kept pace with the steamer, but +at length it died away almost entirely, and the flying-jib did all the +work. When we passed the light-boat at Minot’s Ledge, the _Melrose_ and +_Frolic_ were just visible ten miles astern. + +Consider the islands bearing the names of all the saints, bristling +with forts like chestnuts-burs, or _echinidæ_, yet the police will not +let a couple of Irishmen have a private sparring-match on one of them, +as it is a government monopoly; all the great seaports are in a boxing +attitude, and you must sail prudently between two tiers of stony +knuckles before you come to feel the warmth of their breasts. + +The Bermudas are said to have been discovered by a Spanish ship of that +name which was wrecked on them, “which till then,” says Sir John Smith, +“for six thousand years had been nameless.” The English did not stumble +upon them in their first voyages to Virginia; and the first Englishman +who was ever there was wrecked on them in 1593. Smith says, “No place +known hath better walls nor a broader ditch.” Yet at the very first +planting of them with some sixty persons, in 1612, the first Governor, +the same year, “built and laid the foundation of eight or nine forts.” +To be ready, one would say, to entertain the first ship’s company that +should be next shipwrecked on to them. It would have been more sensible +to have built as many “Charity-houses.” These are the vexed +Bermoothees. + +Our great sails caught all the air there was, and our low and narrow +hull caused the least possible friction. Coming up the harbor against +the stream we swept by everything. Some young men returning from a +fishing excursion came to the side of their smack, while we were thus +steadily drawing by them, and, bowing, observed, with the best possible +grace, “We give it up.” Yet sometimes we were nearly at a standstill. +The sailors watched (two) objects on the shore to ascertain whether we +advanced or receded. In the harbor it was like the evening of a +holiday. The Eastern steamboat passed us with music and a cheer, as if +they were going to a ball, when they might be going to—Davy’s locker. + +I heard a boy telling the story of Nix’s mate to some girls as we +passed that spot. That was the name of a sailor hung there, he +said.—“If I am guilty, this island will remain; but if I am innocent it +will be washed away,” and now it is all washed away! + +Next (?) came the fort on George’s Island. These are bungling +contrivances: not our _fortes_ but our _foibles_. Wolfe sailed by the +strongest fort in North America in the dark, and took it. + +I admired the skill with which the vessel was at last brought to her +place in the dock, near the end of Long Wharf. It was candle-light, and +my eyes could not distinguish the wharves jutting out towards us, but +it appeared like an even line of shore densely crowded with shipping. +You could not have guessed within a quarter of a mile of Long Wharf. +Nevertheless, we were to be blown to a crevice amid them,—steering +right into the maze. Down goes the mainsail, and only the jib draws us +along. Now we are within four rods of the shipping, having already +dodged several outsiders; but it is still only a maze of spars, and +rigging, and hulls,—not a crack can be seen. Down goes the jib, but +still we advance. The Captain stands aft with one hand on the tiller, +and the other holding his night-glass,—his son stands on the bowsprit +straining his eyes,—the passengers feel their hearts halfway to their +mouths, expecting a crash. “Do you see any room there?” asks the +Captain, quietly. He must make up his mind in five seconds, else he +will carry away that vessel’s bowsprit, or lose his own. “Yes, sir, +here is a place for us”; and in three minutes more we are fast to the +wharf in a little gap between two bigger vessels. + +And now we were in Boston. Whoever has been down to the end of Long +Wharf, and walked through Quincy Market, has seen Boston. + +Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, New Orleans, and the rest, +are the names of wharves projecting into the sea (surrounded by the +shops and dwellings of the merchants), good places to take in and to +discharge a cargo (to land the products of other climes and load the +exports of our own). I see a great many barrels and fig-drums,—piles of +wood for umbrella-sticks,—blocks of granite and ice,—great heaps of +goods, and the means of packing and conveying them,—much wrapping-paper +and twine,—many crates and hogsheads and trucks,—and that is Boston. +The more barrels, the more Boston. The museums and scientific societies +and libraries are accidental. They gather around the sands to save +carting. The wharf-rats and customhouse officers, and broken-down +poets, seeking a fortune amid the barrels. Their better or worse +lyceums, and preachings, and doctorings, these, too, are accidental, +and the malls of commons are always small potatoes. When I go to +Boston, I naturally go straight through the city (taking the Market in +my way), down to the end of Long Wharf, and look off, for I have no +cousins in the back alleys,—and there I see a great many countrymen in +their shirt-sleeves from Maine, and Pennsylvania, and all along shore +and in shore, and some foreigners beside, loading and unloading and +steering their teams about, as at a country fair. + +When we reached Boston that October, I had a gill of Provincetown sand +in my shoes, and at Concord there was still enough left to sand my +pages for many a day; and I seemed to hear the sea roar, as if I lived +in a shell, for a week afterward. + +The places which I have described may seem strange and remote to my +townsmen,—indeed, from Boston to Provincetown is twice as far as from +England to France; yet step into the cars, and in six hours you may +stand on those four planks, and see the Cape which Gosnold is said to +have discovered, and which I have so poorly described. If you had +started when I first advised you, you might have seen our tracks in the +sand, still fresh, and reaching all the way from the Nauset Lights to +Race Point, some thirty miles,—for at every step we made an impression +on the Cape, though we were not aware of it, and though our account may +have made no impression on your minds. But what is our account? In it +there is no roar, no beach-birds, no tow-cloth. + +We often love to think now of the life of men on beaches,—at least in +midsummer, when the weather is serene; their sunny lives on the sand, +amid the beach-grass and the bayberries, their companion a cow, their +wealth a jag of driftwood or a few beach-plums, and their music the +surf and the peep of the beach-bird. + +We went to see the Ocean, and that is probably the best place of all +our coast to go to. If you go by water, you may experience what it is +to leave and to approach these shores; you may see the Stormy Petrel by +the way, θαλασσοδρόμα, running over the sea, and if the weather is but +a little thick, may lose sight of the land in mid-passage. I do not +know where there is another beach in the Atlantic States, attached to +the mainland, so long, and at the same time so straight, and completely +uninterrupted by creeks or coves or fresh-water rivers or marshes; for +though there may be clear places on the map, they would probably be +found by the foot traveller to be intersected by creeks and marshes; +certainly there is none where there is a double way, such as I have +described, a beach and a bank, which at the same time shows you the +land and the sea, and part of the time two seas. The Great South Beach +of Long Island, which I have since visited, is longer still without an +inlet, but it is literally a mere sand-bar, exposed, several miles from +the Island, and not the edge of a continent wasting before the assaults +of the Ocean. Though wild and desolate, as it wants the bold bank, it +possesses but half the grandeur of Cape Cod in my eyes, nor is the +imagination contented with its southern aspect. The only other beaches +of great length on our Atlantic coast, which I have heard sailors speak +of, are those of Barnegat on the Jersey shore, and Currituck between +Virginia and North Carolina; but these, like the last, are low and +narrow sandbars, lying off the coast, and separated from the mainland +by lagoons. Besides, as you go farther south, the tides are feebler, +and cease to add variety and grandeur to the shore. On the Pacific side +of our country also no doubt there is good walking to be found; a +recent writer and dweller there tells us that “the coast from Cape +Disappointment (or the Columbia River) to Cape Flattery (at the Strait +of Juan de Fuca) is nearly north and south, and can be travelled almost +its entire length on a beautiful sand-beach,” with the exception of two +bays, four or five rivers, and a few points jutting into the sea. The +common shell-fish found there seem to be often of corresponding types, +if not identical species, with those of Cape Cod. The beach which I +have described, however, is not hard enough for carriages, but must be +explored on foot. When one carriage has passed along, a following one +sinks deeper still in its rut. It has at present no name any more than +fame. That portion south of Nauset Harbor is commonly called Chatham +Beach. The part in Eastham is called Nauset Beach, and off Wellfleet +and Truro the Back-side, or sometimes, perhaps, Cape Cod Beach. I think +that part which extends without interruption from Nauset Harbor to Race +Point should be called Cape Cod Beach, and do so speak of it. + +One of the most attractive points for visitors is in the northeast part +of Wellfleet, where accommodations (I mean for men and women of +tolerable health and habits) could probably be had within half a mile +of the sea-shore. It best combines the country and the seaside. Though +the Ocean is out of sight, its faintest murmur is audible, and you have +only to climb a hill to find yourself on its brink. It is but a step +from the glassy surface of the Herring Ponds to the big Atlantic Pond +where the waves never cease to break. Or perhaps the Highland Light in +Truro may compete with this locality, for there, there is a more +uninterrupted view of the Ocean and the Bay, and in the summer there is +always some air stirring on the edge of the bank there, so that the +inhabitants know not what hot weather is. As for the view, the keeper +of the light, with one or more of his family, walks out to the edge of +the bank after every meal to look off, just as if they had not lived +there all their days. In short, it will wear well. And what picture +will you substitute for that, upon your walls? But ladies cannot get +down the bank there at present without the aid of a block and tackle. + +Most persons visit the sea-side in warm weather, when fogs are +frequent, and the atmosphere is wont to be thick, and the charm of the +sea is to some extent lost. But I suspect that the fall is the best +season, for then the atmosphere is more transparent, and it is a +greater pleasure to look out over the sea. The clear and bracing air, +and the storms of autumn and winter even, are necessary in order that +we may get the impression which the sea is calculated to make. In +October, when the weather is not intolerably cold, and the landscape +wears its autumnal tints, such as, methinks, only a Cape Cod landscape +ever wears, especially if you have a storm during your stay,—that I am +convinced is the best time to visit this shore. In autumn, even in +August, the thoughtful days begin, and we can walk anywhere with +profit. Beside, an outward cold and dreariness, which make it necessary +to seek shelter at night, lend a spirit of adventure to a walk. + +The time must come when this coast will be a place of resort for those +New-Englanders who really wish to visit the sea-side. At present it is +wholly unknown to the fashionable world, and probably it will never be +agreeable to them. If it is merely a ten-pin alley, or a circular +railway, or an ocean of mint-julep, that the visitor is in search +of,—if he thinks more of the wine than the brine, as I suspect some do +at Newport,—I trust that for a long time he will be disappointed here. +But this shore will never be more attractive than it is now. Such +beaches as are fashionable are here made and unmade in a day, I may +almost say, by the sea shifting its sands. Lynn and Nantasket! this +bare and bended arm it is that makes the bay in which they lie so +snugly. What are springs and waterfalls? Here is the spring of springs, +the waterfall of waterfalls. A storm in the fall or winter is the time +to visit it; a light-house or a fisherman’s hut the true hotel. A man +may stand there and put all America behind him. + + [1] It is remarkable that the first, if not the only, part of New + England which Cartier saw was Vermont (he also saw the mountains of + New York), from Montreal Mountain, in 1535, sixty-seven years before + Gosnold saw Cape Cod. _If seeing is discovering_,—and that is _all_ + that it is proved that Cabot knew of the coast of the United + States,—then Cartier (to omit Verrazani and Gomez) was the discoverer + of New England rather than Gosnold, who is commonly so styled. + + + [2] “Savage Rock,” which some have supposed to be, from the name, the + _Salvages_, a ledge about two miles off Rockland, Cape Ann, was + probably the _Nubble_, a large, high rock near the shore, on the east + side of York Harbor, Maine. The first land made by Gosnold is presumed + by experienced navigators to be Cape Elizabeth, on the same coast. + (See Babson’s History of Gloucester, Massachusetts.) + + +The University Press, Cambridge, U. S. 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