442 OntheSANDHILLS 



of the foil would give reafon -to fuppofe ; but the inex- 

 hauftible abundance of fifh and oyfters in the creeks, and 

 the game, render it eafy to fupport a family. 



The light houfe,* which was built about fixteen years 

 ago, is an odlangukr truncated pyramid of eight fides, rif- 

 ing 90 feet to the light, and funk 18 feet below the bafe- 

 ment courfe. Within a few yards of the light houfe, is the 

 keeper's dwelling, a wooden building of two flories. Both 

 are furrounded by a platform of plank, and, without any 

 fuch defign in the architect, this platform has preferved 

 both thefe building^3 from being buried in the fand. 



When the light houfe was built, it was placed upon the 

 higheft fand hill at the Cape. Its diftance from the beach 

 may be 6 or 7 hundred yards, and the elevation of its 

 bafe above high water, not lefs than 90 feet, x^t that time 

 there was from the foot of the building, the raofl expand- 

 ed view of the ocean, the Defart, the Chefapeak and its 

 eaftern fhore. At prefent, a mound of fand furrounds them, 

 which overtops the keeper's dwelling, and has buried his 

 kitchen to the eaves. The platform, which was laid upon 

 the former level of the fand, is an accurate ftandard from 

 whence to afcertain its accumulation. The winds meeting 

 in their courfe the elevated tower of the light, form a per- 

 petual whirl around it, which licks up the iand from the 

 fmooth furface of the timber, and heaps it around in thfe 

 form of a bafon. Where the platform ceafes, the fand 

 accumulates. Thefandyrim, while it proteds the keeper 

 from the ftorms, renders his habitation one of the drearieft 

 abodes imaginable. This rim is fometimcs higher, at 



others 



* It is a good lolid building of Rappuhannoc freeftone, but hns the unpar- 

 donable huh of a wooden ftair cafe, -which being neceflarily foaked with oil, 

 expofes the light to the perpetual rifk of deftruflion by fire. Such an accident 

 might be attended with an incalculable lofs of lives and property, the mouth 

 of the Chefapeak being perhaps the inlet to more Ihips than any other in 

 ihe United States. 



