122 Rhodora > [Jurv 
This area is known to have been treeless in 1850, except the 
ravines in the northern (inland) part of the estate. It is natural to 
inquire whether this condition existed during the early days of coloni- 
zation.of the region. Gosnold says that the pilgrims in 1620 found 
Cape Cod harbor “compassed about to the very sea with oaks, pines, 
juniper, sassafras, and other sweet wood," ! also that the island now 
known as Nonamesset (across the channel from Woods Hole) was 
“full of wood, vines, and berries." ? It is known that the neighbor- 
ing island of Nantucket? was in 1661 well provided with forests of 
oak, walnut, beech, pine and cedar, and that these were largely 
destroyed by cutting and by the sheep and goats which were so 
extensively reared on the island; in 1665 there were forty-eight 
owners of herds and flocks on this island alone. Most of the people 
who settled Nantucket came from the mainland and probably trans- 
ferred the herding industry to their new home. The climatic condi- 
tions on the peninsula of Cape Cod are certainly no more severe 
than those on the island of Nantucket, so it is pretty safe to infer 
that the region about Woods Hole was well forested three hundred 
years ago, and destroyed by cutting and grazing, despite the impres- 
sion which is prevalent in that neighborhood to the effect that the 
region was naturally treeless. 
Undoubtedly the conditions in this area are at present unfavorable 
for tree growth, chiefly because the area is well drained owing to 
slope and nature of the soil, and perhaps because of the salt winds 
which almost constantly blow either from Vineyard Sound or 
Buzzards Bay. Hence natural reforestation is exceedingly slow. 
Nature's unaided efforts are shown in the tract lying between the 
forested area on one hand and Buzzards Bay and Quisset Harbor on 
the other. This area known as Ganset has lain undisturbed for at 
least sixty years and probably much longer. The plant covering is 
mainly herbaceous, with scattered clumps of stunted shrubs, and here 
and there solitary specimens of Juniperus virginiana 4-8 feet high. 
The herbaceous plants are moderately xerophytic in nature, being 
chiefly C/adonmia rangtferina, Polytrichum commune, Lechea Sp., 
Hypericum perforatum, Trifolium pratense, Potentilla canadensis, 
Achillea millefolium, Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum, var. subpinnati 
1 Quoted in Freeman, F., History of Cape Cod, page 62. 
2 Ibid., page 30. 
3 W. R. Bliss, Quaint Nantucket. Boston, 1896. 
