ACROSS THE CAPE. 
119 
paradise. The locusts, both transplanted and growing 
naturally about the houses there, appeared to flourish 
better than any other tree. There were thin belts of 
wood in Wellfleet and Truro, a mile or more from the 
Atlantic, but, for the most part, we could see the horizon 
through them, or, if extensive, the trees were not large. 
Both oaks and pines had often the same flat look with 
the apple-trees. Commonly, the oak woods twenty-five 
years old were a mere scraggy shrubbery nine or ten 
feet high, and we could frequently reach to their topmost 
leaf. Much that is called “ woods ’’ was about half as 
high as this, — only patches of shrub-oak, bayberry, 
beach-plum, and wild roses, overrun with woodbine. 
When the roses were in bloom, these patches in the 
midst of the sand displayed such a profusion of blossoms, 
mingled with the aroma of the bayberry, that no Italian 
or other artificial rose-garden could equal them. They 
were perfectly Elysian, and realized my idea of an oa^sis 
in the desert. Huckleberry-bushes were very abundant, 
and the next summer they bore a remarkable quantity 
of that kind of gall called Huckleberry-apple, forming 
quite handsome though monstrous blossoms. But it 
must be added, that this shrubbery swarmed with wood- 
ticks, sometimes very troublesome parasites, and which 
it takes very horny fingers to crack. 
The inhabitants of these towns have a great regard 
for a tree, though their standard for one is necessarily 
neither large nor high; and w^hen they tell you of the 
large trees that once grew here, you must think of them, 
not as absolutely large, but large compared with the 
present generation. Their “ brave old oaks,” of which 
they speak with so much respect, and which they will 
point out to you as relics of the primitive forest, 
