m 



objects of geological interest executed by members of tlie Ex- 

 ploring Circle of West Lynn. 



The Salt Marsh Format'iQns of Lijnn, 



Within the bounds of Lynn, as in other towns on the sea 

 coast of Massachusetts, we find a series of Salt Marshes, very 

 peculiar among the most recent alluvial formations. Havmg 

 some features in common with the fresh water formations of 

 peat and bog meadows, these marshes are yet quite different in 

 most of their characteristics. 



Romney JNIarsh, embraced within the bounds of Lynn, 

 Saugus and Chelsea, is about four miles in length by three 

 fifths in its greatest breadth, and contains about one thousand 

 acres. It is one of those salt marshes common to the coast of 

 Massachusetts, so peculiar among the recent alluvial formations. 

 It is much more firm and compact than most peat meadows. 

 This is seen more particularly in the appearance of the Eastern 

 Rail Road, which crosses it for three miles, without any partic- 

 ular settling into the marsh of the large body of gravel which 

 forms that road. 



A peat meadow is formed of the remains of leaves, grasses, 

 bushes, trunks of trees and other vegetable matter, irregularly 

 intermingled and in various stages of decomposition. The salt 

 marsh, on the contrary, though composed of rich vegetable 

 mould; has no distinct remains of plants other than the roots of 

 grasses and occasional stumps and trunks of trees, which appear 

 to have had their existence prior to the formation of the marsh. 

 Through the whole depth of the brown soil of the marsh the 

 roots of the saline grasses are intermingled in the same manner 

 as when living ; there being no apparent difference in the 

 position of the roots of the plants now living and those in the 

 lowest part of the deposit. The depth of this soil is from ten 

 inches to seven feet or more, or according to Alonzo Lewis, Esq. 

 the historian of Lynn, even twenty feet. It is very 

 uniform in its appearance and without stratification, being 

 compact and firmly bound together by the tenacious roots of 

 the grasses. Below the marsh is a layer of sand, from two to 

 seven feet in thickness, and still lower is a bed of fine compact 

 clay ; the clay in turn resting on a diluvian gravel. 



The surface of the marsh is nearly a dead level, about one 

 foot above ordinary high water mark and only overflowed by 

 the higher Spring tides. The appearance of the marsh soil, indi- 

 cates a gradual formation from the grasses, aided by the fine, 

 rich sediment which the high tides occasionally deposit. The 

 saline grasses grow only above ordinary high water maik, and 



