CHAPTER I 



GEOLOGY OF CAPE COD 

 By J. B. Woodwokth 



GEOGRAPHY 



Cape Cod proper is a modern sand bank built up at the north end of a remark- 

 able peninsula that extends as a great hook into the sea from the southeast corner 

 of Massachusetts, but the name Cape Cod is commonly applied to the peninsula 

 itself, which may be defined as including the land between Cape Cod Bay and 

 Nantucket Sound and even the land still farther west, between Cape Cod Bay 

 and Buzzards Bay. The precise boundary between Cape Cod and the mainland 

 may be conveniently drawn to follow the Cape Cod Canal and Manomet Creek, 

 but it may be drawn from the head of Buzzards Bay northeastward across the 

 narrow neck of land that separates Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod Bay to a point 

 midway between Sagamore Beach and Peaked Cliff, on the shore of Cape Cod 

 Bay. In the official language of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Cape Cod 

 is synonymous with Barnstable County. The Elizabeth Islands, which lie farther 

 southwest, form a part of Dukes County. 



LOCATION AND AREA 



Cape Cod lies between parallels of 41° 30' and 42° 5 ; north latitude, and 

 meridians 69° 55' and 70° 46' west longitude. It presents a rectangular outline 

 to the ocean, and its southern coast is fended from the open sea by the islands 

 of Nantucket and Marthas Vineyard. It has a milder climate and on the whole 

 warmer sea water on its southern than on its eastern and northern coasts. The 

 eastern coast, which trends west of north, is exposed to the waves of the Atlantic, 

 the effect of which is moderated by an extensive offshore submarine shoal known 

 as Georges Bank. The southern, broader part of the peninsula, which extends 

 eastward from Buzzards Bay, has not inaptly been called the arm of the Cape. 

 The narrow extension that rises at right angles to this part has been called the 

 forearm of the Cape, and the incurled sand bars at the north end have been 

 called the fingers or hand. 



The area of Barnstable County in 1894 was 434 square miles. 1 The area 

 of the coastal lands, particularly those on the forearm of the Cape from Nauset 



1 Henry Gannett, A Geographic dictionary of Massachusetts, Bull. TJ. S. Geol. Survey, 116, p. 10, 

 1894. 



