Building a mystery: another excerpt

Long ago, as the North American continent rose out of the ocean, a cut of Atlantic water split a large chunk of land away from the New England coast. This separated landmass persisted as an island, but when Captain John Smith arrived in 1614, he mapped and labeled it as a cape. Later cartographers corrected his map, but never corrected his label. To make matters worse, when they added the divisive waterway, they called it a river. It did not qualify as such, however, since it was open to the ocean at both ends and its direction of flow reversed with each change in tide. Even today’s official U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey charts have perpetuated this inaccuracy by accepting Eel River as its name. Because it flowed and was narrow, it did seem like a river.