1891
June
Description of Eel Pond Marshes (No 1)
North Truro, Mass.
  The Eel Pond is irregularly oblong in shape,
about a mile in length by one quarter of a
mile in width, and very shallow, the depth
over most of its extent ranging from two to
four feet but exceeding eight feet in a few
portions. It is separated from Massachusetts
Bay by a narrow beach ridge, from the ocean
by high, rounded hills one of them of perfectly
bare, smooth sand, the others covered with
beach grass or bushes interspersed with stunted
cedars. The distance across to the ocean is
said to be about half-a-mile. The tide originally
flowed in and out through a creek connecting 
with the Bay but this was closed by the
government in 1867 and the water soon became
first brackish then fresh, the clams, crabs and
other marine animals all dying in the
summers of 1868 and creating a highly offensive
stench. During the next two years the marshes
surrounding the pond passed through several
transitional stages.  First they became bare,
oozy, mud-flats which attracted Yellow-legs,
and the various Sandpipers which haunt our
coasts, by myriads. There tall, wild grasses
spring up in patches affording shelter [deleted]from[/deleted] to the
[deleted]countless[/deleted] Wilson's Snipes which were so numerous
at times that fifty to seventy-five were
frequently bagged by one gunner in a single
day. Finally the cat-tails started and spread
rapidly choking out the other growths and
banishing nearly all the waders except the