86 LAND OF THE LINGERING SNOW. 



mounted by a tough layer of sod. As years 

 roll by the cliff is eroded, a little by the sea, 

 more by the ceaseless winds and frequent falling 

 rains. The ruins of the cliffs lie at their feet. 

 First masses of clay formed into mimic mountain 

 spurs and buttress ridges, then heaps of white 

 sand covered with coarse grass, finally, next the 

 sea, the broad steep beach which looks as hard 

 as marble, but when tested offers only soft and 

 uncertain support to the foot. The clay debris 

 is full of odd effects of color. White, gray, yel- 

 low, orange, lead color, and black, burning in 

 sunlight or crossed by heavy shadows, blend into 

 combinations worthy of the Yellowstone region. 

 On the upper edge of the cliffs close to the light- 

 house a colony of bank swallows have lived 

 through many generations of both men and birds. 

 Their burrows aid the work of erosion. Look- 

 ing either up or down the Atlantic shore the 

 cliffs could be seen extending in uneven array 

 above the beach. Southward they were broken 

 in places where narrow valleys ran inland, 

 reaching sometimes nearly across the Cape. 

 Almost the whole of Truro south of the light- 

 house is composed of sandhills well sodded or 

 grown with stunted pitch-pines or oaks. The 

 intervening valleys or interrupted hollows some- 

 times contain tide rivers, but are more fre- 

 quently dry. The hills are low, but as their 



