Cape Cod and the Old colony . nd, lies this gently slant-ing surface, known to glacialists as an outwashplain. When waters flow out at the lower endof a glacier in a mountain valley they spreadtheir ample load of sands and clays in a narrowbelt down the valley. When an ice sheetspreads out on rather even ground, streamscome out at many places from under its frontaledge. They grade up the ground in front ofthe glacier; they change their points of outflowand their courses below the outflow. They runinto each other in braided and tangled pat-terns, but all in all, construct a sloping plainof outw
Cape Cod and the Old colony . nd, lies this gently slant-ing surface, known to glacialists as an outwashplain. When waters flow out at the lower endof a glacier in a mountain valley they spreadtheir ample load of sands and clays in a narrowbelt down the valley. When an ice sheetspreads out on rather even ground, streamscome out at many places from under its frontaledge. They grade up the ground in front ofthe glacier; they change their points of outflowand their courses below the outflow. They runinto each other in braided and tangled pat-terns, but all in all, construct a sloping plainof outwash. This is what happened on theCape, with ice in Cape Cod Bay and ice inBuzzards Bay—ice that reached far northwardand kept pushing southward, and the meltingnever ceased while the ice endured, and themorainic hills were built and the frontal plainwas spread and the upper Cape began to takeshape; a shape which is little changed, and itsappearance would be little changed, if themantle of herb and forest were stripped The Origin of the Cape 41 Within the outwash plain are the basins ofscores of lakes and ponds of various sizes andshapes, with forested shores, sandy beachesand a wealth of natural beauty which in lateryears has been in process of discovery. In nota few places the plain is pitted with dry de-pressions, or kettle holes, whose origin is thesame as that of the lake basins. Whether alake is found in such a depression depends onthe supply of water and the porosity or opentexture of the subsoil. Gathering in a singlesentence the forms of the upper part of theCape—it has a northern section or axis ofmoraine, and a wide, sloping plain on thesouth, while on every shore, north, south, eastand west, is a fringe of coast marshes and baysand tidal runs. In the town of Orleans, there begin as wego north, those rather low and dreary levelsknown as the plains of Nauset in the town ofEastham. The traveler by the railway or inhis motor car looks out upon this monotonousa
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectpilgrimsnewplymouthc
