DAVIS. — OUTLINE OF CAPE COD. 331 



The danger of silting up the Provincetown harbor by drift eonnng 

 from the west concave shore line along the west protecting bar of 

 High head does not appear to be imminent, for the processes of trans- 

 portation are comparatively slow on the iimer side of the Cape ; but 

 the danger is nevertheless real, and nothing but an extensive and ex- 

 pensive system of bulkheads from North Truro northward, on the 

 stretch PQ, appears to be sufficient to avert it. 



The destruction of the narrow strip of sand-bar shore, VW, between 

 Race point and Wood Kud seems to me to threaten Provincetown 

 harbor with a greater danger than any that it is exposed to from the 

 east. This shore is now wasting rapidly. Once broken through,* the 

 currents driven by nortliwest gales, as well as by the rising tide, 

 would no longer have to swing around Wood End, W, and deliver 

 their load of drifting sand to Long point, X; they would in all prob- 

 ability invade the harbor directly, cutting away the low-tide flats that 

 now expand south of the village, and throwing the detritus thus 

 gained into the harbor. Attention has been called to this danger by 

 Marindin in the Coast Survey report for 1891, Appendix 8. While 

 bulkheads may delay the destruction of the narrow bar, they can 

 hardly preserve it even through a brief historical period. It has 

 been proposed to abandon the wasting bar to its fate, and to protect the 

 harbor by building a dike from the west end of the village across the 

 flats to Wood End. A partial protection might be gained by building 

 bulkheads on the northern shore of the peninsula, two or three miles 

 east of Race point, K. Drifting sand from the east would then be 

 stopped there. Race point, no longer so well supplied with sand as 

 now, would be wasted by the northwest storms, and the sands carried 

 from it would go southward to repair the shore towards Wood End. 

 The protection of the bar northeast of High head near Fg would, to a 

 certain extent, work in the same direction by diminishing the supply 

 of sand for the Race point bar ; but a considerable time might elapse 

 before any advantageous effect from this cause would be felt. 



The Future of the Cape. 

 The encroachment of the sea on the back of the Cape is undoubtedly 

 destined to continue until the Truro mainland is all consumed north 

 of Orleans, the '' elbow " of the bended arm. At the present rate of 

 recession — 3.2 feet a year — eight or ten thousand years will be re- 

 quired for this task ; and this without considering the aid given by the 



* A small breach lias been marie in this bar during the past wmter, as I 

 have learned from a recent visit to Provincetown. 



