6o FACTS RELATING TO GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS. 



made, in the year 1802, a fire engine, of which the town then 

 stood in great need; and this small machine is still in active 

 use, after a service of more than a century, and to-day will 

 throw a stream of water over the highest roof in the place. 

 The Canal Commissioners, in their Report (page 57), say: 



The route, from the Nashua, continues over plains, on quite level 

 land, without any very great impediments, through the southern part 

 of Groton, to the Cuttecoonemugkeag, the outlet of Sandy Pond ; 

 thence along the southern side of that pond to Spectacle Pond, situ- 

 ated between Groton and Littleton. These ponds can be used as 

 reservoirs. 



I make this extract, in order to give the name of the outlet 

 to Sandy Pond, as used by the Commissioners. Cuttecoone- 

 mugkeag is a word evidently akin to the name of the river in 

 Shirley, but I have never seen it applied before to any stream 

 in Groton. At the present time the outlet to the pond is 

 called Sandy Pond Brook. 



Mr. Baldwin, in his Report (page 112), says: — 



From Sandy Pond, in Groton, near the schoolhouse No. 11, the 

 water may be turned with great ease, to Spectacle Pond, into which 

 falls Shaker's brook. The stream from Spectacle Pond passes 

 through Forge Pond, in Westford, from which it is called Stony 

 Brook, until it drops into the Merrimack River, in Chelmsford. 

 From information derived from intelligent gentlemen, and from my 

 own observation of part of this section of country, it will be quite 

 easy to open a communication through the valleys of these ponds 

 and brooks, to the Middlesex Canal, in Chelmsford. Whether it 

 would be expedient to carry the main line of the proposed canal 

 in that direction ; or whether a branch only should be taken off 

 from it that way, are questions which it may be important to have 

 the means of settling. It will therefore add much to the valuable 

 hydrographic information which these surveys will furnish, to cause 

 a level and examination to be made, between the Nashua at Staples' 

 mills, and the Middlesex canal. 



School-house, No. 11, mentioned by Mr. Baldwin, was situ- 

 ated at the crotch of the roads, a short distance east of Sandy 

 Pond, and is now in Ayer. Shaker's Brook at the present 



