NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
A:WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED:TO-THE: BEST: INTERESTS-OFTHENORTHSHORE 
Vol. I. No. 8 
BEVERLY, MASS., SATURDAY, JULY 9, 1904 
Three Cents 
Entered as second-class matter May 23, 1904, at the post-office at Beverly, Mass., under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. , 
PLEISTOCENE MANCHESTER, 
Glacial Markings and Cross-bedding. 
Copyrighted 1904. 
In a former article, contributed toa 
geological paper, containing some 
studies of the coast line between 
Beverly and Manchester, the writer 
briefly touched upon some of the 
glacial marks and deposits in Man- 
chester. Since that time more care- 
ful investigation has been conducted 
and new light is thrown upon the for- 
mation of the land in the vicinity of 
the village. Professor Wright has 
written extensively concerning glacia- 
tion in Ipswich and Essex, and Pro- 
fessor Shaler has done equally well 
for Rockport and Gloucester, but 
this locality has been overlooked as 
conta‘ning little of value. 
It is true that a transported and 
propped up boulder bears the name 
of the great Agassiz, but this is near- 
ly all that Manchester has contributed 
to dynamical geology. Beneath the 
rock in question are many stric 
most beautifully preserved, and the 
entire rock, or ledge, outcropping 
here has had its northern slope 
shaved and rounded. Hundreds of 
uncommonly large boulders strew the 
summit and slopes of the hills and are 
promiscuously scattered towards the 
sea along the ridges. In many a 
sheltered inlet there are travelers 
from the northern land when the ice 
stream was in full flow. They are not 
permitted to rest after their jour- 
ney, but are battered against the 
cliffs with every flowing tide. 
The sea brings up from its depths 
many large rocks deposited there by 
the vanishing ice flow. Kelp and 
weeds attach themselves to these 
rocks and grow until the buoyancy of 
the plants assists in floating the rocks 
free from the bottom and the storms 
hurl them inland, where the weeds 
soon decay and the rocks become in- 
dividual millstones in the grinding 
process. A very large portion of the 
round cobblestone beach at Magnolia 
was formed in this manner. 
The highest elevations of land in 
Manchester are within the limits of 
post-glacial elevation and depression, 
and every outcropping rock shows 
plainly the action of the sea, either in 
its worn and rifted contour or in the 
old sea bank at its base. Throughout 
the township the soil and earth are 
comparatively thin, and all of this is 
doubtless glacial in its origin, with the 
ten to fifteen inches of surface disin- 
tegration since resulting. 
Many beds of unstratified drift ap- 
pear, chief of which are the so-called 
‘‘gravel pits’”’ of the Essex woods. 
It seems that the low stretch of 
swampy ground between Essex and 
Manchester was an estuary of pre- 
glacial time, through which surged 
tides and which-has been closed at 
each end by the glacier itself, assisted 
by recent vegetation which has obli- 
terated old sea marks... % 
Exceedingly clear evidence of re- 
cent land elevation can be seen in the 
cuts through the hills near the pump- 
ing station. Here is a vertical section 
of the regenerated glacial gravel, or 
false bedding, exposed: to view toa 
depth of thirty feet (similar structure 
can be seen near the ice ponds). 
The plane of stratification at the 
surface is horizontal, and below this 
and obliquely to it, dipping toward 
the sea, isa great depth of this tilted 
lamination. This includes all of the 
Pe PRR, 
of 
- 
*. es 
_ : a 
we Ys Ler ot 
ae RLF: 
r ay hae " eee 4 
of, : ; ¥ : : f 
. a dy f 
7 . ‘eihediliiee th. Ons boa ina hain ina 
Agassiz Rock, Essex Road. 
CARD 
CATATOCIED. 
__. Jand in the basin between the 
two high rock ridges stretching 
towards the north. The oblique 
| structure was formed by the re- 
fs treating sea,which thus laid down 
@ the drift and disintegrated ma- 
| terial. 
In the portion of the town 
ge known as Yarmouth is an iso- 
lated pinnacle which a_ short 
time since appeared to be a 
large gravel bank upon the 
plain ; composed chiefly of grav- 
el and small stones, it was found 
to be valuable for street pur- 
poses. Workmen soon came to 
the invariable bed rock, and on 
removing ‘the gravel found two 
masses of rock, with a channel 
between running parallel with 
the dykes on the coast. This 
appears to have been the ma- 
