208 HISTORY OF CO H ASSET. 



pieces here and there conform to the original location. 

 Indeed, there is only one street in the whole town which 

 wholly conforms to the original lay-out on the Fisher plan ; 

 that is Sohier* Street, formerly Winter Street, and still 

 earlier called Deer Hill Lane. 



How the highway along our shore which we call South 

 Main Street was partially straightened we recounted in a 

 former chapter.' The end near Bound Brook ran down to 

 a broad shallow fording place below the present mill 

 bridge, where it passed over to the King's Highway in 

 Scituate. 



Coming towards Cohasset the road skirted around by 

 the marsh fences ; but when the way was ordered to be 

 laid straight through the lots to Jacob's Meadow to the 

 point where the South Main Street fountain now is, a 

 troublesome curve was forever cut off. But at this point 

 a rough detour around the head of Jacob's Meadow to the 

 old corduroy bridge at Cold Spring had to be traveled 

 for more than a century and a half, until it was straight- 

 ened in the year 1838 (June), by a way built across the 

 meadow, where now stands the Catholic Church. 



At the place where Main Street crosses James Brook 

 there must have been a ford or a bridge, or both, but 

 nothing can be found in the records referring to the 

 matter. The old location of Main Street in 1682 fol- 

 lowed the present course along through the Common until 

 it reached Daniel Lincoln's corner, as we saw in the 

 chapter on " The First Homes." 



One reason for turning towards Hingham at this par- 

 ticular place was the interference of a line of kettle holes 

 left by the glacier in the gravel. These hollows, strung 

 along west of the cemetery for several hundred yards, 

 have already been referred to, and one can easily see how 

 the road had to be curved around the margin of these 

 hollow places in order to be kept level. 



* Named for William D. Sohier. 



