152 
CAPE COD. 
kinds as strewed the beach. They had apparently 
flown over the bank in the night, and could not get up 
again, and some had perhaps fallen into the sea and were 
washed ashore. They may have been in part attracted 
by the light-house lamps. 
The Clay Pounds are a more fertile tract than usual. 
We saw some fine patches of roots and corn here. As 
generally on the Cape, the plants had little stalk or leaf, 
but ran remarkably to seed. The corn was hardly more 
than half as high as in the interior, yet the ears were 
large and full, and one farmer told us that he could raise 
forty bushels on an acre without manure, and sixty with 
it. The heads of the rye also were remarkably large. 
The Shadbush {Amelanchier)^ Beach Plums, and Blue¬ 
berries (Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum)^ like the apple- 
trees and oaks, were very dwarfish, spreading over the 
sand, but at the same time very fruitful. The blueberry 
was but an inch or two high, and its fruit often rested on 
the ground, so that you did not suspect the presence of the 
bushes, even on those bare hills, until you were treading 
on them. I thought that this fertility must be owing 
mainly to the abundance of moisture in the atmosphere, 
for I observed that what little grass there was was re¬ 
markably laden with dew in the morning, and in summer 
dense imprisoning fogs frequently last till midday, turn¬ 
ing one’s beard into a wet napkin about his throat, and 
the oldest inhabitant may lose his way within a stone’s 
throw of his house or be obliged to follow the beach for 
a guide. The brick house attached to the light-house 
was exceedingly damp at that season, and writing-paper 
lost all its stiffness in it. It was impossible to dry your 
towel after bathing, or to press flowers without their mil¬ 
dewing. The air was so moist that we rarely wished to 
