PKOVINCETOWN. 
203 
being absolutely no fresh water emptying into the harbor, 
the same number of superficial feet yields more salt here 
than in any other part of the county. A little rain is 
considered necessary to clear the air, and make salt fast 
and goodj for as paint does not dry, so water does not 
evaporate in dog-day weather. But they were now, as 
elsewhere on the Cape, breaking up their salt-works and 
selling them for lumber. 
From that elevation we could overlook the operations 
of the inhabitants almost as completely as if the roofs 
had been taken off. They were busily covering the 
wicker-worked flakes about their houses with salted fish, 
and we now saw that the back yards were improved for 
this purpose as much as the front; where one man’s fish 
ended another’s began. In almost every yard we detected 
some little building from which these treasures were 
being trundled forth and systematically spread, and we 
saw that there was an art as well as a knack even in 
spreading fish, and that a division of labor was profit¬ 
ably practised. One man was withdrawing his fishes a 
few inches beyond the nose of his neighbor’s cow which 
had stretched her neck over a paling to get at them. It 
seemed a quite domestic employment, like drying clothes, 
and indeed in some parts of the county the women take 
part in it. 
I noticed in several places on the Cape a sort of 
Q\oi\iQ?>-Jiakes. They spread brush on the ground, and 
fence it round, and then lay their clothes on it, to keep 
them from the sand. This is a Cape Cod clothes-yard. 
The sand is the great enemy here. The tops of some 
of the hills were enclosed and a board put up forbidding 
all persons entering the enclosure, lest their feet should 
disturb the sand, and set it a-blowing or a-sliding. The 
