File:Cape Cod and the Old colony (1921) (14802987213).jpg

Identifier: capecodoldcolony1921brig (find matches)
Title: Cape Cod and the Old colony
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Brigham, Albert Perry, 1855-1932
Subjects: Pilgrims (New Plymouth Colony) Cape Cod (Mass.)
Publisher: New York and London, G.P. Putnam's Sons
Contributing Library: University of Connecticut Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Connecticut Libraries

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ntury andmore he has watched wind and wave, madethe official observations for the GovernmentWeather Bureau, and reported the passingships to the Chamber of Commerce in Boston.Mr. Small thinks that, during the half-cen-tury, the cliffs have receded eighteen inches ayear. This has by no means, however, beenuniform. After much undermining there wasat one time a slip of twenty feet in width, pro-ducing an adjusted slope, which remained fora long time. At one point a cesspool overflowwas allowed by the lighthouse authorities todischarge over the bank, but the resultingwash was so destructive that this disposal ofwaste was abandoned. The Governmentbought ten acres of land for a lighthouse site,from Mr. Smalls ancestor, in 1797. Of thisarea about five acres now remain, and thetime is not distant when more land must beacquired and the light set farther inland. The retreat of the outer rampart of the Capeis no imagining, and the old men of sixty orseventy years ago used to relate that they had
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The Changing Shoreline 73 hoed corn where ships then sailed, on the dis-appearing edge of the town of Truro. Anobserver of the United States Coast Survey ofa generation ago, thought the cHffs of Truro ^receded eight feet per year and those of East- ham five feet. This estimate is probably toolarge for any long-time average. It is believedthere may have been one third of a mile ofretreat in historic time, that is, during thethree or four himdred years in which thewhite man has known something of theseshores. This would give us four or five feet ayear. No geologist has told, or can tell, how longa time has passed since the ice retreated fromNew England. And none can say at whatprecise date the land took its present stand inrelation to sea level. Still one can rather safelyaffirm that tke trimming of the outer Capehas been going on for several thousand years,and that it will require several thousand moreto obliterate Truro and Eastham and Orleans.The land may rise, or it may go down, and

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