The Geology of Hingham. 61 



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 w T ould 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 hack 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 ddbris 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 stria? 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 



