330 HISTORY OF COH ASSET. 



reclaim the marsh lands in Little Harbor, It will be 

 remembered that some seventy acres were granted to 

 the Hingham settlers in the year 1647 ^'^^ later. It 

 will be remembered also that we inferred from the very 

 small acreage at present to be found there that the 

 ocean had encroached slowly upon the lands of those 

 early days. 



The plan was devised to shut out the ocean so that only 

 the channels of the harbor would be filled with water. 

 This was not the first attempt to shut out the ocean 

 from these fertile flats. 



As early as the year 1727-28, March 4, there was pre- 

 sented at the town meeting in Hingham "A petition to 

 erect a Dam between Great Neck and Beach Islands and 

 the meadows adjoining near the middle falls." The peti- 

 tion was discussed and dismissed, but it was probably 

 revived several years later, for Cuba Dam was built 

 where now Cunningham Bridge stands, probably before 

 Cohasset became a town. The name Cuba may have been 

 given in honor of the capture of Havana by the British 

 in the year 1762 under Lord Albemarle. 



Of the several efforts to drain off the water of Little 

 Harbor the remains of one abortive attempt are to be 

 seen to-day at Sandy Beach, Two rows of posts sticking 

 up through the sand have puzzled observing bathers and 

 passers-by for many years. These are the fragments of 

 an old canal or sluice, which was dug through Sandy 

 Beach to Little Harbor to let out the water, more than 

 one hundred years ago. The natural inlet at Cunningham 

 Bridge was shut up, as we saw, by Cuba Dam, and this 

 artificial waterway was made to let the salt water off from 

 the grass-bearing fiats. 



The labor was immense, for after the wooden sluice 

 was built a ditch about ten feet wide was dug straight up 

 the harbor following the natural channel nearly as far as 

 the present lawn of Charles S. Bates ; but after all that 



