186 
CAPE COD. 
the extremity of the Cape, through Provincetown into 
Truro, and many a time as we were traversing it we 
were reminded of Riley’s Narrative ” of his captivity 
in the sands of Arabia, notwithstanding the cold. Our 
eyes magnified the patches of Beach-grass into corn¬ 
fields in the horizon, and we probably exaggerated 
the height of the ridges on account of the mirage. 
I was pleased to learn afterward, from Kalm’s Travels 
in North America, that the inhabitants of the Lower 
St. Lawrence call this grass ( Calarnagrostis arenaria), 
and also Sea-lyme grass (Elymus arenariui)^ seigle de 
mer ; and he adds, “ I have been assured that these plants 
grow in great plenty in Newfoundland, and on other 
North American shores ; the places covered with them 
looking, at a distance, like cornfields ; which might ex¬ 
plain the passage in our northern accounts [he wrote in 
1749] of the excellent wine land [_Vinland det goda. 
Translator], which mentions that they had found whole 
fields of wheat growing wild.” 
The Beach-grass is “ two to four feet high, of a sea- 
green color,” and it is said to be widely diffused over the 
world. In the Hebrides it is used for mats, pack-saddles, 
bags, hats, &c.; paper has been made of it at Dorches¬ 
ter in this State, and cattle eat it when tender. It has 
heads somewhat like rye, from six inches to a foot in 
length, and it is propagated both by roots and seeds. 
To express its love for sand, some botanists hav^e called 
it Psamma arenaria^ which is the Greek for sand, quali¬ 
fied by the Latin for sandy, — or sandy sand. As it is 
blown about by the wind, while it is held fast by its 
roots, it describes myriad circles in the sand as accu¬ 
rately as if they were made by compasses. 
It was th(j dreariest scenery imaginable. The only 
