USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Hingham > History of the town of Hingham, Massachusetts, vol 1 > Part 7
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History of Hingham.
feet. These hills rest on rock surfaces which have been subjected to glacial action and show striation.
Now when the fact is taken into consideration that all such hills are only to be found in countries which have been covered with the ice-sheet, that their longitudinal axes always coincide, or very nearly coincide, with the direction of the striæe upon the rocks of the regions where they occur, and that they are com- posed almost entirely of till, no one can reasonably doubt that they were originally formed under and by the action of the ice- sheet itself. How the till could be raised into such hills has been a subject of much question, but there is now a general acquies cence in the view that they had their origin in the gradual and long-continued accumulation of the clay and its accompanying pebbles in certain places favorable for the aggregation of the ma- terial, in the same manner that sand-banks are formed in rivers.
GROOVINGS AND STRIATION OF THE ROCKS.
The rock exposures in different parts of the town show clearly the wearing away of the material, causing extensive grooves upon their surfaces, and often fine striæ, which mark unmistakably the course of the glacier over them. The granite, while it exhibits the smooth, rounded outlines and the deep groovings on a grand scale, seldom shows the finer and more delicate markings as seen upon the slate and diabase. Among the localities where the striæ may be clearly discerned are the following : -
FORT HILL. - The diorite on the side of the street next the cemetery very generally exhibits striæ. An examination of these shows their direction to be as follows, - compass measurement (which measurement will be given in all cases) : -
East of south 10° East of south 12º
East of south 15°
LASELL STREET. - On the left side of this street, going south, about 1000 feet from Free street, and extending from the carriage- way to the fence, is the flat surface of a dike of diabase, upon which are very numerous stria. Several of these examined were found to run east of south 10°.
BEAL'S COVE, Weymouth Back River. - There is here a consid- erable exposure of slate, through which is a large dike of diabase. On both rocks striæ are abundant. Examination showed them to vary in direction as follows : -
East of south 10°, East of south 15°, on slate.
East of south 20°,
East of south 25°, on dike rock.
Lafayette
10000
0000
25°
F
00
06
00
52
History of Hingham.
feet. These hills rest on rock surfaces which have been subjected to glacial action and show striation.
Now when the fact is taken into consideration that all such hills are only to be found in countries which have been covered with the ice-sheet, that their longitudinal axes always coincide, or very nearly coincide, with the direction of the striæe upon the rocks of the regions where they occur, and that they are com- posed almost entirely of till, no one can reasonably doubt that they were originally formed under and by the action of the icc- sheet itself. How the till could be raised into such hills has been a subject of much question, but there is now a general acquies cence in the view that they had their origin in the gradual and long-continued accumulation of the clay and its accompanying pebbles in certain places favorable for the aggregation of the ma- terial, in the same manner that sand-banks are formed in rivers.
GROOVINGS AND STRIATION OF THE ROCKS ..
The rock exposures in different parts of the town show clearly the wearing away of the material, causing extensive grooves upon their surfaces, and often fine striæe, which mark unmistakably the course of the glacier over them. The granite, while it exhibits the smooth, rounded outlines and the deep groovings on a grand scale, seldom shows the finer and more delicate markings as seen upon the slate and diabase. Among the localities where the striæ may be clearly discerned are the following : -
FORT HILL. - The diorite on the side of the strect next the cemetery very generally exhibits striæ. An examination of these shows their direction to be as follows, - compass measurement (which measurement will be given in all cases) : -
East of south 10°
East of south 12º
East of south 15°
LASELL STREET. - On the left side of this street, going south, about 1000 feet from Free street, and extending from the carriage- way to the fence, is the flat surface of a dike of diabase, upon which are very numerous stria. Several of these examined were found to run east of south 10°.
BEAL'S COVE, Weymouth Back River. - There is here a consid- erable exposure of slate, through which is a large dike of diabase. On both rocks striæ are abundant. Examination showed them to vary in direction as follows : -
East of south 10°, East of south 15°, on slate.
East of south 20°, )
East of south 25°, on dike rock.
GEOLOGY OF HINGHAM. MAP OF HINGHAM VILLAGE AND WEST HINGHAM . Prepared by W. O. CROSBY.
+++ + 1.
Nort
str
North
South
Street
tree
n
street
Main
R
Street
South
Street
afayette
Sleek
Central
4
PA
AV
....
"Thayer
Explanation of Colors
Conglomerate Series
State Series
Granate d FY 1 X Dortle-
Melaphy
AA & Conglomeatr 9286 d .Sundstone 2a:
Slate de Shale
Slate if Shrile.
Dikes
Scale Iinch - 330 Feet or 20 rods
1290415
Emerald
Street
Šta
General Section.
Horizontal and vertical scales nearly equal
South
P
ANO
steen
West
OLD
Avenitx+
1000
Street"
117
$7
Sirget
Street
Stre
North
Faults
53
The Geology of Hingham.
ROCKY NECK. - On a beach of the northern shore, upon diabase, are glacial striæ showing a direction southeast, and also cast of south 30°.
UNION STREET. - On the left side of Union street, 1670 feet from Lasell, and just beyond Long Bridge Lane, is a granite ledge upon which are numerous stria.
SUMMER AND ROCKLAND STREETS. - Just at the corner of these streets, by the roadside, is an exposure of diabase trap, before men- tioned when treating of dikes, upon which are striæ which show variation in direction as follows : - '
East of south 10° East of south 12º East of south 15°
WEIR STREET. - On the right side of the roadway of this street, a short distance from the railroad-crossing, is an exposure of dio- rite showing striæ running -
East of south 5°
East of south 10°
INDIAN POT-HOLES, OR GIANTS' KETTLES OF FOREIGN WRITERS.
It is well known that wherever there exist waterfalls of any mag- nitude, pot-holes, so-called, are often found beneath the rushing waters, formed by the friction of stones which have been lodged in the hollows of the rock surface over which the torrent pours, and which, having a somewhat circular motion imparted to them, gradually wear away the rock, with the result of producing these singular objects.
It is not surprising that when these have been found, as has often been the case, where there was nothing to indicate there had ever been a river or running stream, they should have excited alike the wonder and interest of both scientific and unscientific beholders.
It should be borne in mind that the knowledge of a great conti- nental ice-sheet resting over our whole northern region is but a re- cent acquisition, and that phenomena having their origin under such a condition of things could not possibly be understood previously by the most learned of observers.
The ideas of the unlearned respecting such pot-holes are often ludicrous. With our own people they have been regarded as the work of the Indians, and where found have been called Indian Pot- Holes, from the thought that they had been wrought for and used as cooking vessels. Abroad they have been called Giants' Kettles, undoubtedly from the belief that they were made by giants for their culinary use.
The study of glacial phenomena within a few years has thrown t flood of light upon much that was before obscure, and we now
1
54
History of Hingham.
can well understand how pot-holes may have been formed in lo- calities remote from any water-courses of the present period by rushing torrents through crevasses in the great ice-sheet.
The pot-holes to be mentioned, though not found within the limits of Hingham, are too near its borders, and too interesting as phe- nomena of the glacial period, not to be noticed here. They are to be found in Little Harbor, Cohasset, on Cooper's Island, so- called, which however is not an island in the sense of being a body of land surrounded with water, but from its being a somewhat elevated land surrounded partly by water and partly by low, marshy ground. There is a border of rocky cliffs on the northern portion of the east coast of this island which end at a beach that separates them from other cliffs farther south; and it is near the termi- nation of those first-mentioned and quite close to the beach that the pot-holes are found. Just before this termination there is a partial separation of the rocky mass by an opening on the water side, which, however, rapidly narrows inland but a few feet from the water. It is on the northern side of this opening, that is, on the rock that slopes towards the south, and very near the water at low tide, that two of the holes, or what remains of them, may be readily seen when the tide is out.
Of the lowest of these, and the best preserved of them, and which is designated as No. 1 in Figure No. 4, there yet remains a pot- hole in the rock which will 3 hold water to the depth of 1 foot 9 inches, having a well- defined rim just at the sur- face of the water. The di- ameter of it at rim is 251 & - inches ; below the rim 30 inches. Above this rim the whole southern side of what once formed a portion of the pot-hole is gone; but on the northern side there remains, as a concavity in the rock, what formed a part of it, having well-worn marks up- on the surface; and these are plainly discernible for a height of four feet. From the rock sloping away rapid- ly above, it is very probable that even these traces, whch prove a depth of six feet, do FIGURE No. 4. not give the whole of that of the original vessel when it was intact. Exterior to this pot-hole the tide sinks below the level of its bottom, but at high tide all is covered.
55
The Geology of Hingham.
The second pot-hole has its bottom three feet above that of the lowest one, and a perpendicular line from the centre of each shows the two to be three feet apart. The wall dividing them must have become, while yet action went on within them, very thin, and prob- ably one broke into the other before it ceased altogether. The whole southern side of this second hole, which is marked No. 2 in Figure No. 4, is gone, and water can now stand in its bottom to the depth of only about two inches.
The concavity above this, which formed the northern portion of the hole, exhibiting as it does a well-worn surface of three feet in width, shows that it must have been as large as or larger than the first. This concavity can be discerned to the height of five feet, where further traces are lost ; but, as is the case with No. 1, the whole depth of the pot-hole may have been much greater than what is indicated. The slope of what remains of the walls of these holes shows that the flow of water over the rock surfaces was from the northwest. That of No. 2 approximates to 30° from that direction towards the southeast.
Of No. 3, so designated in Figure No. 4, there is but little to be said except that it is small and shallow. It is 4 feet 9 inches above No. 2 in a northwest direction, and there may be traced from it westerly a narrow water channel about six feet in length.
The fourth of the pot-holes to be mentioned is or was the largest of all, and hence has been called by the people near by the " Well." It is designated as No. 4 in Figure No. 5. Passing over the rocky elevation in a northerly direction, it may be found about a hundred feet distant from the others, in front of a cliff which faces an opening in the rocks more immediately near the water. This pot-hole, unlike those previously mentioned, is not found on a sloping portion of rock, but is on a flat surface directly at the base of the cliff. Horizontally, the form of it is oval, and its largest diameter, which is northeast and southwest in direc- tion, is four feet, the narrowest two feet ten inches. The depth at which water is now retained is about a foot.
The cliff rises nine feet high from the margin of the "Well " and ten feet from its bottom. The " Well " itself was probably as deep at least as ten feet, the curvature and wearing of the rock of the cliff above the present hole clearly showing this.
The rocky ridge in which all these pot-holes or kettles are found, has a height of from 20 to 25 feet, and is of granite. Besides the pot-holes of which an account has been given, there are other depressions showing distinctly a commencement of action towards their formation. Two of such may be found 20 feet in a north- erly direction from those numbered 1, 2, and 3; that is, between these and the one called the "Well," No. 4. One is shallow, appearing like the bowl of a spoon, about a foot across, show- ing, extending from it, a water-worn channel sloping easterly to the edge of the rock surface, about ten feet ; and on a lower sur- face of the same rock, another and larger depression just where
56
History of Hingham.
water from the first might descend. Moreover, a large portion of the rock surface shows not only glaciation but continued water action.
4
FIGURE No. 5.
It is very certain that no river has ever existed in the region of the pot-holes at Cohasset to account for their existence. We are forced, therefore, to ascribe their origin to the flowing of water from the great continental glacier.
Considering the shallowness of the portions of the pot-holes de- scribed on Cooper's Island remaining for our observation, and the probability that they have been visited by generations of people, both of the Indian and the white man, it is not surprising that no- thing is left of their contents in or about them. There is, however, one rounded stone in the possession of Mr. Charles S. Bates, the owner of the estate on which the pot-holes are found, which tra- dition states to have been taken from the deepest one mentioned. It is elliptical, nearly spherical, in form, - its longest diameter being about four and a half inches, its shortest four inches. Trans- versely, it is quite circular. It is of granite, not unlike that of the surrounding country. There is no reason to question the truth of the tradition.
To account for the phenomena presented by the pot-holes de- scribed, it is necessary to recognize that when the great glacier
57
The Geology of Hingham.
lay over the land, many hundreds of feet in depth, during the summer, particularly towards the close of the period, rivers flowed over its surface, as they now do over the glaciers of the Alps. As there, crevasses were formed in the ice, into which the water poured and worked passages to the bottom of the great sheet, dis- charging itself in torrents, often conveying stones and other mo- raine matter to the rock surfaces below. Such passages in modern glaciers become somewhat circular in form and are hence called wells. They are also called moulins, the latter name from the noise made by the rushing waters in the ice, being not unlike that of a mill. The water, and the material conveyed by it through such wells of the great glacier of our continent, must have smoothed and worn rapidly away the rock surface on which they impinged, often causing, by the same kind of action as is witnessed under falls of water in some of our rivers, holes in the rocks like those now under consideration. Of course the action of the water and material conveyed by it would be immensely more rapid in form- ing such holes, falling, as they undoubtedly did, from a great height, and striking upon the rocks below with intense force. This would lead to the abrasion of the rock, by any rotating stones lodged in the hollows, so much more powerful than any action we know under falling waters of the present day as to render estimation of the result incalculable.
It is doubtful, however, to the mind of the writer, if circum- stances often favored the formation of pot-holes directly beneath such a fall and where its full force would be felt. He is impressed with the view that if this were the case they would not be found having the form they horizontally present.
It has, indeed, been thought strange that, as the ice moved con- tinuously on, the holes were not found generally elongated in the direction of the movement of the glacier rather than circular. Such thought, however, is only consistent with the presumption that the holes were made just where the water first fell upon the rock surface below. Far more reasonable is it to suppose that the holes were formed somewhat distant from this place, where the masses of rocks borne by the waters found a lodging in some depression, and there by rotation worked out the pot-holes. The ice might move on and the waters descend through the moulin far from where they first fell, yet continue their flow in the same direction as at first, and go on with the work of rotating the contents of the hole through a whole season. In such case there could be, of course, no reason to expect elongation.
The fact that pot-holes have been found in near proximity, and in such positions relative to each other as to show them to be apparently the result of independent falls of water, leads to a consideration of what has been noticed in the Alps. Observation upon the glaciers there shows that as a crevasse is carried for- ward by the general movement of the ice from where it received the flow of waters in the summer, and winter cuts off the supply,
58
History of Hingham.
it closes, leaving only upon the surface of the glacier a mark show- ing where it had once been. Subsequently, a new one is formed just where in relation to the land at the margin of the glacier, the former one existed; and the waters of the succeeding sum- mer again descend upon the rock surface near where they before fell, but not often, probably, in exactly the same place; and thus other pot-holes are formed contiguous to those of a preceding sea- son, and yet far enough distant to make it evident that they were not produced by the same flow of water.
Respecting the formation of the crevasses in about the same places on the ice-sheet, there can be no question but that this is due to the irregularities of the subglacial surface; and as high ridges transverse to the direction of the glacial flow must favor their formation, it is no wonder that pot-holes are often found in the slopes of such ridges and at their bases, as in the case of those described at Cohasset.
Though lenticular hills, stria upon the rocks, and pot-holes have been described as phenomena of the Glacial Period, it may be well to add that both pot-holes and stria upon rocks may in some instances have been formed in the Champlain Period, now to be presented.
CHAMPLAIN PERIOD.
The early part of the Champlain Period was characterized by the final melting away of the glacier. The phenomena attendant up- on the great and long continued flooding over the ice-sheet and over the surface of the land were of marked character. Un- doubtedly, there is to be ascribed to it the formation of the ridges and hillocks called Kames, and the singular hollows in the lands. contiguous to these, known as " kettle-holes." Of these some ac- count will now be given.
KAMES.
There are found extensively over New England as well as in other regions where the great ice-sheet covered the surface, ridges of a peculiar character, which ordinarily run in a direction some- what approximate to that of the principal striae on the rock sur- faces northwest and southeast. That is to say, the general direc- tion is this, but the variations are common, and often so like those of a stream of water in its course as to have suggested that the many rivers pouring over the glacial sheet during the prolonged period of its subsidence, cutting into its surface and receiving from it a large portion of its burden of rocky, gravelly, and sandy material, somehow led to the formation of these singular eleva- tions which have long excited the interest of beholders. The view is a reasonable one, and if such was the origin of the kames referred to, their general direction and sinuous course is readily
59
The Geology of Hingham.
accounted for, as currents of water on the melting glacier would ordinarily run towards the retreating ice front.
From quite a full account of the Kames of New England by the Rev. G. F. Wright, published in the " Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History," Vol. XXII., Part 2, there are several mentioned which had been traced over one hundred miles. These ridges vary in height from a few feet to nearly or quite one hun- dred, often having very steep slopes and narrow summits. They are composed generally of stones, gravel, and sand.
It is necessary, before proceeding further, to mention that the term " kames " is not now so restrictively used, to signify merely the long ridges of glacial material referred to above, but is made to include the numerous hills and hillocks of the same character, which are found often associated with the ridges, especially towards the termination of the ice-sheet, and, like them, deposited by the melting ice during its retreat from the surface. The ma- terial is the same and its origin the same, the only difference consisting in the method of its deposition.
There are frequently found among the kame hills and hillocks, and often along the sides of the ridges, deep depressions of the surface, sometimes many acres in extent, which are known as " kettle-holes " and of which an account will be given further 011.
Few, if any, of the towns of the State can show more interesting mementos of the great ice period than Hingham. What with the grand lenticular hills ; the kame ridges and kame hills ; the gla- ciated and striated rocks; the large bowlders dropped from the ice and scattered here and there over the surface; the deep kettle-holes where masses of the ice rested, -one could scarcely ask for more.
Besides all this, however, the Indian pot-holes of which a description has been given may be seen by taking a short ride to the town of Cohasset, once a part of Hingham.
KAME RIDGES OF HINGHAM.
One of the most interesting of the kame ridges of the town is to be found on the northern and northeastern borders of Accord Pond. Where the small structures of the Hingham Water Com- pany stand, at the margin of the pond near Whiting Street, the ridge, which was approximately continuous, is no longer so, and here are presented to view two transverse sections separated from each other for a distance of 350 feet. The direction of the kame at this place was about south-southeast, as shown by a line between the two exposed faces. Following this southern portion, it is found to skirt the pond in a somewhat irregular course, varying from east to southeast, and ends just before reaching Hingham Street in Rockland. The northerly part of the kame, commencing
60
History of Hingham.
from where it has been dug away at the line of boundary of the land of the water company, follows a somewhat serpentine course, first along the margin of the pond, southeast, and then in a north- erly direction towards Whiting Street. After crossing this street it continues in a northerly direction about 150 feet, then changing and running westerly about 320 feet, where it terminates. The whole length of the ridge is somewhat over five eighths of a mile. It is well worth visiting, being a good example of a typical kame ridge, and though generally wooded, is sufficiently open at the sum- mit to allow of free passage to pedestrians.
KAMES OF CUSHING STREET. - Proceeding from Whiting Street north, through Cushing Street, the range called Breakneck Hills is at first seen at a considerable distance on the left, but these elevations gradually approach the road, and at about half a mile from Whiting Street terminate quite near to it. No sooner are these passed than there looms up on the right side of the way, in rear of a farmhouse and adjoining fields, a high and very re- markable ridge, which is well worth ascending, not only to study its construction, but because it affords quite an extensive view from its summit of the Breakneck (kame) Hills and other objects. The height of this ridge is about 80 feet, its length about 1200 feet, and the slope from the top, especially on the west side, very steep.
A short distance north from the farmhouse mentioned, a great kame ridge crosses the street, the transverse sections exposed by digging the roadway through, rising high on each side. These show the base of the ridge to be about 200 feet. Its greatest height is about 100 feet. The length is greater than that of any other in Hingham, being about a mile. Its general course is east- southeast and north-northwest, but it is now so closely wooded as to make particular examination difficult. Its southerly termina- tion is quite near Gardner Street.
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