CAPE COD GEOLOGY 



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Ledge and Whale Rock, which lie just off the west end of Cuttyhunk, are similar 

 remnants of lost land that extended westward along the line of the Falmouth 

 moraine. The name "Sow and Pigs" is on Southack's chart of the coast, and 

 is undoubtedly a seventeenth century expression, like "Bishop and Clarks," 

 "Rose and Crown," shoals that lie farther east, designating a large boulder 

 and its surrounding smaller associates. 



PENIKESE AND WOEPECKET ISLES 



Three small islands, Penikese and Gull Island, which lie about two miles 

 north of Cuttyhunk Island, and Woepecket Island, which lies about three-quarters 

 of a mile north of the eastern part of Naushon Island, form an inner line of 

 morainal heaps on the south side of Buzzards Bay. 



Penikese Island 



Penikese Island consists of a large and small islet of glacial till which are 

 connected by a barrier beach. The larger island is about three-fourths of a mile 

 long and somewhat over a quarter of a mile wide. Two drift hills in its central 

 part rise to heights exceeding 80 feet. The eastern isle is not more than a quarter 

 of a mile long from northeast to southwest and rises to an elevation of more 

 than 60 feet. Its wave-washed shores are strewn with glacial boulders derived 

 from till. The underlying deposits are presumed to be sand and clay similar 

 to those under Cuttyhunk Island. According to Mr. Gilbert Hart, my assistant, 

 who visited the island in September, 1916, there were then seven bored or driven 

 wells on the island, one of which is 120 feet deep. 



On the northeastern coast of the main island Mr. Hart observed a bed of 

 till 7 feet thick, which lay upon sand. Boulders are abundant on the surface 

 of the island. Most of them are granitic, but there are some boulders of dark 

 basic rock, probably a dike rock, as well as some of conglomerate derived from 

 the Carboniferous basin about Middleborough. 



Gull Island 



Gull Island, which lies about three quarters of a mile east of the south point 

 of Penikese Island, is a wave-washed shoal from which lines of boulders stretch 

 toward Penikese. Mr. Hart noted a boulder on Gull Island 20 feet long which 

 rose 6 feet above mean tide level. About a quarter of a mile west by south of 

 Gull Island is a small shoal, which is dry at low water. Penikese and the adjacent 





