CAPE COD GEOLOGY 



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inbuilt deltas, bars, and shore phenomena at an old sea level in these basins lends 

 no support to the supposition that they have come up from the sea since the 

 present surface was formed. Careful scrutiny of the surface of Cape Cod and 

 the country south of Boston by several competent geologists has failed to dis- 

 close beaches that lie beyond the reach of storm waters, or other evidence of 

 marine action that indicates changes in the level of the sea since the end of 

 the glacial period, or during or after the retreat of the last ice sheet. 1 



Before the stratified glacial deposits of this district were properly interpreted 

 they were called "modified drift," a term which implied that they had been 

 modified by some agency other than that which produced them. The modification 

 was by some supposed to be due to the action of the sea. Many geologists, in- 

 cluding Shaler, held that the outwash plains of gravel and sand on Cape Cod 

 and the neighboring islands had been laid down beneath tidal waters. 



1 Woodworth, J. B., Some glacial wash plains of southern New England, Bull. Essex. Inst., Salem, 

 Mass., 29, 1897 (actually issued 1899), pp. 71-119. At p. 105 some evidence against deposition of sand 

 plains at sea level is presented. The accompanying bibliography includes the titles of several papers 

 on changes in sea level in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 



