^ 



■^ 



78 



Causes of Geological Change 



rock. Hence this fissure is called the Spouting Cave. 

 Even the hard and unstratified granite yields slowly 

 under this violent and everlasting concussion. 



Was not the Sutton Purgatory produced in the same 

 manner, during some period of the past, when the spot 

 ■constituted the shore or the bottom of the ocean ? 



r 



What strange fancy has applied this w^himsical name 

 to such fissures, I know not* But whether imposed 

 originally by Catholic or Protestant, it will now be no 

 easy matter to change it. 



FORMATION OF BEACHES ALONG THE COAST. 



Chatham Beach is perhaps the most remarkable forma- 



Massacl: 



It forms the south- 



nearly ruined by these changes. 



L 



eastern extremity of Cape Cod ; all of which was proba- 

 bly produced in this manner. Twenty years ago this 

 beach was an island, and a good harbor existed at its 

 northern extremity, which is now so entirely filled up, 

 that no indentation appears along the coast. Webb's 

 island, also, formerly situated near this harbor, is entirely 

 washed away. Chatham harbor, once excellent, is now 



According to Des 

 Barres, who constructed a chart of this coast in 1T72, 

 Chatham Beach had extended for thirty years previous 

 to that time, at the rate of a mile every twelve years. 

 The impression in the vicinity is, that it advances south- 

 erly about a mile in eight years. But a respectable 

 writer in the Barnstable Journal says, that it has extend- 

 ed only three miles in seventy years. 



According to the same writer, Nauset Beach, which 

 connects with the mainland at Eastham, has extended a 

 mile southerly in the last fifty years. Around Nauset 



I 



I 



