Origin of the lariforms of Western Cape Cod 
‘ashpee pitted plain 
More than 1CO scaugre miles of surface at the west end of Cape 
Cod. in the Pocasset, Falmouth, Sandwich, Cotuit and Hyannis quadran- 
gies,/ are underisin ty loose, stratified sand and gravel. This msa- 
eel 
es nemec only the Sandwich has been published 
istribution by the Geological Survey. 
terial is exposed in scores o: all pits excavated around cranberry 
bogs and along closely-spaced nie At many places the surface of 
the sand and gravel forms a nearly flat plain, as at the Massachu- 
setts National Guard Cemo, located in the southeastern corner of the 
Pocasset quadrangle (Plate II}. Other extensive portions of the sur- 
Pace are naturally pitted {as e pad farther on wider the heading 
“evidences of buried ice") and undulating. Long furrows also break 
the smoothness of the plain, and even its smoothest portions have a 
systematic gentile sicre toward the south or southeast. These fea- 
tures suggest a lors and complicated history. The name of the plain 
a8 Gerived ashpee. . 
Origzi this was a continuous, smooth plain 
without It is fan-shaped and the small end 
r apex formed where the Sandwich moraine 
rla 
5 
5 ine. The outer edge of the fan now 
ib = he waters of Nantucket and Vinevard 
he presext shoreline across this outer edge forms a broad 
rom Falmouth to Cotuit,. 
f an.-slopes gently ‘but regularly -from the 
alevel, south and east to the outer edge 
This surface slope is very slightly 
istinctly steeper near the apex of the 
Fig. 5). In the higher half of the 
the apex, the average slope is 15 to 20 
ions formed near the apex at a later 
oO 
n 
4 
ne z Slope of deposition before pits were 
made ma e even greater.°. Indeed, some non-pitted portions 
of this upper part of the plein drop as much as 25 feet in one mile. 
The lower half of the plain, on the other hand, has a surface slope 
of only 12 to 15 feet ver mile where it is not pitted. 
DAP —- DAwe’ 
Origin of the Pisin 
ravel plain resemble closely those 
OS Such streams of meltwater ar 
with rock fragments from the ice. 
channels of the streams, forcing 
by streams that issue from beneath 
