FOOTING IT ACROSS THE CAPE 85 



the dunes, which seem always about to overwhelm 

 Provincetown, he says, "Some say that while the 

 Government is planting beach grass behind the 

 town for the protection of the harbor, the in- 

 habitants are rolling the sand into the harbor in 

 wheel-barrows, in order to make houselots," 

 which seems characteristic of the beach grass, the 

 harbor and the Cape Cod spirit of making the 

 most of real estate opportunities to this day. 



"Thus Cape Cod is anchored to the heavens, 

 as it were," he goes on, "by a myriad little cables 

 of beach grass, and, if they should fail would 

 become a total wreck, and ere long go to the bot- 

 tom. 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 that was moored 

 by a grass rope, but now they are not permitted 

 to wander." 



All of which would seem to prove that Thor- 

 eau liked to crack a sly joke at the region he 

 loved, as well as do the rest of us. The other 

 day I too crossed the Cape, not exactly in Thor- 

 eau's footsteps but through the region of the 

 "Chawums," which, I take it, are the Mashpees 

 of later days. The trail began at East Sand- 



