50 
CAPE COD. 
This habit of growth should, no doubt, be encouraged; 
and they should not be trimmed up, as some travelling 
practitioners have advised. In 1802 there was not a 
single fruit-tree in Chatham, the next town to Orleans, 
on the south; and the old account of Orleans says: 
“ Fruit-trees cannot be made to grow within a mile of 
the ocean. Even those which are placed at a greater 
distance are injured by the east winds ; and, after vio¬ 
lent storms in the spring, a saltish taste is perceptible on 
their bark.” We noticed that they were often covered 
with a yellow lichen like rust, the Parmelia parietina. 
The most foreign and picturesque structures on the 
Cape, to an inlander, not excepting the salt-works, are 
the wind-mills, — gray-looking octagonal towers, with 
long timbers slanting to the ground in the rear, and there 
resting on a cart-wheel, by which their fans are turned 
round to face the wind. These appeared also to serve 
in some measure for props against its force. A great 
circular rut was worn around the building by the wheel. 
The neighbors who assemble to turn the mill to the wind 
are likely to know which way it blows, without a weather¬ 
cock. They looked loose and slightly locomotive, like 
huge wounded birds, trailing a wing or a leg, and re¬ 
minded one of pictures of the Netherlands. Being on 
elevated ground, and high in themselves, they serve as 
landmarks, — for there are no tall trees, or other objects 
commonly, which can be seen at a distance in the hori¬ 
zon ; though the outline of the land itself is so firm- and 
distinct, that an insignificant cone, or even precipice of 
sand, is visible at a great distance from over the sea. 
Sailors making the land commonly steer either by the 
wind-mills or the meeting-houses. In the country, we 
are obliged to steer by the meeting-houses alone Yet 
