BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 7 



sequence of beaches and rivers is as follows : Salisbury Beach, 3J miles ; 

 Merrimac River ; Plum Island Beach, 9 miles ; Ipswich River ; Ipswich Beach, 

 3^- miles ; Essex River ; Coffin's Beach, or Wingaersheek, i| miles ; Squam 

 River. This last river, with the help of a short canal to Gloucester Harbor, 

 converts Cape Ann into an island projecting out some 12 miles into the 

 Atlantic. The shores of Cape Ann are irregular and rocky, with outlying 

 rocky islands and here and there a small pebbly or sandy beach. 



The southern coast of Essex County trends from Cape Ann to the south- 

 west, and differs radically in character from the shore to the north of the Cape. 

 It is bold and rocky, of irregular contour, with several harbors more or less 

 protected, the harbors, namely, of Gloucester, Manchester, Beverly, Salem, 

 Marblehead, and Lynn. There are numerous outlying rocks and rocky islands, 

 and a number of small sandy or pebbly beaches and coves. Nahant projects out 

 into the ocean as a rocky peninsula connected with the mainland by a narrow 

 sand ridge on both sides of which are beaches. 



The rocks of this shore are ancient granites and sienites, intersected with 

 many eruptive trap dykes, especially at Nahant, Marblehead, and Cape Ann. 

 Cape Ann itself is one mass of rock, the seat of numerous granite quarries. 



There are no extensive salt marshes on this shore except the small portion 

 of the Lynn Marshes that are included within Essex County, and no sand 

 dunes, slight accumulations only of sand occurring behind the beaches, as at 

 Magnolia, Swampscott, and Lynn. Woods and cultivated fields extend in many 

 places to the water's edge. This is the famous " North Shore," and fashion has 

 full sway. 



The largest river of the County is the Merrimac River, which flows in 

 a northwesterly direction, nearly parallel with the northern boundary. South 

 of this, and running in a similar direction, is the much smaller Ipswich River, 

 while between the two are the small streams of the Parker and Rowley Rivers, 

 which are chiefly tidal estuaries. The Shawsheen River, a tributary of the 

 Merrimac, flows north through the western part of the County. The Essex, 

 Squam, Bass, and Saugus Rivers are all small and are also chiefly tidal in their 

 character. 



The last glacial period has most emphatically set its stamp on Essex 

 County, as is everywhere shown by the glacial grooves and scratches and pol- 

 ished surfaces of the rocks, by the immense numbers of glacial boulders, large 

 and small, by the glacial drift, lateral, terminal, and kettle moraines, eskers, 

 and kames, and by the numerous drumlins. Ship Rock, in Peabody, estimated 

 to weigh 1 100 tons, and Agassiz Rock, in Manchester, are famous boulders. 

 Uogtown Commons, on Cape Ann, is an elevated plateau covered with an im- 

 mense number of boulders of all sizes — a great terminal moraine. 



