﻿THE CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN. 139 



cargo consisted in part of coal, great quantities of which were carried round the 

 island to the eastward and northward, and picked up on the inside of Great 

 Point. The keeper of the light-house at Great Point supplied himself with fuel for 

 the winter from this source. The brig Packet, of Providence, was also wrecked 

 on the south side, opposite the town; and pieces and bales of duck and diaper were 

 found along the beach to the north of Sankatj Head. The coal of a Philadelphia ves- 

 sel, lost at the western end of the island a long time ago, was also carried round in the 

 same way, and deposited at Great Point, the northern extremity of the island. In 1812, 

 the English ship Queen, a prize to the privateer General Armstrong, was stranded, 

 with her prize crew on board, on the south side, and, as it is supposed, at Miacomet 

 Rip. Her cargo was strewed from the Rip, eastward and northward, to the end of 

 Great Point. A chimney is now standing in the village of Siasconsett built of bricks 

 from her cargo that were taken up in that vicinity, and some of the bricks were found 

 about a year afterwards on the inside of Great Point, their edges rounded and smoothed 

 by the action of the water. The bricks were known by their uncommon size. In none 

 of these instances were any of the wrecked materials seen to the westward of the spot 

 where they first struck the island, that is, in the direction of the ebb. This is well known 

 to be universally the case, so that the wreckers never go to the westward, but alwavs to 

 the eastward, to search for floating articles. The fact is the more striking, that this 

 course is opposed to the violent northeast gales, the principal cause of loss to shipping. 

 For the preceding details I am indebted to Mr. Mitchell of Nantucket, the astronomer, 

 to Mr. Rand, the collector of the port, and to Captain Rand, the father of the latter gen- 

 tleman, a highly reputable and intelligent shipmaster. 



But the characteristic action of the flood may be observed with even greater distinct- 

 ness on the eastern shore of Cape Cod. There is a separation or split of the tides that 

 takes place about six miles south of Nausett lights, and nine miles north of Chatham. 

 The tide-wave divides in this vicinity, the current of the flood running north on that 

 part of the cape shore which is north, and south on the southern side of the separation. 

 At the place of separation the tide-currents appear to run towards and from the land, or, 

 in the technical phrase, on and off shore. Now the materials of vessels that are wrecked 

 to the southward of the seat of division of the tides are uniformly carried south, and are 

 frequently found inside of Chatham (new) harbour, or of Monomoy Point ; while, on the 

 other hand, vessels that are wrecked so far northward as to be within the reach of the 

 northern current of the flood have their effects scattered along the north shore, and, mak- 

 ing occasionally the entire circuit of Cape Cod, are even deposited in Provincetown 

 harbour. Here, as I am informed, this distinct action of the two currents of the flood 



