(3«9) 



in connection with the hills, which are evidently merely 

 heaps of sand blown from the original beaches and are nec- 

 essarily quite uniform in composition. 



The constant extension of the land northward and west- 

 ward as above outlined, is of course just so much land area 

 gained, but as it is of no particular commercial value it would 

 probably be regarded with more or less indifference by the 

 inhabitants of Provincetown, except for the reason that it 

 furnishes a constantly increasing amount of sand for the 

 winds to carry southward and eastward towards the town and 

 harbor, and that this constitutes a real and ever-present 

 menace is perfectly apparent and is thoroughly appreciated 

 by everyone who has property interests at stake there. A 

 dune, eighty or ninety feet in height, the crest of which is 

 seen to be advancing at a rate of ten or fifteen feet a year ; a 

 pond or swamp which has been filled up and blotted out of 

 existence by drifting sand ; a deep wind cut where a ridge 

 formerly existed ; trees and bushes partly or entirely buried, 

 etc., are object lessons which all may see and few may ig- 

 nore, and these or similar phenomena have been observed 

 and their significance understood for a number of generations. 



Doubtless had man not interfered with the processes of 

 nature, by destroying vegetation, wind action would not have 

 the same importance which it has to-day as a factor in the 

 domestic and political economy of Provincetown, but such 

 destruction has been wrought, unfortunately, and the sequence 

 of cause and effect in this connection is so well recognized 

 that systematic effort is now being made to protect and pre- 

 serve what remains of the vegetation and to re-clothe the 

 denuded areas, as will be discussed further on. 



(b) Botany. 

 The flora is quite limited, not only in its distribution but 

 also in the number of species represented. The trees and 

 shrubs, with their accompanying shade-loving herbaceous 

 plants, are practically all included in a zone, averaging less 

 than a mile in width, extending along the shore of Province- 



