ACTION OF DRIFTING SAND. 51 



Cod are thrown up from the depths of the sea, and left 

 on the beach in thousands of tons, by every driving 

 storm. These sand-hills, when dried by the sun, are 

 hurled by the winds into the harbor and upon the town. 

 A correspondent at Provincetown says : " Beach grass 

 is said to have been cultivated here as early as 1812. 

 Before that time, when the sand drifted down upon the 

 dwelling-houses, as it did whenever the beach was 

 broken, to save them from burial, the only resort was 

 to wheeling it off with barrows. Thus tons were re- 

 moved every year from places that are now perfectly 

 secure from the drifting of sand. Indeed, were it 

 not for the window-glass in some of the oldest houses 

 in these localities, you would be ready to deny this 

 statement ; but the sand has been blown with such 

 force and so long against this glass, as to make it per- 

 fectly ground. I know of some windows through which 

 you cannot see an object, except to remind you of that 

 passage where men were seen ' as trees walking.' " 



Congress appropriated, between the years 1826 and 

 1839, about twenty-eight thousand dollars, which were 

 expended in setting out beach grass near the village 

 of Provincetown, for the protection of the harbor. 

 From the seed of this grass it is estimated that nearly 

 as much ground has become planted with it as was cov- 

 ered by the national government. In 1854 five thousand 

 dollars were wisely expended by the general govern- 

 ment in adding to the work ; and the experience of 

 former years was of great value to the efficiency of this 

 latter effort. The work of fortification or protection is 

 not yet complete. The eastern part of the harbor is 

 much exposed to injury from the sand, which now 

 empties itself by thousands of tons, during every north 

 wind, into it. 



" It may be proper to state," says the writer quoted 



