. A narrative history of the town of Cohasset, Massachusetts . and they were scratched into their present shape. The marks of this rough treatment are to be seen onmany of them now, running lengthwise with the stone asthey moved. Every loose stone originally was brokenfrom some ledge, and was jagged or sharp cornered, butthey are not so now, for they meekly submitted to thegreat grinder. A very interesting illustration of the crushing move-ment that made these hills has come to light in the dis-covery of some fragments of clam shells in one of a well was being dug on the west side of
. A narrative history of the town of Cohasset, Massachusetts . and they were scratched into their present shape. The marks of this rough treatment are to be seen onmany of them now, running lengthwise with the stone asthey moved. Every loose stone originally was brokenfrom some ledge, and was jagged or sharp cornered, butthey are not so now, for they meekly submitted to thegreat grinder. A very interesting illustration of the crushing move-ment that made these hills has come to light in the dis-covery of some fragments of clam shells in one of a well was being dug on the west side of King HOW THE SOIL CAME. 39 Street about fifty years ago at Charles Burbanks place,several pieces of shells were found sticking in the hardpanat a depth of twenty-five feet below the surface. Theshells did not grow there, but were pushed there whenthe hill was heaped up, for there were no signs of a formersea bottom such as clams always inhabit. Hardpan, or glacial clay, was all around and above them,and hardpan reached at least twenty feet below the shells. \ \(Ve«.u& Tnercencvn a.) )* x \ 0/uaaauq , Sea Clam (VenusTnerceuconQ.) / /Quakauo , yy * - „ (, Tnactra SoKdusima-L -- Half natural length. Shell Fragments found near King Street, twenty-five feetbelow the surface, in digging a well. to the bottom of the well. Three of the fragments areshown in the accompanying cut. The two smaller onesare the smooth round clam or quahog (Venus mercenaria),about two and a half to three inches in diameter; thelarger one is the sea clam (Mactra solidissimd), and meas-ured originally five or six inches. It is easily seen that the thin margin of these shells hasbeen broken off, for nothing but the heavy part, near theumbos, could endure the rough treatment when they 40 HISTORY OF COHASSET. were pushed out of their bed in Boston Harbor andjammed into a Cohasset hill. In several other hills or drumlins like the one men-tioned, which lie south of Boston Harbor, similar shellshave been found,
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