USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Hingham > History of the town of Hingham, Massachusetts, vol 1 > Part 8
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Proceeding but a short distance further north on Cushing Street, another ridge is found to cross the road, but at a different angle from the first, its course being approximately northwest and south- east. It consequently intersects the other at a point distant five to six hundred feet from the road, and there has its termination. In the angle between the two is a deep kettle-hole depression. This ridge extends northwest from the road between eleven and twelve hundred feet.
Cushing Street passes through another kame deposit, but this is rather a hillock than a ridge, as it extends but a short distance from the road on either side.
THE KAMES NEAR GREAT HILL. - In passing through New Bridge Street towards Hobart, looking to the right may be seen, on land of Mr. F. W. Brewer, two high parallel ridges near the road, of about equal altitude, and which coalesce with each other about 900 feet from the street, by one of them - the most northerly - abruptly dividing, one branch crossing to the other ridge, the first con- tinuing beyond about 350 feet. The northerly kame crosses the
PHOTO "ENG.CO. N.Y.
KAMES, NEAR GREAT HILL, HINGHAM.
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The Geology of Hingham.
street, and its extreme length is 1825 feet. The height of these ridges is from 30 to 50 feet, with quite narrow summits, and hav- ing very sloping sides. Their composition is small stones, most- ly shingle, gravel, and sand. As seen from Great Hill, they are striking objects to the view. A view of these is given, which also shows in the distance, at the left, one of the beautifully rounded summits of a drumlin, that of Baker's Hill.
A peculiarity of these kames is the fact that their direction is from west to east, thus being nearly at right angles to all others which have been referred to. This direction would be entirely inconsistent with the view that the great ice front of the glacier continued to present itself, as at an earlier period, along an un- broken line from west to east, for if so, the rivers caused by the melting glacier would have continued to flow south or nearly so. Mr. Upham, in endeavoring to account for deflection in the direc- tion of some of the lenticular hills described by him, makes re- marks which are quite applicable to the changed direction of the kames under notice. In writing upon the retreat of the ice-sheet in southeastern Massachusetts, he states : -
" The warmth of the ocean, however, had begun to melt away the ice- fields which encroached upon its depths, more rapidly than they were driven back upon the land, or in the shallow sounds south of New Eng- land. At their further departure it seems probable that this cause produced within the Gulf of Maine a great bay in the terminal front of the ice-sheet, so that it entirely melted away east of Massachusetts, while it remained in great depth upon all the territory except its southeast por- tion. The effect of this unequal rate of retreat would be to leave the ice upon our coast unsupported at the east side, and to cause its motion conse- quently to be deflected towards the vacant area."
This view being taken as a correct one, it will be at once recog- nized that the direction of the ice movement itself would be also approximately that of the rivers that poured over it, and conse- quently of the kames formed by the debris washed into the river- beds from the glacier.
There is not wanting other evidence than that here suggested to sustain the view that in eastern Massachusetts the onward movement of the ice changed towards the close of the Glacial Period from the normal southeast direction to one more east, as a second series of striæ are found on some of our rock exposures attesting this.
Another remarkable system of kame ridges exists at the north- west extremity of Hingham, extending more than 3000 feet along the west side of Stoddard's Neck, and across Beal Street near the bridge over Weymouth Back River, from thence southward to a little indentation just north of Beal's Cove. These ridges run in a general north and south direction, although winding and branch- ing considerably south of Beal Street. On Stoddard's Neck the heavily wooded ridge varies from 50 to 75 feet in height ; on the west side above it is quite abrupt. South of Beal Street the steep
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History of Hingham.
ridges are about 50 feet high. There is another low ridge on the east side of Stoddard's Neck, and on the south side of Beal Street are several small ridges and kame hills, besides the high serpen- tine kames.
A kame ridge of considerable length borders the western shore of Fulling-Mill Pond, and another skirts its southern shore. The first-named extended several years ago to the street line, but has been dug away 50 or 60 feet. The direction of this kame is gen- erally north and south, varying in some portions toward the east and west of north, and its length is nearly 2000 feet. Its width at base is some 150 feet, and its highest elevation about 50 feet. Somewhat less than 1500 feet south from its northerly termination another ridge runs west at a right angle from this one, for a dis- tance of 750 feet, having an elevation of 25 feet, in places, and a basal width of 150 feet.
Beyond these ridges, to the southward, are numerous kame hills, so covered by forest growth as to obscure observation. Still fur- ther away, especially east and southeast, are hills of this charac- ter, of considerable elevation.
THE KAME HILLS AND HILLOCKS OF HINGHAM.
The range called Breakneck Hills, which crosses Whiting Street some distance north of Cushing, and extends southwest half a mile or more, is a great kame deposit, the material of it not differ- ing from that of the kame ridges. The width of the range varies somewhat, but averages perhaps 1000 feet. The average height is about 50 feet. A very considerable depression of the surface ex- ists along the north side of the range, followed by other approx- imately parallel elevations, with depressions alternating for a considerable distance, of the same general character but less prominent.
The long range of hills lying nearly parallel with, and north of the Old Colony Railroad, between North and East Weymouth, though outside the limits of Hingham, may well be mentioned here, as these hills can hardly fail to attract the attention of trav- ellers by the railroad, as they pass within full sight of them. These are kame elevations, and owe their origin to the great continental glacier. The general direction of this range is west-northwest and east-southeast.
The separate kame hills and hillocks cover a very considerable portion of the surface, especially in the southern and western sec- tions of the town, where they present conspicuous features in the landscape. This is the case on the territory bordering French Street, from Hobart to High, and on High Street west. Here may be seen an area almost entirely covered with hills and hillocks, having many kettle-hole depressions among them. The same may be said of much of the territory bordering Main Street, from Cushing Street to Prospect Street, and some distance beyond. The
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The Geology of Hingham.
road indeed runs through and over hillocks of kame material until reaching Prospect Street, where the surface becomes more level, and so continues until near Whiting Street.
The kame elevations of Hingham are by no means limited to the ridges and the rounded hills that cover so large a portion of its sur- face. They indeed present themselves sometimes in extensive de- posits that can hardly be included under the head of either. One such is of so marked a character, and has such remarkable propor- tions, as may make particular mention of it desirable. This is to be found southwest from Great Hill, bordering the south side of Hobart Street, along which it extends irregularly. It may proper- ly be designated as table land, being of a height varying from 30 to 50 feet, and having at top a flat surface. It measures in length east and west about half a mile, and has a width of from 500 to 1000 feet. Its sides are very steep, and are thickly covered with trees. At the south side of it is a large kettle-hole, which is par- tially embraced in the kame limits by an extension of an arm from the main body. As a sketch of the kame, however rough, will give a better idea of its singular contour than any description, one is presented on the map of the town.
The country about this interesting kame is well worth the ob- servation of those who would know of glacial phenomena in Hing- ham. North is Great Hill, one of the large drumlins, or lenticular hills, and south of it to High Street, and indeed far beyond, the country is covered with kame ridges and hillocks of irregular size and shape.
The effect upon the surface of the town by the distribution of kame material was much greater than that caused simply by its deposit in hills, ridges, and other elevations, for it is likely that all these contain scarcely one half the whole quantity resting over its area. Temporary lakes formed by barriers of ice and other mat- ter, together with the flow of the waters, undoubtedly led to such spread of the gravel and sand as to result in the formation of the extensive plains that form at different levels so large a por- tion of the territory. This was not all, for great bodies of it were deposited in such depressions of the general surface as to choke up the water-courses. There is no doubt in the mind of the writer that our principal stream, that of Weir River, pursued its way in pre-glacial times through a very different channel from that it now follows, and instead of turning east of north as it does at Hing- ham Centre just before reaching Leavitt Street, and finally enter- ing the sea between World's End and Hull, it discharged itself directly into Hingham Harbor, which then was open to the spread of its waters but a few hundred feet from where the river takes an eastward course as mentioned.
It is due to Prof. W. O. Crosby to state that he suggested the probability of this to the writer, and that subsequent examination by both revealed to us that an extensive kame deposit here had caused the river, which had flowed for some distance directly north, to make the detour mentioned.
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History of Hingham.
KETTLE-HOLES.
.
Intimately connected with the kames are depressions in the surface, sometimes of considerable depth, which have received this name. Their origin, formerly a puzzle to students of glacial phenomena is no longer so, as nature has been detected in the very act of their formation. From observations of Dr. G. F. Wright upon the glaciers of Alaska, he found that when a con- siderable surface of a melting ice-sheet had been covered over to any depth with earth material, rocks, pebbles, and sand, the ice thus prevented from melting beneath remained intact, whilst all more exposed over the field sunk away and finally disappeared. The result of this would be to leave a great mass, sometimes of large area, to settle as the glacier retreated from it, with enormous weight upon the subsoil below. Here it would remain until melt- ed, and it might require the heat of many summers to effect its entire dissolution, protected as it would be from the sun's rays by its earthy covering. As, however, the melting progressed, this covering matter would necessarily slide down around its margin, producing ridges and hillocks of material the forms of which would be more or less modified by the running water from the ice as it dissolved away. With the accumulated quantity of mat- ter thus deposited, the resting-place of the ice mass would be much below the surrounding surface. After knowing the results of Dr. Wright's investigations, it may be confidently stated that there can be no longer any reasonable doubt concerning the origin of these depressions.
THE PASSING AWAY OF THE ICE-SHEET.
Some suggestions respecting the kame ridges, the kame hills, and the kettle-holes may well be presented in remarks upon the passing away of the great ice-sheet that had for ages covered the land. The reality of the ice spread over the whole North, where previously for millions of years a tropical climate had prevailed ; its increase until it hid from the sun's rays the summits of all but the highest mountain-peaks ; its onward grand movement so fruitful of great results, bearing as it did upon and within it the material of the present hills and valleys ; and its final melting away, leaving an entirely remodelled surface, - are no longer questions for discussion. Let us therefore contemplate what the condition of the glacier was, particularly when passing away, first briefly referring to what was probable at an earlier date.
The question sometimes presents itself to mind why, with the onward movement of the ice for many thousands of years, was not all the loose material of the previously decayed rocks borne to its termination long before the change that led to its passing away, thus preventing its spreading over the land in its retreat such immense quantities of material now forming the surface in this
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The Geology of Hingham.
region, and constituting the innumerable kame hills and hilloeks that diversify the landscape.
In considering this question, it should be borne in mind that with the gradual inercase of the ice in an epoch of intense cold, there could probably have been but little flooding of the elevated regions, and consequently less disturbance of the loose material than in a later age. Consideration of this may result in the view that the glacier during the greater part of its existence had less to do with the transportation of the kame material than when passing away, aided as it then was by the torrents of water that flowed over its surface and swept the hills of all movable matter, as they emerged from the melting ice. The writer is strongly in- clined to this view, as it will satisfactorily account for the immense quantity of stones, gravel, and sand borne upon and deposited by the glacier when it finally disappeared from the surface.
Now let us picture to ourselves if we can the probable state of things over and about this town when the ice-sheet had become reduced from possibly thousands of feet in thickness to a few hundred, bearing upon it great quantities of transported material, and having floods of water pouring over it and in its channels such as the world could never before have witnessed. Let us recog- nize, too, that its water-courses were being gorged with stones, gravel, and sand, and that vast collections of these were protecting great areas of the ice from the sun's rays, often causing the chan- nels of water to deviate from their normal course in seeking new channels. Let us note, too, that the great body of the ice itself had by lessened continuity ceased its onward movement, and we shall find reasons for all we see and wonder at in the marvellous diversity of the present surface over large portions of this territory. Where great areas of the glacier by the protecting débris were kept intaet for a long period when that about them had melted away, there would be found about each such area, as before stated in treating of the formation of kettle-holes, hills and hillocks formed by the falling of the gravel and sand from its summit, more or less modified by the melting iee; and when all the ice had melted there would remain a deep depression such as we now know as kettle-holes. Where channels existed of any length, and these became filled with the sand and gravel, there would be formed ridges ; and when large areas of the ice first melted away, the material flooded into these areas would form hills and ranges of hills such as we now find occupying a considerable portion of our territory.
It will be readily recognized that, though the course of the ehan- nels of the surface and in the glacier was generally the same as that of the movement of the ice-sheet itself, and consequently the ridges formed would be now found having a like direction, yet when, by the elogging of the channel's unequal melting, the water was forced to deviate, the ridges formed would present themselves varying much from the normal direction, as they now do in regions
VOL. I .- 5
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History of Hingham.
approximating to the termination of the great ice-sheet. Some of our ridges, notably those of Great Hill, have an east-west direction, such as it is supposed the glacier itself had near its closing period over eastern Massachusetts ; but others or portions of others vary so as to be found running in every direction.
BOWLDERS.
Bowlders are found scattered over all parts of the North within the region occupied by the ice, having been borne by it from more northern positions than those they now occupy. With a knowl- edge of the direction of the movement of the glacier, they can often be traced to the locality whence they came.
A marked instance, often cited by geologists, and previously mentioned in the preliminary remarks upon the glacial period, is that of bowlders found south of Providence, of a character readily recognized, being those of a porphyritic iron ore from a well- known bed at Cumberland, R. I. They exist in the soil or upon the surface for a distance of thirty-five miles or more in the direc- tion mentioned, but are never found in any other. So of all bowlders found. If of distinctive character, they are often recog- nized as belonging to rock formations north, sometimes more than a hundred miles distant.
They vary much in size, from cobble-stones to masses of enor- mous magnitude, such as it is hard to realize have been trans- ported great distances. There are none in Hingham equal in dimensions to those found elsewhere. One of the largest ob- served by the writer is in woods bordering Rockland Street, but a few feet from the road upon the right side going east, not far from the foot of Old Colony Hill. It is of granite and measures nineteen feet in length, sixteen in width, and seventeen in height =5,168 cubic feet. The weight of this must be over 430 tons. Some large masses have become detached from the main body and these are included in the estimate of size and weight. Large as this bowlder is, it is small compared with one in the town of Madison, N. H., which measures 75 x 40 x 30 feet = 90,000 cubic feet, and which consequently weighs over 7,500 tons.
Great numbers of bowlders are found together in certain locali- ties of this town, the most notable of which is that of the south- western slope of Prospect Hill, where they cover a large portion, of the surface.
On the northeast slope of Otis Hill are a few bowlders which call for particular notice from the fact that they are of granite and that no rock of this kind occurs north of the hill less than fifteen miles distant. The ice therefore must have transported them at least as far as that and possibly very much farther.
There is a bowlder now to be seen in what was once an exten- sive kame hill known as Cobb's Bank, which is fast disappearing by being dug away. The bowlder projects from the face of the cliff
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The Geology of Hingham.
and shows the more from its color contrasting strongly with that of the surrounding material. It is of deep-red granite. Its front face measures about eight feet across horizontally, is six feet high, and the upper surface from the front to the cliff which holds it is six feet. It probably does not extend much farther back into the gravel, as this slopes from the rear to the front so as to give it support without such extension. As bowlders of this size are very rarely found in kame deposits, it has much interested geolo- gists. See Figure No. 6.
FIGURE No. 6.
One of the most interesting bowlders to visit in this neighbor- hood, though just beyond the town limits, may well be mentioned here. It is to be found on the left side of Derby Street, a short distance from the line that divides South Weymouth from Hing- ham. It is upon a high rock declivity where it was deposited by the ice many thousands of years ago, and where it will remain as
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History of Hingham.
many thousands more in all probability, unless vandal hands of man shall disturb its long repose. See Figure No. 7.
FIGURE No. 7.
At Huit's Cove, on land formerly belonging to General Benja- min Lincoln, is a large bowlder of conglomerate, somewhat rec- tangular in form, which is about fifteen feet long, eight feet wide, and ten feet high. A measurement around its sides and ends. gave a circumference of about 48 feet.
RECENT PERIOD.
Little can be said of the immediate effect of the great change that ushered in the earlier cra of this period, a change arising, so far as can be now known, by the re-elevation of the land from the Arctic Circle south to about the latitude of Northern Massachu- setts. This rise of the land has been before mentioned, and fig- ures showing the degree of elevation at various points have been given. The magnitude of this was such as to have produced un. doubtedly a much colder climate over the country even far south of New England, and to this was probably due the destruction of the huge animals that had for ages roamed over the Continent from its most southern limits to the Arctic region.
In Europe two eras of this period have been recognized, - the first characterized by a second advance of the Glacial sheet,
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which led many Arctic species of animals to extend themselves south to the Mediterranean, among them the reindeer, and this era has hence been called the Reindeer Era, while the latter part of the period has been called the Modern Era.
As there has been no evidence produced showing a second ad- vance of the Glacier in America such distinction does not apply here. We will embrace therefore what is further to be said under the heading of the Modern Era.
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MODERN. ERA.
Before limiting remarks to what appertains alone to the terri- tory of Hingham, it may be well to express a few words here upon changes of the era that have occurred in other regions, and which are of general interest.
Among such changes may be instanced those that have taken place by elevation and depression of the earth's surface. It has been demonstrated by investigations made for the government of Sweden that the coasts of that country and of Finland have been slowly rising for the past one or two centuries. On the other hand, as is well known, a slow subsidence has been going on in Greenland during the past four centuries, for hundreds of miles along the coast, where in places the buildings of the carly inhabi- tants have been found submerged.
The Geologist of New Jersey, Mr. G. H. Cook, became satisfied from his investigations that a slow depression of the surface along the coasts of that State, and also along the coasts of Long Island and Martha's Vineyard, had been in progress since the occupation of the country by the white man.
An immense subsidence has been taking place over a large area of the Pacific Ocean which has carried beneath the waves hun- dreds of islands to the depth of thousands of feet. These in- stances are only given as indications of changes that are occurring extensively over perhaps a large portion of the globe.
The extinction of species of life has been going on during this era as in earlier periods, accelerated undoubtedly by the agency of man. The cases of the Dodo and of the Solitaire in the islands of the Indian Ocean, of the Dinornis of New Zealand, of the Æpyornis of Madagascar, and of the Great Auk of the North Sea, and of the coasts of Labrador, Maine, and Massachusetts, may be cited among birds.
A noted instance of destruction tending fast to extinction is that of the noble animal of the western wilds, the Bison. At the time of the settlement of the country by the white man, immense herds roamed over territory extending from Mexico far north into British America, and from the Rocky Mountains east to the At- lantic, nearly or quite all of which have been annihilated, not so much by the reasonable requirements of civilization as by the
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History of Hingham.
brutality of such as find sport in wanton slaughter of their unre- sisting victims, that they may boast of the numbers slain by their skill and prowess.
Of vegetable species, some of the noblest are doomed to destruc- tion through the cupidity and recklessness of man. Of the early extinction of that giant of the California forests, the Sequoia, or Redwood, Dr. Asa Gray expressed himself as certain.
We will now dwell upon the phenomena of the Modern Era of the Recent Period as presented in Hingham. At its advent vegeta- ble and animal life had spread over the surface, and the land was again undoubtedly clothed with.verdure. In the low and swampy grounds peat-producing plants had extended themselves, while upon all the higher elevations shrubs and trees had sprung up and covered the earth with dense forests, under the shadow of which the gentle deer and other herbivorous species found suste- nance and safe retreats, and where, too, carnivorous beasts, the bear, the wolf, and others sought their prey.
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