IHE PLAINS OF NAUSET. 
The next morning, Thursday, October 11th, it rained, 
as hard as ever; but we were determined to proceed on 
foot, nevertheless. We first made some inquiries with 
regard to the practicability of walking up the shore on 
the Atlantic side to Provincetown, whether we should 
meet wdth any creeks or marshes to trouble us. Hig¬ 
gins said that there was no obstruction, and that it was 
not much farther than by the road, but he thought that 
we should find it very “ heavy ” w^alking in the sand ; 
it was bad enough in the road, a horse would sink in up 
to the fetlocks there. But there was one man at the 
tavern who had walked it, and he said that we could go 
very well, though it was sometimes inconvenient and 
even dangerous walking under the bank, when there was 
a great tide, with an easterly wind, which caused the 
sand to cave. For the first four or five miles we fol¬ 
lowed the road, which here turns to the north on the el¬ 
bow, — the narrowest part of the Cape, — that we might 
clear an inlet from the ocean, a part of Nauset Harbor, 
in Orleans, on our right. We found the travelling good 
enough for walkers on the sides of the roads, though it 
was “heavy” for horses in the middle. We walked 
with our umbrellas behind us, since it blowed hard aa 
