360 W. TJpham — Marine Shells and Fragments 



These glacially transported shells and fragments of shells can- 

 not therefore be regarded as proof of the former presence of 

 the sea at the height where they are found. 



So long ago as during the Revolutionary war a fort was built 

 on the top of Telegraph hill, in Hull, near the extremity of the 

 peninsula of ISTantasket, and a well was dug inside the fort, of 

 which the commander, Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, wrote as fol- 

 lows.* " There is a large fort on the E. Hill, in which there 

 is a well sunk 90 feet, which commonly contains 80 odd feet of 

 water. In digging the well the workmen found many shells, 

 smooth stones, and different stratas of sand and clay, similar 

 to those on the beach adjoining to the hill. These shells and 

 appearances were discovered from near the top of the ground 

 to the bottom of the well." 



Again, nearly forty years ago, Dr. William Stimpson col- 

 lected fragments of shells, representing fourteen species, from 

 the cliffs of drift which form the east and west sides of Win- 

 throp Head, or, as it is more commonly called, Great Head on 

 the Point Shirley peninsula of Winthrop, then a part of 

 Chelsea.f This peninsula has two lenticular hills or drumlins 

 of till, namely, Great Head which rises about 100 feet above 

 the sea, and another, a third of a mile farther south, which may 

 be more properly called the Point Shirley hill, about 60 feet 

 high. It seems clear, from Stimpson's description of the sec- 

 tions where his shells were obtained, that they belonged to the 

 higher one of these hills, which at the present time is being 

 undermined by the sea. The southern hill, nearer to Point 

 Shirley, is not sufficiently high to agree with his description, 

 and moreover its eroded eastern cliff is separated from the 

 ocean by a low tract of beach gravel and sand 20 to 40 rods 

 wide, so that probably within the present century it has not 

 presented any freshly exposed section. 



Stimpson also reports that at some little distance from the 

 place where he discovered these fossils, the digging of a well 

 encountered shells in the drift at a depth of 50 feet below the 

 level of high tide. Seventy years ago it was recorded that 

 fragments of clam shells had been found 40 feet below the 

 surface at Jamaica Plain, and at the depth of 107 feet in dig- 

 ging the well at Fort Strong, which was built in 1814 on 

 Noddle's island, now East Boston.;}: About twenty years ago, 

 in digging a well in Fort Warren, on George's island, shells 



* Geographical Gazetteer of the Towns in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 

 1785, p. 56. (Only a small part of this work was published.) 



f Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. iv, p. 9, January 

 15, 1851. 



i Outlines of the Mineralogy and Geology of Boston and its vicinity, with a 

 geological map. By J. Freeman Dana, M.D., and Samuel L. Dana, M.D., 1818. 

 p. 96. 



