48 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 



brick being made in a single year. These were hauled to Reed's 

 ferry and transported down the Merrimack to Lowell. In the 

 famous Manchester and Milford Railroad hearing a witness tes- 

 tified that he had clay enough upon his farm to build another 

 city as large as Manchester. Much other testimony to the same 

 effect sufficiently demonstrates an immense deposition of clay in 

 the basin of this ancient lake. 



For the present we reluctantly draw the curtain upon the 

 series of scenes presented, some description of which has been 

 attempted in these opening chapters. For the most part there 

 has been little exhibiting nature in her gentler moods, having 

 thus far witnessed her more terrible yet fascinating aspects. It 

 is still reserved to modern science to continue the investigation, 

 to add to the already vast store of accumulated facts, and by 

 its method of patient investigation and research interpret for us 

 other problems which await solution. We confidently abide the 

 future ; the spirit of inquiry, the interrogating attitude of the 

 age, made not less but more reverent by its courage, assure to 

 us further and perhaps more astounding revelations. 



Time and circumstances permitting, some following chapters 

 will be devoted to the " Flora and Fauna " of Derryfield and its 

 contiguous territory. 



