MODIFIED DRIFT ALONG THE SEA-COAST. I /I 



feet in depth. It is coarse for the first ten feet, with the largest pebbles 

 a foot in diameter ; below, it is fine, but has little clear sand.* Breakfast 

 hill, about 150 feet above the sea, and the plain about 50 feet lower, which 

 extends southward to the first railroad crossing in North Hampton, are 

 composed of coarse gravel and sand. Thence similar deposits, 100 to 

 125 feet above the sea, extend in nearly level plains south-west to North 

 Hampton village, forming the water-shed between Winnicut river and 

 the ocean. They are bounded in many places by escarpments which 

 descend steeply 25 to 50 feet; and a hollow, about an acre in extent and 

 50 feet deep, is half filled by Knowles pond. This formation continues 

 southward with nearly the same height to Hampton village, where it ter- 

 minates, falling in gentle slopes towards the sea. 



Nine miles farther south, part of the city of Newburyport is built on a 

 broadly rounded ridge of gravel and sand, which, like the foregoing de- 

 posits, probably had a similar origin with the narrow and steep ridges of 

 the kames, having been bounded by portions of the melting ice-sheet. 

 The series of kames noticed by Rev. Mr. Wright in Newton and Ames- 

 bury may be continuous south-east to the Newburyport ridge. So far 

 as traced, this deposit appears first in the south part of Amesbury. It 

 has been cut through by Merrimack river, and on its opposite side rises 

 to a height of about 150 feet in Moulton's hill. A quarter of a mile 

 farther to the south-east it is depressed to 75 feet, and shows the sharp 

 ridges and knolls of typical kames. From this point it extends, with a 

 nearly uniform height of about 100 feet, along High street to the middle 

 of the city, and thence continues on the south-west side of this street to 

 the Upper Green. Here it is interrupted for a little distance, beyond 

 which it lies on the north-east side of this street, extending to within a 

 half mile of Old Town hill. It is thus at least six miles long. No other 

 high deposits of modified drift are found in this vicinity ; and wide areas 



* The character of these deposits will be seen from the following sections of wells, i to xYz miles south-west 

 from Rye village, on the water-shed south of Berry's brook, and about loo feet above the sea : 



1. At J. Philbrick's (county map), said to be the deepest well in Rye, coarse gravel, 25 feet; sandy, gray clay, 

 very compact, free from pebbles, 28 feet ;— total depth, 53 feet. The only rock found in the clay was an angular 

 block weighing about 200 pounds, 40 feet below the surface. 



2. Near L. Brown's, coarse gravel, 8 feet ; sand, 8 inches ; coarse gravel, 6 Teet ; very coarse gravel, 10 feet, 

 much of it composed of rounded rocks of nearly uniform size, about a foot in diameter, with scarcely any earth, 

 so that "one could look down among the pebbles;" ordinary gravel, with layers of sand, 20 feet, resting on 

 ledge ;— total depth, 45 feet. 



3. At R. Shapley's, coarse gravel, 10 feet ; fine white sand, is feet, resting on till or ledge. Several other wells 

 in this neighborhood, 30 to 40 feet in depth, encountered nothing but stratified gravel, sand, or clay. 



