MODIFIED DRIFT ALONG THE SEA-COAST. 171 
feet in depth. It is coarse for the first ten feet, with the largest pebbles 
a foot in diameter; below, it is fine, but has little clear sand.* Breakfast 
hill, about 150 feet above the sea, and the plain about 50 feet lower, which 
extends southward to the first railroad crossing in North Hampton, are 
composed of coarse gravel and sand. Thence similar deposits, 100 to 
125 feet above the sea, extend in nearly level plains south-west to North 
Hampton village, forming the water-shed between Winnicut river and 
the ocean. They are bounded in many places by escarpments which 
descend steeply 25 to 50 feet; and a hollow, about an acre in extent and 
50 feet deep, is half filled by Knowles pond. This formation continues 
southward with nearly the same height to Hampton village, where it ter- 
minates, falling in gentle slopes towards the sea. 
Nine miles farther south, part of the city of Newburyport is built on a 
broadly rounded ridge of gravel and sand, which, like the foregoing de- 
posits, probably had a similar origin with the narrow and steep ridges of 
the kames, having been bounded by portions of the melting ice-sheet. 
The series of kames noticed by Rev. Mr. Wright in Newton and Ames- 
bury may be continuous south-east to the Newburyport ridge. So far 
as traced, this deposit appears first in the south part of Amesbury. It 
has been cut through by Merrimack river, and on its opposite side rises 
to a height of about 150 feet in Moulton’s hill. A quarter of a mile 
farther to the south-east it is depressed to 75 feet, and shows the sharp 
ridges and knolls of typical kames. From this point it extends, with a 
nearly uniform height of about 100 feet, along High street to the middle 
of the city, and thence continues on the south-west side of this street to 
the Upper Green. Here it is interrupted for a little distance, beyond 
which it lies on the north-east side of this street, extending to within a 
half mile of Old Town hill. It is thus at least six miles long. No other 
high deposits of modified drift are found in this vicinity; and wide areas 
* The ch of these deposits will be seen from the following sections of wells, 1 to 1% miles south-west 
from Rye village, on the water-shed south of Berry’s brook, and about 100 feet above the sea; 
2. At J. Philbrick’s (county map), said to be the deepest well in Rye, coarse gravel, 25 feet; sandy, gray clay, 
very compact, free from pebbles, 28 feet ;—total depth, 53 feet. The only rock found in the clay was an angular 
block weighing about 200 pounds, 40 feet below the surface. 
z. Near L. Brown’s, coarse gravel, 8 feet; sand, 8 inches; coarse gravel, 6 ‘feet; very coarse gravel, ro feet, 
much of it composed of rounded rocks of nearly uniform size, about a foot in diameter, with scarcely any earth, 
so that ‘‘one could look down among the pebbles ;”’ ordinary gravel, with layers of sand, 20 feet, resting on 
ledge ;—total depth, 45 feet. 
3. At R. Shapley’s, coarse gravel, ro feet ; fine white sand, rs feet, resting on till or ledge. Several other wells 
in this neighborbood, 30 to 4o feet in depth, encountered nothing but stratified gravel, sand, or clay. 
