104 
CAPE COD. 
there like a duck, cunningly taking to its wings anS 
lifting itself a few feet through the air over the foaming 
crest of each breaker, but sometimes outriding safely a 
considerable billow which hid it some seconds, when its 
instinct told it that it would not break. It was a little 
creature thus to sport with the ocean, but it was as per¬ 
fect a success in its way as the breakers in theirs. There 
was also an almost uninterrupted line of coots rising and 
falling with the waves, a few rods from the shore, the 
whole length of the Cape. They made as constant a part 
of the ocean’s border as the pads or pickerel-weed do of 
that of a pond. We read the following as to the Storm 
Petrel {Thalassidroma Wilsonii), which is seen in the Bay 
as well as on the outside. “ The feathers on the breast 
of the Storm Petrel are, like those of all swimming birds, 
water-proof; but substances not susceptible of being wet¬ 
ted with water are, for that very reason, the best fitted 
for collecting oil from its surface. That function is per¬ 
formed by the feathers on the breast of the Storm Petrels 
as they touch on the surface ; and though that may not 
be the only way in which they procure their food, it is 
certainly that in which they obtain great part of it. They 
dash along till they have loaded their feathers and then 
they pause upon the wave and remove the oil with their 
bills.” 
Thus we kept on along the gently curving shore, see¬ 
ing two or three miles ahead at once, — along this ocean 
side-walk, where there ,was none to turn out for, with the 
middle of the road the highway of nations on our right, 
and the sand cliffs of the Cape on our left. We saw this 
forenoon a part of the wreck of a vessel, probably the 
Franklin, a large piece fifteen feet square, and still freshly 
painted. With a grapple and a line we could ha^e saved 
