oak island. Soon the swamp begins to narrow and although 
the bends are no less, the river appears to be more in a valley 
which becomes one in fact when it has passed Lamsons Pines 
on the right, the mouth of Howletts Brook on the left, and 
swung around the half moon curve at Lamsons. From the 
end of the curve the river doubles back to the right, and after 
passing under a rustic bridge comes into the slack water 
behind Willowdale Dam. 
From the rustic bridge nearly all the way to Ipswich we 
have a much broader stream broken twice by dams below 
which are gentle rapids. The whole character of the river 
now changes, flowing more nearly straight and between low 
hills and orchard lands with no marshes. 
From the first dam at Willowdale to the second dam, which 
is just beyond the triple arch stone bridge at Norwoods, the 
large orchards of Turner Hill Farm are passed and a half 
mile below Norwoods is a hemlock country with two par¬ 
ticularly fine groves on the right. The lower grove coming 
at a bend in the river makes a most attractive spot to eat 
Sunday lunch. 
After lunch lists are again checked, and then canoes are 
entered for the last time for the short paddle to Ipswich. 
From Hemlock Bend the course is under the Boston & Maine 
mainline trestle and thence to Ipswich where the canoes are 
left. The walk across the town to the boat-landing is a short 
one, but a species new to the trip is occasionally picked up 
here. All trips prior to 1912 stopped at Ipswich, and did 
not include the Little Neck-Clark’s Pond route. 
At the wharf a large motorboat is boarded and from this 
point to the mouth of the Ipswich at Little Neck the channel 
passes through salt marshes crisscrossed by many creeks and 
inlets. Little Neck, Plover Hill, Great Neck, and North 
Ridge are great drumlins which lie between the marshes and 
the sea and are bare of trees. At the foot of Great Neck and 
separated from the salt water only by a beach is Clark’s Pond, 
a shallow body of fresh water several acres in area and an 
exceptionally favorable point to observe shore birds which, 
during migration, gather here in large numbers. Considerable 
time is usually spent along the shores of this pond, from which 
i6 
