70 History of H Ingham. 



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. 



Notwithstanding the fact stated that since the re-elevation of 

 the land that ushered in the Recent Period, it has remained very 

 nearly stationary, yet there is much to show change, — mostly, 

 however, caused by irruption of the sea and consequent destruction 

 of barriers that protected the land from the waters. Within the 

 memory of the writer a considerable body of peaty matter, sev- 

 eral feet in thickness, rested upon the land below high-water 

 mark in Huit's Cove, which of course was formed there when its 

 whole area was an inland swamp. 



Many Hingham people will remember the peat swamp cut 

 through between W T eir River Village and Hull Street when Rock- 

 land Street was laid out and made, and particularly the huge 

 trunks of trees that were found in the peat, some of which may 

 yet be seen along the margin of the road. This whole territory 

 had long been inundated with salt water at high tide, but it needs 

 no argument to show that this could not have been so when the 

 locality was congenial for the growth and development of the 

 plants that formed the peat and the trees that flourished there. 



It would be interesting to fix the time when man first appeared 

 in this locality, but this can never be known. It may be sur- 

 mised, however, that it was not long after the commencement of 

 the Modern Era, as he certainly existed upon the continent, and 

 primitive man naturally made his home on the borders of rivers 

 and about the inlets of the ocean, because of the nutriment easily 

 obtained from the waters for his subsistence. 



The most that can be learned concerning the earliest inhabi- 

 tants of the territory of Hingham, must be from the relics found 

 in their graves, and from the tools and implements they used, 

 found scattered in the soil, or in shell heaps about their habi- 

 tations. So far as these have been examined there is no evidence 

 of the existence of any race preceding the one found here when 

 the white man first appeared. 



