Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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As a result of this, we have the in- land beaches and dunes in George- town, Byfield, and Newburyport. Nearly everyone has heard of Singing Beach at Manchester. The sands on this beach make a peculiar rasping sound when walked upon. The sound is caused by tiny parti- cles, some having spokes like small wheels and others shaped like nee- dles v hich rub together. No other beach in the world has sand v hich can compare with this except that in the Bay of Laig on the island of Eiggs in Scotland. It is now generally known that the ocean is gradually wearing away the coast. The wave action of the ocean is caused by the sink- ing of the land. Essex County has a highly indented coastline — proof of the fact that the land is sinking. Perhaps some of you may have heard of the Roxbury Puddingstone. Once upon a time when the world v as young and the giants lived here, the legend says, the giants had a great feast. During the feast, at which a great plum pudding was served, the giants quarrelled and threw pieces of the pudding at each other. The pudding turned to stone, and you can still find great masses of it with its stony plums in Rox- bury. The truth is that the so-called “Puddingstone’’ is conglomerate. Conglomerate is formed when pieces of rocks are thrown into melted rock and cemented. Hence we have the meaning of conglomerate as a collected or assorted mass. Near Bass Rocks another interest- ing tvpe of stone can be found called rocking stones. These were mentioned by Cotton Mather in one of his letters to England in 1724. According to him these stones rock with the waves, and there are some that can even be rocked by hand. Essex County was the birthplace of the brick and pottery industry. To-day pottery is made in Beverly and Newburyport. The clay used in this industry is found. in pits which were formed by the water running off the glacier. Most of the pits are below sea level, and some clay is found as deep as 180 feet. There are many minerals which can be found in Essex County. Tour- malines are found in Groveland, and garnets have been found in slate on Conomo Point as large as one-quarter of an inch. Coal is available on the east side of Nahant near the old iron mine. The Chip- man I ' . ine in Newbury contains gold, silver, copper, quartz, and galena, a compound containing gold, silver, and lead. At Rockport, as its name implies, an exceptional- ly large variety of rocks can be found. Newbury, Rockport, New- buryport, Lynn, and Salem Neck are all represented in the collection of “Rocks and Minerals from New England’’ to be found in the Muse- um of Natural History in Boston. Truly Essex County is an excel- lent place not only for the study of birds, but also for the study of geol- ogy. It contains a perfect beach, mines where gold and silver can be found, one of the two “singing’’ beaches in the world, and many points of geological interest in its large boulders and inland beaches. Without a doubt Essex County has been able to contribute to the study of geologists of to-day. What it 25

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were thrown down. He mentions particularly the fact that in the places where the ground was cracked open some earth of a differ- ent color from that on the surface was thrown up. During the week there were fifteen shocks and then no further disturbances. As a re- sult of this earthquake there was a religious revival because the people, smelling the sulphur, believed that it was the work of the devil. In November, 1775, about seven- teen days after the earthquake at Lisbon, another earthquake oc- curred in Boston. This one v as the worst in the history of the city. In one place the eruptions caused a spring to flow out of the ground which has continued flowing to this day. The springs of Essex County are called boiling springs because they come out of the ground with such force. The water of all the springs of Essex County is soft and good to drink and in some cases is sold commercially as mineral v ater. The early settlers built their houses near these springs in order to obtain their water supply easily. The land which was dry and sandy or rocky was used for public buildings and burial grounds. Another force that contributed to the changing of the earth was the glacier. Ordinarily we speak of but one glacier, but according to rec- ords of geologists there were two The character of Essex County, a hard uneven surface of rock and lit- tle soil, is due to the work of the second glacier. A number of years after the glacier there was an uplift of land which in Essex County amounted to about two hundred feet. When the land was thus raised, it caused the rivers that had been formed from the ice and gla- ciers t o cut deep ridges in the ground. Rafe’s Chasm in Magnolia, named after a certain Ralph, an early settler, is an example of this. Ipswich has the largest area of all the towns and cities in Essex County, forty-one square miles. The next largest city in area is Glouces- ter having thirty-four. The small- est town is Nahant having but one square mile. The highest hill in Essex County is Holt’s Hill in An- dover having an elevation of 400 feet. In Ipswich the highest is Turn- er’s Hill v.flth 260 feet. The lowest drumlin in Essex County is Little Neck in Ipswich with an elevation of only eighty feet. It might be of interest to note that before the glacier the forma- tion of Gloucester Harbor was en- tirely different from that of to-day. The inner harbor was entirely dry, and Norman’s Woe, celebrated in Longfellow’s poem, and Eastern Point were separated by only a very small stream. Eastern Point was also connected to Thatcher’s Is- land and Londoner’s Rocks off Rock- port. The beach at Ipswich is supposed: to be one of the most beautiful in this part of the country. In Profes- sor Sears’s book, Ipswich Beach is given as an example of the perfect beach in the formation of sand, wa- ter, and land. A number of years after the glaciers there was a pe- riod when much land sank into the sea. The sea was disturbed by storms, and the breakers caused ridges of gravel and sand to form. 24

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may hold of interest to the geolo- jrists of to-morrow we cannot tell. The world is ever changing and in the words of Tennyson : “There rolls the deep where grew the tree, 0 earth what changes hast thou seen ! There where the long street roars, hath been The stillness of the central seas. The hills are shadows and they flow From form to form, and nothing stands; They melt like mist, the solid lands Like clouds they shape themselves and go.” Things I Love I love to w ' atch fluffy clouds roll by On an Indian summer day. And the frisky winds, blowing leaves on high Seem to sweep my cares away. I love to sit on a cool, grassy slope By a calm and silver stream. Where ripples gathered as o’er rocks they broke And sunbeams dance and gleam. I love the scent of spicy pine Mingled with bayberrie. Amid the orange tint of the bitter sweet vine As it sways from tree to tree. I love to see the scarlet glints Splashed carelessly amongst the green, This tapestry of beautiful tints Makes for me, a charming scene. Miriam Hayman ’36. October Night The air cool, crisp, and silent. The world bathed in silver glow. And a star-studded heaven beaming Over the world below; Odor of salty sea-breeze. Or deep grass laden with dew; The night wind wafting fresh, sweet smells anew; Moonlight, soft, enchanting; Stars twinkling brightly on high. Marching in scattered armies. Across a blue-gray sky — These things in a silvered evening Washed by the pale moonlight Are melted together in the majesty Of a shimmering October Night, Ursula M. Lombard ’38. CLASS DAY PARTS. Class History 1936 By Robert Perkins P OSSIBLY it was the weather, but, at any rate, the successful career of the class of 1936 began on a bright sunny day in September, 1932. We had a promising outlook for, numbering 104 members, we boasted the largest class in the his- tory of the school. Even though quite bewildered by the intricacies of the school and its system, we put our right foot for- ward and elected Ralph Hill to the office of president. This office he has held for four years. We had proceeded as far as our second class meeting when the dis- turbing problem of class dues v as discussed so barbarously that it was necessary to close the meeting. This squelching of our youthful ardor did not deter us from engineering a successful social, however, at which time we discovered among our class members many interior decorators — wall-flowers, as it were. We also lost no time in discover- ing that at such close quarters the 26