A book by Henry David Thoreau published three years after his death in 1865. This book and The Maine Woods (1864), though published posthumously, possess the same naturalistic prose as Walden. The three have even been published as a trilogy. Cape Cod is a collection of historical stories, observations and ideas from excursions Thoreau made to the Cape in 1849, 1855 and 1857.
It is a book for beachcombers, he writes of sea, sand and the feelings experienced when walking down a beach alone. He writes of the people he sees and the things that happened at a place in the past, about the plants and terrain. Thoreau captures the sounds and smells of the ocean (and the bay side too) and traps them into this book.
Though filled with descriptive prose, the book is also informative. There are lessons on the flora and fauna of the cape, from chapter six The Beach Again:
(p112)"The plants which I noticed here and there on the pure sandy shelf, between the ordinary high-water mark and the foot of the bank were Sea Rocket (Cakile Americana), Saltwort (Salsola kali), Sea Sandwort (Honkeyna peploides)..."
He writes about the sea life and birds as well. It is a wonderful and descriptive book that reminds one of the Cape in winter, without tourists, when just the ocean and wind are there to keep you company.
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