122 
CAPE COD. 
chusetts, a work which, by its size at least, reminds one 
of a diluvial elevation itself. Looking southward from 
the light-house, the Cape appeared like an elevated 
plateau, sloping very regularly, though slightly, down¬ 
ward from the edge of the bank on the Atlantic side, 
about one hundred and fifty feet above the ocean, to 
that on the Bay side. On traversing this we found it 
to be interrupted by broad valleys or gullies, which 
become the hollows in the bank when the sea has worn 
up to them. They are commonly at right angles with 
the shore, and often extend quite across the Cape. 
Some of the valleys, however, are circular, a hundred 
feet deep without any outlet, as if the Cape had sunk in 
those places, or its sands had run out. The few scat¬ 
tered houses which we passed, being placed at the bot¬ 
tom of the hollows for shelter and fertility, were, for the 
most part, concealed entirely, as much as if they had 
been swallowed up in the earth. Even a village with 
its meeting-house, which we had left little more than 
a stone’s throw behind, had sunk into the earth, spire 
and all, and we saw only the surface of the upland 
and the sea on either hand. When approaching it, we 
had mistaken the belfry for a summer-house on the 
plain. We began to think that we might tumble into 
a village before we were aware of it, as into an ant- 
lion’s hole, and be drawn into the sand irrecoverably. 
The most conspicuous objects on the land were a dis¬ 
tant windmill, or a meeting-house standing alone, for 
only they could afford to occupy an exposed place. 
A great part of the township, however, is a barren, 
heath-like plain, and perhaps one third of it lies in 
common, though the property of individuals. The 
author of the old Description of Truro,” speaking 
