334 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 113. 



reason to think is a very ancient one, bears 

 testimony to tlie Indian's intense feeling of 

 personality, a personality that to a degree 

 was supposed to control the very vision it- 

 self; for the potency of the manifestation 

 vouchsafed to a man. in his vision was 

 judged by the quality of the man's acts in 

 after life. It was believed that a man of 

 weak will and mind could not be the re- 

 cipient of a vision that would give him 

 great power, because such a man would not 

 be capable of receiving such a manifesta- 

 tion from Wa-ka?i-da. Thus the quality of 

 a man's vision, which was to supplement 

 his natural strength by supernatural power, 

 depended upon the character of the man's 

 Wa-zhi?i', his mind, will-power and en- 

 ergy, or, in other words, his personality. 



This estimate of a man's will- power could 

 be traced in other words, customs and 

 ceremonies of the Omahas, and in other 

 tribes belonging to the Siouan group, for 

 this belief was not only connected with 

 sacred rites and social ceremonies, but it 

 was also intermingled with homely customs 

 and offices that were shared in by both old 

 and young. In view of this wealth of tes- 

 timony from the daily life of these Indians, 

 it is not surprising that the languages of 

 the people should betray the dominance of 

 ' the idea of Personality.' 



Alice C. Fletcher. 

 Peabody Muskdm, 



Cambbidgb, Mass. 



TEE SAND-PLAINS OF TBUEO, WELLFLEET, 

 AND EASTffA3I.* 

 Lower Cape Cod exclusive of Province- 

 town, or that portion of the Cape compi-ised 

 within the townships of Truro, Wellfleet, 

 and Eastham, is made up of a succession of 

 sand-plains, of the type so prevalent in 

 eastern Massachusetts. The plains are nu- 

 merous, nevertheless they can all be re- 



* Abstract of a paper read before the Boston Society 

 of Natural History, January 6, 1897. 



ferred to three distinct series, differing from 

 each other in elevation and direction of 

 extent. The northernmost of these are the 

 Truro Plains, with an average elevation of 

 eighty feet above sea level. These stretch 

 from High Head southward to about half a 

 mile below North Truro village and east- 

 ward to Highland Light. Transverse de- 

 pressions, with a general northeast and 

 southwest trend, separate the individual 

 plains of this series on the west, while de- 

 pressions with a north and south or a north- 

 west and southeast trend limit them on the 

 east. The slopes bounding these depres- 

 sions have all the appearance of old con- 

 structional slopes, no indications of subse- 

 quent erosion having been observed. As 

 an exception to this, however, the slopes 

 bordering Salt Meadow and Moon Pond 

 Meadow on both sides of High Head should 

 be mentioned, these having all the appear- 

 ance of ancient erosion scarps. The most 

 typical of the northeast and southwest de- 

 pressions is the one occupied by the road 

 leading from North Truro station to High- 

 land Light. Here the northern slope has 

 all the characters of a southward descending 

 delta front of an ordinary sand-plain, while 

 the slope to the south of the road resem- 

 bles a northward descending ice-contact slope. 

 This difference in angle of slope is well 

 shown by the fact that the village of North 

 Truro is built wholly upon the gentler 

 delta (?) slope north of the road. This re- 

 lation of slopes holds for all the northeast 

 and southwest depressions, while in the 

 north and south and in the northwest and 

 southeast depressions the steeper ice-contact 

 (?) slope is invariably on the west, and the 

 gentler delta (?) slope on the east. Kettle 

 holes are common. 



The Wellfleet Plains stretch southward 

 from Highland Light to Wellfleet village, 

 with an average elevation of 140 feet above 

 sea level. Highland Light plain is a tj'pical 

 example. For the main part, a depression 



