Upham.] 
128 
[Dec. 19, 
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 dig- 
ging 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 discov- 
ered from near the top of the ground to the bottom of the well.” 
Again, nearly forty years ago, Dr. William Stirapson collected 
fragmentst>f shells, representing fourteen species, from the cliffs of 
drift which form the east and west sides of Winthrop Head, or, as 
it is more commonly called, Great Head on the Point Shirley pen- 
insula of Winthrop, then a part of Chelsea. 1 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 descrip- 
tion of the sections where his shells were obtained, that they be- 
longed 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 twenty to forty 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 digging the well at Fort Strong, which was 
built in 1814 on Noddle’s island, now East Boston. 2 About twenty 
years ago, in digging a well in Fort Warren, on George’s island, 
shells were found 100 feet below the surface and about 40 feet be- 
low the sea level. 3 
An article published last summer by Mr. W. W. Dodge, 4 de- 
Hh-oceedings of this Society, vol. iv, p. 9, January 15, 1851. 
2 Outlines of the Mineralogy and Geology of Boston and its vicinity, with a geologi- 
cal map. By J. Freeman Dana, M.D., and Samuel L. Dana, M.D., 1818, p. 96. 
^Reported by Mr. W. H. Niles in the Proceedings of this Society, vol. xii, 1869, pp. 
244 and 664. In commenting on this discovery, Mr. T. T. Bouv6 read a letter from 
a gentleman in Hull, noting similar facts known to him in his own vicinity (p. 364). 
^American Journal of Science, III, vol. xxxvi, p. 56, July, 1888. 
