I/Oir THE SOIL CAME. 4 1 



conceded among glacialists that there was a long interim 

 of thousands of years between the first ice period and the 

 second. If this almshouse dock mud is an evidence of 

 that glacial interim, it adds another item of lasting interest 

 in the formation of our town. 



Another important glacial enterprise was in progress 

 at about the close of the drumlin formation ; it was the 

 digging of potholes in the rock. All glaciers have streams 

 of water upon their tops, and some of these streams, find- 

 ing cracks in the ice where it bends over steep ledges, 

 pour into these crevasses and bore large holes, or moulvis, 

 to the bottom. If any stones are washed in, and plenty of 

 them are mixed into any glacier, these stones will whirl 

 like a mill-wheel, wearing holes in the rock. In any moun- 

 tain stream where the water falls fiercely these potholes 

 can be seen in progress. The so-called " Indian Pot," on 

 the east side of Rice Island in Little Harbor, was formed 

 in this way. The prettiest of the group nestles at the 

 edge of the water, drinking the tide over its rim. More 

 than thirty-five gallons it holds, and the rim of it narrows 

 in as smoothly as a round iron kettle. 



On one side, above the rim, the rock is hollowed out 

 upwards about four feet, showing how much deeper the 

 original hole was. The rock that formed originally the 

 south side of the great hole was torn off and pushed away 

 into the harbor as one of the last deeds of violence by the 

 glacier. Two more holes were spoiled by that fracture, 

 and their remnants are only one-sided hollow places a 

 few feet above the Pot. 



About one hundred feet north of these, upon another 

 rock scarp, is a larger hole called " Indian Well." Like 

 the Pot, it is perfect only at the bottom, with one side 

 extended upwards ten feet. The south side of this Well 

 must have been torn off long before the water ceased to 

 flow, because the rounded edge where the water swirled 

 out of the Well is very much worn. 



