THE SEA AND THE DESERT. 
193 
cov(^red with trees and bushes,” presenting ^^an exten¬ 
sive waste of undulating sand ”; — and that, during the 
previous twelve months, the sand “ had approached the 
Harbor an average distance of fifty rods, for an extent 
of four and a half miles I ” and unless some measures 
were adopted to check its progress, it would in a few 
years destroy both the harbor and the town. They 
therefore recommended that beach-grass be set out on 
a curving line over a space ten rods wide and four and 
a half miles long, and that cattle, horses, and sheep be 
prohibited from going abroad, and the inhabitants from 
cutting the brush. 
I was told that about thirty thousand dollars in all had 
been appropriated to this object, though it was com¬ 
plained that a great part of it was spent foolishly, as the 
public money is wont to be. Some say that while the 
government is planting beach-grass behind the town for 
the protection of the harbor, the inhabitants are rolling 
the sand into the harbor in wheelbarrows, in order to 
make house-lots. The Patent-Office has recently im¬ 
ported the seed of this grass from Holland, and distrib¬ 
uted it over the country, but probably we have as much 
as the Hollanders. 
Thus Cape Cod is anchored to the heavens, as it 
were, by a myriad little cables of beach-grass, and, if 
they should fail, would become a total wreck, and ere¬ 
long go to the bottom. Formerly, the cows were per¬ 
mitted to go at large, and they ate many strands of 
the cable by which the Cape is moored, and wellnigh 
set it adrift, as the bull did the boat which was moored 
with a grass rope; but now they are not permitted to 
wander. 
A portion of Truro which has considerable taxable 
9 
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