310 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



sandr of Greenland and Alaska ; that the troughs, by which the plains 

 of washed sands are trenched, 'result from the channelling by streams 

 when they carried less waste than while they were previously aggrad- 

 ing the plains ; and that the indentations of the shore line are the result 

 of slight depression, whereby the troughs were partly drowned. Tlie 

 reconstruction of what I have above called the " original outline," will 

 therefore not necessarily lead us to the shore line that obtained at the 

 close of the time of accumulative construction, if the land then stood 

 higher than now ; but only to a contour line drawn on the original 

 constructional mainland at present sea level. However, between the 

 actual original shore line and the reconstructed contour line, there 

 must have been a difference of degree rather than of kind ; the latter 

 embracing a smaller land area than the former, but the general outline 

 and disposition of the laud areas probably being of much the same 

 style in both cases, except for the indentations of drowned valleys 

 after submergence. For this reason, no further especial attention 

 will be given to depression in its effect in altering the outline of the 

 Cape. 



A proposed reconstruction of the outline of the Cape has been drawn, 

 with the four guiding principles above stated in mind. Trifling addi- 

 tions are made in the bays; none more than 2,000 feet. Significant 

 additions are made on the west side of the Cape ; some of these meas- 

 ure 4,000 or 5,000 feet. Two miles or more of land are added on the 

 east side, or " back," facing the broad Atlantic. The margin of the 

 restored outline is indented toward the various troughs and valleys that 

 break the general surface of the mainland. About High head, the 

 northern point of the cliffed mainland, the fourth of the guiding prin- 

 ciples comes into play ; and hereabouts the most interesting problem 

 of the Cape is found. The view of the peninsula of Provinceland 

 from this commanding point is therefore particularly instructive. 



The Problem op High Head. 



The cliffed margin of the mainland at High head, H, Figure 1, is 

 notably even both on the northern and western sides. At present, the 

 head is protected both on the west and north by forelands of marsh and 

 bar, the bars springing tangent from cliff fronts farther south or south- 

 east. The bar, Q R, on the west, is part of a long concave shore line, 

 TPQR, — the "west concave" shore, — whose excavated curve is mani- 

 festly dependent on the existence of the peninsula of Provinceland to 

 the northwest. Before this concave curve was cut, a nearly straight 

 shore line, CTYQH, — the "west straight" shore, — had been made, 



