82 
CAPE COD. 
between Orleans and Eastham, called Jeremiah’s Gutter. 
The Atlantic is said sometimes to meet the Bay here, 
and isolate the northern part of the Cape. The streams 
of the Cape are necessarily formed on a minute scale, 
since there is no room for them to run, without tumbling 
immediately into the sea; and beside, we found it diffi¬ 
cult to run ourselves in that sand, when there was no 
want of room. Hence, the least channel where water 
runs, or may run, is important, and is dignified with 
a name. We read that there is no running water in 
Chatham, which is the next town. The barren aspect 
of the land would hardly be believed if described. It 
was such soil, or rather land, as, to judge from appear¬ 
ances, no farmer in the interior would think of cultivat¬ 
ing, or even fencing. Generally, the ploughed fields of 
the Cape look white and yellow, like a mixture of salt and 
Indian meal. This is called soil. All an inlander’s no¬ 
tions of soil and fertility will be confounded by a visit to 
these parts, and he will not be able, for some time after¬ 
ward, to distinguish soil from sand. The historian of 
Chatham says of a part of that town, which has been 
gained from the sea: “ There is a doubtful appearance 
of a soil beginning to be formed. It is styled douhtful^ 
because it would not be observed by every eye, and per¬ 
haps not acknowledged by many.” We thought that 
this would not be a bad description of the greater part of 
the Cape. There is a “beach” on the west side of 
Eastham, which we crossed the next summer, half a mile 
wide, and stretching across the township, containing 
seventeen hundred acres, on which there is not now a 
particle of vegetable mould, though it formerly produced 
wheat. All sands are here called “beaches,” whether 
they are waves of watcn* or of air, that dash against 
