1876.] 65 [Hitchcock. 



They are conspicuously absent from the immediate sea-shore for a 

 width of two to five miles all across New Hampshire and south 

 through Newburyport, but Boar's Head in Hampton is an exception, 

 and in Ipswich, Mass., they extend quite to the shore. They are 

 also notably absent from Cape Ann, which east of Essex river and 

 Beverly has very scanty glacial drift in any form. The same is true 

 south and southeast of Salem, where over a large section no gla- 

 cial drift has been left to cover the naked striated ledges. South- 

 ward these hills occur again at Chelsea and Boston, where they form 

 many of the islands of the harbor and the principal hills of Boston 

 and Charlestown. 



Along the seaboard they are often as thickly set as possible over 

 the otherwise level country; not, however, resting one upon the side 

 of another, but separated from each other by valleys, which reach 

 down nearly or quite to the rock-strata. The longer axis of these 

 hills is prevailingly N. W.-S'. E., or nearly so; — that is, within limits 

 of W. N. W. and N. N. W. This is everywhere the prevailing 

 course, but there are important exceptions, especially south of Merri- 

 mack river. A singular uniformity of W. N. W.-E. S. E. course 

 occurs in East Kingston, Kensington, and South Hampton, and far- 

 ther northward in New Hampshire and Maine. About New Boston 

 and Greenville, there is much uniformity of a nearly N. and S. 

 course. At Bernardston the direction is a little west of south. 

 Besides this trend of the separate hills, we often find them arranged 

 one succeeding another in a N. W.-S. E. series, traceable for several 

 miles. This is quite notably the case' in Kensington and South 

 Hampton, where the trend of separate hills is W. N. W.-E. S. E., 

 each in succession being situated a little south of the one preceding, 

 thus forming together a N. W.-S. E. series. 



Inland, as about Greenville, these lenticular hills, of exactly the 

 same form and character as those of the nearly level seaboard, occur 

 over areas which are broken by high ranges of ledgy hills. In these 

 situations we find the glacial drift, not only in isolated hills, but also 

 in numerous lenticular masses upon the flanks of the higher ledgy 

 ridges. 



Typical and prominent examples of these lenticular hills of gla- 

 cial drift in Massachusetts, are Beacon hill in Boston, Bunker hill in 

 Charlestown, Brown's hill in Hamilton, Turner's, Turkey, and Town 

 hills in Ipswich, Prospect hill in Rowley, Bald Pate hill in George- 

 town, Prospect hill in Andover, Hazeltine and Dead hills in Brad- 



PROCEEDINGS C. S. N. HY— VOL. XIX. 5 JUNE, 1877. 



