208 
CAPE COD. 
they did not raise a vegetable to put into one. One 
farmer in Wellfleet, who raised fifty bushels of potatoes, 
showed me his cellar under a corner of his house, not 
more than nine feet in diameter, looking like a cistern; 
but he had another of the same size under his barn. 
You need dig only a few feet almost anywhere near 
the shore of the Cape to find fresh water. But that 
which we tasted was invariably poor, though the inhab¬ 
itants called it good, as if they were comparing it with 
salt water. In the account of Truro, it is said, Wells 
dug near the shore are dry at low water, or rather at 
what is called young flood, but are replenished with the 
flowing of the tide,” — the salt water, which is lowest 
in the sand, apparently forcing the fresh up. When 
you express your surprise at the greenness of a Prov- 
incetown garden on the beach, in a dry season, they will 
sometimes tell you that the tide forces the moisture up 
to them. It is an interesting fact that low sand-bars in 
the midst of the ocean, perhaps even those which are 
laid bare only at low tide, are reservoirs of fresh water 
at which the thirsty mariner can supply himself. They 
appear, like huge sponges, to hold the rain and dew 
which fall on them, and which, by capillary attrac¬ 
tion, are prevented from mingling with the surround 
ing brine. 
The Harbor of Provincetown — which, as well as 
the greater part of the Bay, and a wide expanse of 
ocean, we overlooked from our perch — is deservedly 
famous. It opens to the south, is free from rocks, and 
is never frozen over. It is said that the only ice seen 
in it drifts in sometimes from Barnstable or Plymouth. 
Dwight remarks that “ The storms which prevail on the 
American coast generally come from the east; and thero 
