I 
124 
CAPE COD. 
very pretty when the aster is in bloom. In some parts 
the two species of poverty-grass {Hudsonia tomentom 
and ericoides), which deserve a better name, reign* for 
miles in little hemispherical tufts or islets, like moss, 
scattered over the waste. They linger in bloom there 
till the middle of July. Occasionally near the beach 
these rounded beds, as also those of the sea-sandwort 
{JSonkenya peploides)^ were filled with sand within an inch 
of their tops, and were hard, like large ant-hills, while the 
surrounding sand was soft. In summer, if the poverty- 
grass grows at the head of a Hollow looking toward the 
sea, in a bleak position where the wind rushes up, the 
northern or exposed half of the tuft is sometimes all 
black and dead like an oven-broom, while the opposite 
half is yellow with blossoms, the whole hillside thus 
presenting a remarkable contrast when seen from the 
poverty-stricken and the flourishing side. This plant, 
which in many places would .be esteemed an orna¬ 
ment, is here despised by many on account of its 
being associated with barrenness. It might well be 
adopted for the Barnstable coat-of-arms, in a field 
mhleux, I should be proud of it. Here and there 
were tracts of Beach-grass mingled with the Sea-.-ide 
Golden-rod and Beach-pea, which reminded us still more 
forcibly of the ocean. 
We read that there was not a brook in Truro. Yet 
there were deer here once, which must often have panted 
in vain; but I am pretty sure that I afterward saw a 
small fresh-water brook emptying into the south side of 
Pamet River, though I was so heedless as not to taste 
It. At any rate, a little boy near by told me that he 
drank at it. There was not a tree as far as we could 
see, and that was many miles each way, the genera] 
