14 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 



Days on the Ground, so it is never extream hot in Summer, and it is 

 a rare thing to be frightened by any Thunder. It bears no venomous 

 Creatures of any sort, and hardly any Flies. The high Winds clear 

 the air, which makes it healthy; and nature hath furnished it with 

 medicinal Plants and Shrubs: It produces naturally near 20 

 sorts of Berries, out of which some People suppose very good 

 Liquors and Wines might be expressed It looks all green in Winter 

 with the Juniper Bushes and red in Summer with the large Straw- 

 berries and other wild Fruits which it bears. It hath abundance of 

 wild or Beach Pease, which fatten the Cattle very well: By several 

 Pieces of petrified Wood found there it is supposed that the Sand hath 

 a Property of petrifying Wood. Within these seven or eight Years 

 Providence hath opened a Communication between the great Pond 

 (fifteen Miles long) and the Sea, which hath made a safe and large 

 Harbour, but the Entrance is barred so that large and sharp Vessels 

 cannot get into it; but as there is about 8 Feet of Water over the Bar 

 at high Water there is sufficient Passage (as we know by Experience) 

 for Vessels of 30 Tuns or more, if not built Sharp. The Ponds abound 

 with Flounders and Eels; the Beech itself with Clams and Sand Eels; 

 the Air with Fowls, and especially with black Ducks, so as to make 

 money with their Feathers. The Soil is so natural for all sorts of Roots, 

 especially Turnipe, that they are not only uncommonly sweet there but 

 also uncommonly large, some weighing 7 Pounds a piece: Rye grows 

 there very naturally and also Wheat at the Rate of 13 Bushels per 

 acre. It is supposed that Flax would grow there very well ; it would 

 also produce Indian Corn well enough if the high Winds in the Fall 

 did not break it: There is neither Trees (but many Bushes) nor 

 Stones. The Grass is tall, thick and hath a very sweet taste and 

 nourishing Property; there is some English Grass, but the other is 

 more profitable, and there is enough to feed some thousand Heads 

 of Cattle: Horses breed and grow there without Care or Trouble; 

 there is all Winter long Grass enough or near enough for them, so that 

 they eat but little of the Hay which is made for them in the Summer 

 or the Fall. The raising of Sheep, Horn-Cattle, and especially of 

 Horses is the most Advantagious (as for the Grain there are not above 

 400 Acres where it may be raised). The Care of Gardens and Cattle 

 take up our People's Time in Summer, in Winter they go to kill Seils 

 and boil their Fat into Oyl, as well as that of Whales, which now and 

 then are cast away dead upon the Beach. The Island finds them in 



