188 
CAPE COD. 
in the little hollows on the edge of the desert standing 
amid the beach-grass in the sand, and the fruit of the shad- 
bush or Amelanchier^ which the inhabitants call Josh- 
pears (some think from juicy ?), is very abundant on the 
hills. I fell in with an obliging man who conducted me 
to the best locality for strawberries. He said that he 
would not have shown me the place if he had not seen 
that I was a stranger, and could not anticipate him another 
year; I therefore feel bound in honor not to reveal it. 
When we came to a pond, he being the native did the 
honors and carried me over on his shoulders, like Sind- 
bad. One good turn deserves another, and if he ever 
comes our way I will do as much for him. 
In one place we saw numerous dead tops of trees 
projecting through the otherwise uninterrupted desert, 
where, as we afterward learned, thirty or forty years 
before a flourishing forest had stood, and now, as the 
trees were laid bare from year to year, the inhabitants 
cut off their tops for fuel. 
We saw nobody that day outside of the town; it was 
too wintry for such as had seen the Back-side before, or 
for the greater number who never desire to see it, to 
venture out; and we saw hardly a track to show that 
any had ever crossed this desert. Yet I was told that 
some are always out on the Back-side night and day in 
severe weather, looking for wrecks, in order that they 
may get the job of discharging the cargo, or the like, — 
and thus shipwrecked men are succored. But, generally 
speaking, the inhabitants rarely visit these sands. One 
who had lived in Provincetown thirty years told me 
that he had not been through to the north side within 
that time. Sometimes the natives themselves come 
near perishing by losing their way in snow-storms be* 
hind the town. 
