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FIELD LESSONS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE BOSTON BASIN 
 
 A HANDBOOK FOR TEACHERS 
 
 BY 
 
 EVERETT LAMONT GETCHELL 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 
 1910 
 
 Bon-fUN COLLEGE IJBhA> ' 
 nB»TMTT HILT. M^" 
 
Copyright, 1910, 
 By Little, Brown, and Company. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 ■y,$<4* 
 
 Printer* 
 S. J. Paekhill & Co., Boston, U. S. A. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 Introduction v 
 
 Chapter 
 
 I. The Boston Basin 1 
 
 II. Roof of Schoolhouse 14 
 
 III. Arlington Heights ....... 28 
 
 IV. Peabody Museum 44 
 
 V. Roof of Schoolhouse or near-by Hill 68 
 
 VI. Charlestown Navy Yard — Optional 
 
 Field Lessons 89 
 
 VII. Middlesex Fells Reservation . . . 115 
 
 VIII. Cambridge — Historical 140 
 
 IX. Lantern Lessons 167 
 
 X. Brief Description of the Geology of 
 
 The Boston Basin 172 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE following Outline of Field Lessons is the 
 result of a dozen years of study of the prob- 
 lem of teaching Geography in the grammar grades. 
 The large number of earnest, progressive teachers 
 who have done, and are still doing pioneer work 
 along this line proves the need of some systematic 
 plan in giving field lessons in the different grades. 
 Otherwise the pupil may be taken to the same place 
 by successive teachers, and altogether miss some 
 of the most valuable trips. By following some 
 such outline as is here given every pupil will have 
 an opportunity to visit many different localities, 
 and acquaint himself at first hand with his home 
 city and all its advantages. 
 
 There are few sections of the country that offer 
 such a variety of attractive subjects for field les- 
 sons as Metropolitan Boston. This region is, as 
 Ex-President Eliot has so truly said, one of the 
 most interesting historical regions in the United 
 States, and one of the most beautiful to be found 
 here or in Europe. Nature has been lavish with 
 her charms; she has given us sea and shore, 
 rocky headlands and broad, smooth beaches, tidal 
 marshes with their sinuous streams, hill and valley, 
 rugged woodlands and sparkling ponds and rivers, 
 
vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 — in short, almost every variety of natural scenery 
 that can be imagined. A wise state and city gov- 
 ernment has conserved the best of these features, 
 taking for the free use of all her people broad areas 
 of forest and shore and stream, and uniting them 
 into the finest system of parks on this continent, 
 if not in the world. These parks will keep in ever- 
 lasting remembrance the names of such landscape 
 architects as Eliot and Olmsted. 
 
 The historical features that make this region a 
 Mecca for thousands of visitors every summer are 
 too well known to need mention. The very men- 
 tion of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill, 
 of the Old North and the Old South churches, of 
 Faneuil Hall and Dorchester Heights, are enough 
 to awaken a thrill in the heart of every boy and 
 girl the country over. To be within reach of these 
 historic shrines is a privilege we do not all appre- 
 ciate. To allow the children under our charge to 
 leave school without having visited these places 
 is to neglect one of the greatest opportunities 
 offered us. 
 
 Metropolitan Boston is rich in natural scenery 
 and historical associations, and it offers also a 
 field of study to the amateur geologist and the 
 student of physical geography scarcely surpassed 
 by any region of similar size on the globe. A large 
 variety of rocks, crystalline, igneous, metamorphic 
 and sedimentary, are found close at hand ; the most 
 recent geological formations are brought into sharp 
 contrast with very ancient rocks, as at Revere 
 
INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 (post-pliocene) and Nahant (eozoic). Every variety 
 of shore form is offered for study; while rivers, 
 streams, brooks, lakes, swamps, tidal streams and 
 marshes abound. Every kind of tree and shrub 
 that will grow in a temperate climate may be seen, 
 and in many places are labelled for study. The 
 student of botany is offered an almost unrivalled 
 opportunity for the study of native flora; and 
 hundreds of kinds of wild birds, animals and in- 
 sects are to be found in the parks and woods. 
 
 No less extensive is the field for the study of com- 
 mercial and industrial geography. Boston, the 
 second port in the United States, has direct trade 
 relations with the West Indies, Central and South 
 America, Europe, Asia and the Philippines. Ships 
 from all these regions may be seen unloading at 
 her wharves, and the cargoes and crews offer 
 splendid object lessons when the class is studying 
 these regions. 
 
 Classes may profitably study at first hand such 
 leading industries as the leather, wool and cotton 
 trades, the fishing industry, sugar-refining, meat- 
 packing, the wholesale and retail lumber trade, 
 printing and book-binding, and a great variety of 
 other industries and manufactures. 
 
 With the wealth of material offered, the task has 
 been to select those field lessons which are the 
 most valuable, or which are typical. Necessarily, in 
 a book of this size, only a small part of the field 
 can be covered. No attempt has been made to 
 touch upon the broad subject of Nature Study. 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 Only a few suggestions have been attempted in 
 the line of industrial and commercial geography. 
 
 Should mistakes be found in the following pages, 
 the indulgence of the reader is asked. The author 
 has tried to verify statements and figures wherever 
 it has been possible, and to give the latest facts 
 obtainable. 
 
 Acknowledgments are due Professor W. 0. 
 Crosby, from whose admirable Geology of Eastern 
 Massachusetts and Outlines of Lectures before 
 the Teachers' School of Science most of the 
 facts relating to the geology of the region have 
 been taken, often verbatim; to the excellent 
 guide-books of Boston and vicinity by Mr. Edwin 
 M. Bacon, where many interesting historical facts 
 not otherwise obtainable have been found: and 
 finally to Superintendents Stratton D. Brooks of 
 Boston and Frank E. Parlin of Cambridge, and 
 the late Assistant Superintendent Robert E. 
 Burke of Boston, for inspiration and valuable 
 suggestions. 
 
 E. L. G. 
 
 Dorchester, Sept. 1, 1910. 
 
BOSTON BASIN ix 
 
 OUTLINE OF FIELD LESSONS 
 
 FIELD TRIPS. GRADE IV. 
 
 1. To Roof of Schoolhouse or Near-by Hill. 
 
 a. Typical land forms; hill, valley, plain, slope, etc. 
 
 b. Typical water forms; ocean, bay, strait, stream, 
 river. 
 
 c. Land and water forms; island, peninsula, isthmus, 
 bluff, pond, beach. 
 
 d. Direction; cardinal points of the compass; where 
 sun rises and sets. 
 
 (Note: best taken as four very elementary field 
 lessons.) 
 ^'Waverley. 
 
 Study of a brook and its basin. 
 
 Ponds, waterfall, erosion of valley, flood-plain, terraces. 
 Elementary glacial forms; boulders, till, sand-plain, 
 esker. 
 3. Dome of State House. 
 
 Broad, comprehensive view of Boston and environs. 
 Boston harbor / islands, Charles and Mystic Rivers, 
 suburbs. 
 . 4." Peabody Museum, Cambridge. 
 
 Eskimos: manners, customs, homes, dress, implements. 
 5. Local History Trip. 
 
 A study of the Colonial or Revolutionary relics and 
 monuments in the neighborhood of the school. 
 
 FIELD TRIPS. GRADE V. 
 
 1. Arlington Heights. 
 
 Study of soils: rock waste, weathering, coarse and fine 
 soil. 
 
 Boston Basin and upland: peneplain; effects of weath- 
 ering. 
 
 Nature study: trees, shrubs, flowers, birds, rocks and 
 minerals, etc. 
 
 2. T Wharf: Study of a Great Industry. 
 Fishing; boats, method of handling the fish, kinds of 
 
 fish, markets. 
 
x FIELD LESSONS 
 
 (A study of the leather, cotton or woollen industry may 
 be substituted.) 
 
 3. National Dock, East Boston. 
 
 South American ship unloading. Commerce with 
 
 Argentine, fatteftstf gavAfi < 
 (Or trip to B. & A. Docks, East Boston, to study trade 
 
 with South America.) 
 
 4. Cambridge: Geological Museum at Harvard. 
 Study of Davis Models, showing type forms of land 
 
 areas. 
 Examine Curtis's Model of Metropolitan Boston. 
 Agassiz Museum: Animals of the different continents. 
 
 5. Historical Trip: Beacon Hill and Vicinity. 
 State House and Grounds; Louisburg Square; Com- 
 mon; Public Gardens. 
 
 (See Historical outline, School Doc, No. 14, 1909, p. 60.) 
 
 FIELD TRIPS. GRADE VI. 
 
 If Peabody Museum, Cambridge. 
 Indians of North and South America. 
 Types, dress, implements, mode of life, homes, etc. 
 
 2. Atlantic Avenue: Long Wharf. 
 
 Central American trade; United Fruit Company 
 
 steamer. 
 Study import trade in fruits; exports. 
 
 3. Winthrop: Shore Features. 
 
 Work of waves and tides; resulting shore forms. 
 Beaches; barrier, pocket, re-entrant, connecting. 
 Tidal marsh, formation and history; tidal streams. 
 Other features connected with shore forms. 
 
 4. East Boston: European Trade. 
 Visit Cunard steamer unloading. 
 
 Study exports and imports; passenger traffic with Eng- 
 land. 
 
 (Or Hoosac Tunnel Docks, Charlestown, White Star 
 Line, to study trade with Mediterranean ports, immi- 
 gration.) 
 
 5. Historical Trip: Faneuil Hall to Park Street. 
 ■ (Trip II, Course of study in History, p. 60.) 
 
 Faneuil Hall, Adams Square, Old State House, Devon- 
 
BOSTON BASIN xi 
 
 shire Street, Milk Street, School Street, Tremont 
 Street, King's Chapel and cemeteries. 
 
 FIELD TRIPS. GRADE VII. 
 
 1. Roof of Schoolhouse or Near-by Hill. 
 Practical use of compass in determining direction. 
 Sketch map of region in sight; elevation by lines. 
 Determination of noon shadow throughout the year. 
 
 Systematic observation of change in length of day. 
 Seasons. 
 
 2. Charlestown: Mystic Wharf; Commerce with 
 Asia. 
 
 Visit to a steamer from India or China. 
 Study of exports and imports; lists to be made by pupils. 
 Coolies and Mohammedans; Chinese, Filipinos and 
 Japanese. 
 
 3. West Medford: The Lawrence Woods. 
 
 Broad view of the Boston Basin and surrounding 
 
 uplands. 
 Topography of Boston: Plains of the Mystic and 
 
 Charles rivers. 
 Nature study: rocks, soils, trees, flowers, birds, care of 
 park, etc. 
 4 V Historical Trip: North Square to Site of Grif- 
 "fin's Wharf. 
 
 Paul Revere's House; Garden Court- Street, Christ 
 Church; Hull Street, Copp's Hill, Constitution 
 Wharf, Site of Griflm's Wharf. 
 5. Lexington: About the Nineteenth of April. 
 Study of Routes of Revere and the British soldiers. 
 Lexington as a typical New England colonial town. 
 
 FIELD TRIPS. GRADE VIII. 
 
 1. Charlestown Navy Yard. 
 History of our Navy. 
 Development of the modern Battleship. 
 
 "Old Ironsides"; War with Tripoli; War of 1812. 
 Type of wooden "74" Frigate. 
 Wabash. Civil War. 
 
 Best type of the wooden ship of her period. 
 
xii FIELD LESSONS 
 
 New York (or some other model battleship). 
 Development of the Monitor type. 
 Cruiser, torpedo-boat, torpedo-boat destroyer, sub- 
 marine, etc. 
 
 2. Foreign Commerce. Boston as a Shipping Port. 
 Visit to the Cunard, White Star, Mystic and Leland 
 
 docks, and other features. 
 (As many of these as can be seen in one lesson.) 
 Study of exports and imports, methods of transportation, 
 
 docks, and other features. 
 
 3. Massachusetts State House. 
 
 Visit the Legislature while it is in session. 
 
 Meet the Governor (if it can be arranged in advance). 
 
 Study the method of passing a law. 
 
 Inspect different state departments; study the workings 
 of each. 
 
 Battle flags, mural decorations, Hooker and Shaw mon- 
 uments. 
 
 4. Historical Trips in and about Boston. 
 
 To be done in group work by pupils. Some places to be 
 visited and reported on: 
 
 1. Old South Church. 
 
 2. Old North Church and Paul Revere House. 
 
 3. Boston Common; Revolutionary landmarks 
 
 there and near by. 
 
 4. King's Chapel and two neighboring burying- 
 
 grounds. 
 
 5. Dorchester Heights. 
 
 6. Powder-House Park, Somerville. 
 
 7. Prospect Hill. 
 
 8. Medford; Revolutionary and Colonial Houses 
 
 and Landmarks. 
 
 9. Cambridge; Revolutionary and Colonial Houses 
 
 and Landmarks. 
 
 5. Commercial Geography. 
 
 Group trips to study commerce with South America, 
 the Far East, etc. 
 
 6. Industrial Geography. 
 
 Class trip to some important Boston or local indus- 
 try; e. g.: 
 
 1. Fishing; a visit to T Wharf. 
 
BOSTON BASIN xiii 
 
 2. Sugar refining; visit to refinery in South Boston. 
 
 3. Leather industry; visit to shoe factory or 
 
 leather importing house. 
 
 4. Cotton industry; visit to cotton factory. 
 
 5. Lumbering; see wharves and mill in operation. 
 
 6. Book-making; Riverside Press, Cambridge, or 
 
 similar plant. 
 
 7. Gas plant; take the nearest one. 
 
 8. Glass works; Somerville or some other glass 
 
 factory. 
 
 9. Iron foundry. 
 
 10. Electric generating plant. 
 Similar trips may be substituted for any of these. 
 Literary Journeys. 
 
 1. Cambridge: homes of Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes 
 
 (site), Higginson, and others. 
 
 2. Concord: homes of Emerson, Hawthorne, Louisa 
 
 Alcott, and othors. 
 
 3. Boston,. or other literary centres, treated in similar 
 
 manner. 
 
FIELD LESSONS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 The Boston Basin 
 
 IN order to understand the physical features of 
 Boston and vicinity, one must have a clear 
 mental picture of the district surrounding Boston 
 Harbor, taken as a whole. In order to get this 
 broad but necessary view it will be best to review 
 briefly the geological history of this section. 
 
 Eastern Massachusetts was once covered by 
 very lofty mountains. In time these were worn 
 down almost to sea level, their few remaining 
 stumps being very hard, rocky hills, like the Blue 
 Hills of Milton and the granite hills of Quincy. 
 Through this almost flat country the rivers wound 
 sluggishly to the sea, which was then further to 
 the east than it is now. At that time the Mystic, 
 Neponset, Saugus, and other small rivers which 
 now empty into Boston Harbor were branches of 
 the Charles. There was then no such indentation 
 as that we now know as the harbor. What is now 
 the ship channel was the mouth of the Charles. 
 
 Then came an uplift of the whole region. The 
 rivers, which had ceased their cutting, were re- 
 
2 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 vived, and again began to wear away the land, 
 eroding valleys in what had become a nearly level 
 plateau that rose gradually towards the north and 
 west. 
 
 In time the rivers, including the Charles and its 
 branches, had again cut down to grade; i. e., had 
 worn away the land so that it was once more nearly 
 at sea level, and had widened their valleys to a 
 great extent so that they had a second time be- 
 come fairly old rivers when the ice age came. 
 
 To summarize : — 
 
 This region was once covered with very lofty 
 mountains, higher than the Rocky Mountains are 
 now. 
 
 Through vast periods of time these mountains 
 were worn down almost to sea level, so that the 
 region was a coastal plain. 
 
 Here and there were left hills of very hard rocks 
 (like the Blue Hills), known as monadnocks, from a 
 typical mountain of this type in New Hampshire. 
 
 Then the land rose gradually, with a general 
 slope from the northwest towards the sea. 
 
 The rivers again began to cut away this upraised 
 plain, and in time had widened their valleys until 
 the region was one of many hills and valleys, an 
 extensive peneplain, rising from sea level to a 
 height of two thousand feet at the foot of the 
 White Mountains. 
 
 Then the whole surface was covered with a 
 great ice sheet. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 3 
 
 Effects of Glaciation 
 
 This great blanket of ice, thick enough to cover 
 entirely the highest hills of the upland, came down 
 from Labrador. As it advanced it scraped off the 
 soil, broke off the ledges, rounded the hills, and 
 deposited great masses of "drift" (boulders, 
 stones, clay, sand, etc., mixed together) in the 
 hollow places. Much of the surface soil was pushed 
 ahead of the ice sheet, so that what had once been 
 a very fertile region became, after the retreat of 
 the glacier, a rocky and comparatively barren 
 region, poorly adapted to cultivation. 
 
 The weight of this enormous mass of ice caused 
 the land to sink many feet, so that when the glacial 
 era was over, what had been the old mouth of 
 the Charles, with its adjoining valley, became an 
 estuary into which its former branches now empty. 
 This estuary is Boston Harbor. What had formerly 
 been hills and ridges of the mainland near the 
 mouth of the Charles were left as rocky islets. 
 The Brewsters, Slate Island, etc., are examples. 
 
 Where these ridges and islets were small they 
 served to check the advance of the ice sheet, thus 
 gathering the waste of the land which was being 
 pushed along the bottom of the glacier. It is im- 
 portant to understand this, for nearly all the hills 
 and islands in Boston, in the suburbs, and in the 
 harbor, were formed in this way. 
 
 The ice sheet was moving towards the southeast. 
 On any contour map of Metropolitan Boston it 
 
4 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 will be noticed that practically all the hills are oval 
 in shape, with a general northwest and southeast 
 trend. Corey Hill in Brookline, the hill at Orient 
 Heights, Winter Hill in Somerville, and the harbor 
 islands are good examples. These were formed, as 
 has already been said, by the forward movement 
 of the ice sheet being retarded at the bottom by 
 an elevation of the old hard, resistant bed-rock. 
 Here the waste that had been scoured from the 
 surface of the land and was being pushed seaward 
 slowly accumulated under the ice in the form of 
 regular oval hills shaped like an egg that has been 
 sliced in two the longest way. When the ice 
 melted it left these hills, long, rather narrow, with 
 sky-line curved as perfectly as if trimmed by some 
 huge knife. 
 
 Such hills are found in most glaciated areas. 
 They were first named in Ireland. From the 
 Gaelic word "druim," the ridge of a hill, they 
 were called drumlins. Webster defines a drumlin 
 as "a hill of compact, unstratified, glacial drift or 
 till, usually elongate or oval, with the larger axis 
 parallel to the former glacial motion." 
 
 In no part of the world can drumlins be studied 
 to better advantage than about Boston. It is 
 because they form such an important feature in the 
 general topography here, and because almost every 
 hill in what we shall call the " Boston Basin" is a 
 drumlin, that the formation should be thoroughly 
 understood, and the form itself be instantly recog- 
 nized on sight. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 5 
 
 Extent of the Boston Basin 
 
 To best understand what is included in the term 
 Boston Basin, you should have before you the 
 general map of the Metropolitan District of Boston. 
 A copy of this map may be procured free by apply- 
 ing at the office of the Metropolitan Park Commis- 
 sion, 14 Beacon Street. 
 
 Beginning at Swampscott on the northeast, 
 draw the rim of the basin as follows: through 
 Lynn, being careful to keep south of the brown 
 contour lines; across the Saugus River, through 
 Maplewood, Maiden, Medford, West Medford, 
 Arlington (just west of Spy Pond), Belmont, Waver- 
 ley, Waltham (south of Cedar Hill), along the west- 
 ern bank of the Charles, south through Highland- 
 ville, Charles River Village, Dedham and Oak- 
 dale ; skirting the southern bank of the Neponset, 
 through Milton, West Quincy and Braintree, and 
 so to the margin of the map. Then draw a line 
 from Swampscott south to Nantasket, and you 
 have marked out the Basin. 
 
 It comprises, as you see, the flood-plains of the 
 Saugus, Mystic, Charles, Neponset and Weymouth 
 rivers and their branches. Nearly all the people of 
 Metropolitan Boston live on the flood-plains of the 
 three largest of these rivers, and on the scattered 
 drumlins nearby. 
 
 In a sense the Basin is entirely "made land." 
 It has all been formed by one of three agencies: 
 1. Soil brought down by the rivers; 2. Soil de- 
 
6 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 posited by the glacier as drumlins, including that 
 washed from them by the waves and tides; 3. 
 Land reclaimed from the sea by man. Cambridge 
 is a fair type of the first, Winthrop of the second, 
 and much of Boston proper of the third. It will be 
 remembered that the Boston of colonial times 
 consisted only of the three drumlins, Beacon Hill, 
 Copp's Hill and Fort Hill, with the barrier beach, 
 called "the neck," along which Washington Street 
 runs, and which connected these drumlins with the 
 mainland at Roxbury. This may be clearly seen 
 on any map of Boston made before 1800. 
 
 North, west and south of this line you have 
 drawn, and which we will call "the rim of the 
 basin/' rise the old, worn-down hills of the pene- 
 plain, greatly dissected by numerous streams, and 
 dotted with lakes of glacial origin. These hills rise 
 gradually toward the north and west until they 
 are merged into the true Appalachian highlands. 
 
 Our map now presents three distinct geographi- 
 cal features : — 
 
 1. The harbor, with its rock islands, drumlins 
 and beaches. 
 
 2. The " made land " of the basin, with its rivers, 
 flood-plains, and drumlins. 
 
 3. The upland, or peneplain, with its valleys, 
 monadnocks and glacial features. 
 
 All these can be seen at a glance if you will take 
 your map and go to the Geological Museum at 
 Harvard. Here, on the fourth floor, is the remark- 
 able plaster model of the Metropolitan District of 
 
BOSTON BASIN 7 
 
 Boston, prepared by Mr. G. C. Curtis in 1900 for the 
 Paris Exposition. In a huge circular frame, thirty 
 feet in circumference, is shown every feature, phy- 
 sical and political, of an area covering over five 
 hundred square miles. Everything is mathemati- 
 cally exact, and some idea of the enormous amount 
 of labor involved in its construction may be gained 
 from the following figures, taken from a pamphlet 
 issued by the state to describe the model : — 
 
 "There are 250 miles of railroad, with cuts, double 
 and single tracks, bridges, embankments, carefully 
 modelled to scale and graded ; 300 miles of stream, 
 modelled and painted ; and 200,000 trees, each sepa- 
 rate, and located from the best maps and original 
 surveys, the pine trees being distinguished from the 
 deciduous by both form and color. There are 26,000 
 blocks, correctly located according to the maps, and 
 2,750 miles of streets, making a network over all the 
 model ; all the streets in Boston, as well as through- 
 out the suburbs and adjacent country, having been 
 similarly produced. Dwelling-houses to the number 
 of 157,000 are located and built up from the mapped 
 ground plans. 
 
 " The Blue Hills, with heavily timbered slopes and 
 granite cliffs and the observatory on the summit, 
 loom up on the southwest edge highest of all. The 
 Charles River winds in and out across the model, 
 and the population is seen to cluster within its wide 
 valley in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Brook- 
 line, Watertown, Newton, Waltham, Dedham, 
 Needham, etc. On the north the Middlesex Fells 
 stands upon the plateau, studded with ponds and 
 
8 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 reservoirs, and covered with rocks, along whose 
 sides is a good sprinkling of trees. Nahant's beau- 
 tiful rocky shores and sandy beaches are plainly 
 shown in natural colors; even the low, seaweed- 
 covered rocks along the water's edge are accurately 
 modelled. The tidal flats have been located from the 
 latest charts and painted a half-tone between land 
 and sea. Lynn Beach, the Lynn Woods (full of 
 glens and ponds), the rocky shore of Swampscott 
 and Egg Rock, come in on the northeast. The is- 
 lands in the harbor — the Brewsters, the barren 
 Graves, and the Shag Rocks — stand out light 
 against the deep blue ocean. On the south lies Nan- 
 tasket Beach, along which Atlantic and Point Aller- 
 ton are prominent hills. Hingham harbor, with ist 
 rocky islands, the Weymouth Back River (east) and 
 the Weymouth Fore River, west of which is Hough's 
 Neck peninsula, with broad Quincy Bay on its inner 
 side, may be carefully studied, as they lie near the 
 edge of the model. Egg Rock Light on the island 
 one mile east of Nahant, Boston Light with its tall 
 white tower or lighthouse on Little Brewster Is- 
 land, the Narrows or Bug Light on the end of Great 
 Brewster Spit, Deer Island Light (a red iron cylinder 
 standing out of the water on the bar east of Deer 
 Island) t Long Island Light on the north end of Long 
 Island, eighty-four feet above the sea, two low- 
 range lights on the north end of Spectacle Island, 
 showing a safe channel to the inside harbor, — are the 
 beacons. Buoys, painted correctly, red on the right, 
 black on the left of the ship channel on entering, 
 and spindles, iron rods supporting a ball, are placed 
 in position, as are all other charted day marks. By 
 these a navigator can readily find his way." 
 
BOSTON BASIN 9 
 
 The model thus shows clearly the exact extent 
 and the principal features of the Boston Basin. 
 These features will be fully described in the suc- 
 ceeding chapters. 
 
 General Directions for Field Trips 
 
 No field trip should be taken with a class until 
 the teacher has been over the ground herself and 
 is ready to point out to her pupils just what she 
 wishes them to see. If the whole class is to be taken 
 it will be well for two teachers to plan the trip to- 
 gether, selecting a day when one of them is free (if 
 the school has manual training and cooking). In 
 some schools the sub-master accompanies the class 
 on his free session. 
 
 A megaphone is a valuable aid in calling the 
 attention of the class to objects of interest and im- 
 portance. A compass and a camera are also valua- 
 ble aids, the former being indispensable on most 
 trips. A pair of field glasses will often be of 
 help. 
 
 In a school having a well-arranged course of 
 field lessons covering the grammar- grades, say 
 three or four trips a year for each grade, a pupil 
 will have made fifteen or twenty such trips during 
 his school course, and will have a good general idea 
 of the topography, history and scenic beauties of 
 the region. 
 
 Few cities in the world offer so many and so 
 varied attractions to the tourist or pupil as does 
 
10 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 the Metropolitan District of Boston. As one writer 
 says: "Within a radius of twelve miles from the 
 State House, easily accessible, are many of the most 
 notable landmarks and monuments of the Colonial, 
 Provincial and Revolutionary periods, and a terri- 
 tory spreading back from the shores of Boston Bay, 
 while thickly settled, yet still of remarkably diversi- 
 fied landscape, enriched by lofty hills, broad sweeps 
 of valleys, masses of woodland, picturesque rivers, 
 ponds and brooks." 
 
 Some of these attractions are thus enumerated 
 by Edwin M. Bacon in his invaluable "Walks and 
 Rides about Boston," a copy of which should be 
 in the reference library of every school : — 
 
 "Between the bounds of this district (the Boston 
 Metropolitan District) are Boston Bay and its 
 seventy-five islands; stretches of the finest beaches 
 on the coast ; the boundary rock-hills of the Basin ; 
 the great Blue Hills forest ; the Stony Brook woods 
 in the midst of a populous quarter ; the lovely chain 
 of public parkways and parks instituted by the 
 City of Boston; the celebrated Waverley Oaks, the 
 most ancient group of oak-trees in New England, 
 and Beaver Brook, of which Lowell has sung; the 
 rich preserve of the Middlesex Fells ; the wild Lynn 
 Woods, one of the largest public domains belonging 
 to any city in the United States; the basins of the 
 Charles, Mystic, and Neponset rivers, and other 
 localities famous beyond the limits of Boston. Of 
 this territory nearly nine thousand acres are now 
 reserved by law and maintained for free public use 
 and enjoyment.", 
 
BOSTON BASIN 11 
 
 If the main benefit to be derived from a college 
 course is the knowledge of where to get information 
 and how to use it, then one of the aims of an ele- 
 mentary school course might well be to teach our 
 pupils how to get acquainted with the riches of their 
 own city, to know its history and its topography, 
 and how to take advantage of the splendid trans- 
 portation facilities for reaching the choicest places. 
 It is a fact that thousands of our pupils grow to 
 manhood and old age knowing nothing of the other 
 parts of the city except the one in which their lot 
 has been cast. But if given a course of well-planned 
 field lessons under the skilful direction of a good 
 teacher, their whole after life will be the richer. 
 
 The following outline of field lessons is the result 
 of several years of study and experiment in one of 
 the schools of the city. It is given as suggestive 
 rather than final ; it will not fit the needs of every 
 school; in many cases local trips, within walking 
 distance of the schoolhouse, may well be substituted 
 for some of those given. If it serves as a working 
 basis for those ambitious and progressive teachers 
 who realize the value of this line of teaching (the 
 number is growing every year), and who are will- 
 ing to do the extra amount of work required, the 
 purpose of the writer will have been accomplished. 
 
 In addition to the field lessons an outline of 
 Lantern Lessons, based on the new course of study 
 for Boston, is appended. This also is tentative 
 and suggestive. To carry on the lessons success- 
 fully does not require a very large number of slides. 
 
12 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 The same slide, if selected carefully, will serve for 
 use in many lessons : — for instance, a slide showing 
 a group of Kaffirs outside their huts may be used 
 in Grade IV to illustrate Homes; in Grade III, 
 People, type forms of the brown race ; in Grade III, 
 Vegetation dependent on climate. In the fifth 
 grade it may be used to show Land Features. In 
 Grade VI it may be used to compare the life forms 
 or climate or products of Southern Africa with 
 those of Europe and Asia. In Grade VII it belongs 
 in the proper understanding of life and conditions 
 of Africa. In the eighth grade it may be profitably 
 used several times in illustrating great production 
 regions, methods of transportation, vegetable 
 fibres and the trade in them, forest products, 
 commerce with Africa, and so on. 
 
 In the two upper grades, especially, any teacher 
 may, at a trifling cost, add largely to the school 
 stock of slides by making plain or colored slides 
 illustrating productive areas, maps of different 
 regions, diagrams showing the growth of different 
 industries, comparative wealth of different nations, 
 and a hundred other interesting and helpful subjects 
 by the following method : — 
 
 Secure cheap dry plates of any size and cut them 
 down to lantern-slide size (3^x4 in.). Exposed 
 plates, if they have not been developed, are as 
 good as new ones, and may often be secured free 
 from your photographer. Put them in a strong 
 solution of hyposulphite of soda (seven cents a 
 pound) for twenty minutes, and then wash under 
 
BOSTON BASIN 13 
 
 running water for twenty minutes. Dry them in a 
 room free from dust, and you have a clear, trans- 
 parent surface on which to trace any map or dia- 
 gram, and one upon which you can lay a trans- 
 parent water-color perfectly. The writer has found 
 the " Peerless Japanese Transparent Water-Colors/ ' 
 sold at the department stores, to be the most satis- 
 factory. A single book is sufficient to color hun- 
 dreds of slides, and the colors are soft and beauti- 
 ful on the screen. 
 
 When the map or diagram is finished and dry, 
 cut out a mat, cover with a thin cover-glass, and 
 bind with strong, thin binding-paper. The whole 
 material will cost but a few cents, and you will, 
 after a little practice, be able to make slides of 
 which an expert need not be ashamed. 
 
T 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 GRADE IV. LESSON 1 
 
 Roof of Schoolhouse 
 
 HE four following Roof Lessons for the Fourth 
 Grade were worked out and successfully given 
 for several years by Miss Eliza Graham of the Mar- 
 tin Training School when she was teaching at the 
 Paul Jones School in East Boston. The four lessons 
 were considered invaluable in the correct teaching 
 of the elementary forms of land and water. The 
 time given for each lesson was forty-five minutes. 
 A group of fifteen pupils was taken to the roof, the 
 rest of the class being employed on assigned work 
 at their desks until it came their turn to go up 
 stairs. Each group was given twelve minutes, the 
 remaining nine minutes being used in changing 
 groups. 
 
 Roof Lesson No. i 
 
 The teacher gathers the pupils about her, facing 
 the particular point she wishes them to observe, 
 and proceeds to draw from them by means of ap- 
 propriate questions the facts that they already 
 
BOSTON BASIN 15 
 
 know concerning the objects in view. The lesson 
 from the roof of the Paul Jones schoolhouse, where 
 both land and water forms are in plain sight, would 
 be carried on somewhat as follows : — 
 
 Q. What do you see? 
 
 Arts. Houses, trees, churches, boats, steamers, 
 birds, etc. 
 
 Q. The houses, churches, people, etc., are on 
 what? 
 Arts. They are on the land. 
 Q. Can you see any more land? 
 Can you see where the land ends? 
 Have you ever been on any other land? 
 Of what is the land a part? 
 Ans. A part of the earth. 
 Q. On what part of the earth do we live? 
 Ans. On the surface. 
 Q. We travel how upon the land? 
 Ans. We walk, or go in steam cars, electric cars, 
 automobiles, etc. 
 Q. Where are the boats and steamers? 
 
 Where are they in reference to the water? 
 Where are the birds? Where in reference to 
 the air? 
 
 Ans. The boats are in the water, but on its sur- 
 face; while the birds are up in the air. 
 Summary of Lesson I : — 
 We have seen a part of the earth's surface. 
 The surface of the earth consists of land and 
 water. 
 
16 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 There is much more of both than can be seen 
 from any one point. 
 The earth is surrounded by air. 
 Air in motion is called wind. 
 
 Classroom Review of Lesson 
 
 Review thoroughly the first lesson, and allow 
 pupils to relate more of their experiences than was 
 possible in the limited time given to the roof 
 lesson. Discuss with them their observations of 
 the sun's movements. 
 
 Roof Lesson No. 2 
 
 This is conducted in the same manner as the first 
 lesson. 
 
 Land forms, external, such as: — 
 
 Islands, continents, peninsulas, capes and isth- 
 muses, etc. 
 
 Following this would be several recitations in 
 the room on important islands and other type 
 forms that have been taught; in other words, as 
 soon as the child is acquainted with the type, his 
 interest is aroused and his knowledge increases 
 rapidly. 
 
 The islands usually studied are Greenland, Ice- 
 land, Great Britain, the Japanese Islands, and 
 the islands of the Pacific Ocean. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 17 
 
 Facts studied : — 
 Child life, very thoroughly. 
 Customs and occupations. 
 Vegetation, animals, etc. 
 
 Roof Lesson No. 3 
 
 Internal land forms: Plains, hills, valleys, etc. 
 
 This is followed by several lessons in the room 
 upon prairies, deserts, mountains and other inter- 
 nal land forms. Pictures are used very freely, and 
 the experiences of those pupils who have seen 
 such forms are drawn upon for the benefit of the 
 rest of the class. 
 
 Roof Lesson No. 4 
 
 External and internal water forms. 
 
 External forms: Ocean, bay, gulf, sea. 
 
 Internal forms: River, pond, lake, stream, 
 spring. 
 
 This is followed by lessons in the classroom until 
 the type-forms are thoroughly familiar to the 
 pupils, and they have been led to understand the 
 forms they have never seen from the types they 
 have actually seen; to pass from the known to the 
 unknown. 
 
18 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 GRADE IV. LESSON 2 
 Waverley: Beaver Brook Reservation 
 
 (Reached by cars from Park Street Subway station or 
 transfer from Harvard Square. 25 minutes. 5-cent fare.) 
 
 This field trip is excellent for the study of ele- 
 mentary land and water forms, especially of ponds, 
 brooks and brook basins. 
 
 We leave the car at Waverley village and walk 
 along Lexington Street, past the McLean Asylum 
 grounds, until we come to North Street. We 
 turn up Mill Street on the right and follow 
 this until we reach the upper pond, thus ena- 
 bling the class to trace the course of the stream 
 downward. 
 
 The two ponds, resting in their glacial hollows, 
 are about the same size, roughly pear-shaped with 
 the stems pointing northeast and northwest, re- 
 spectively. We call the attention of our pupils to 
 the character of the banks, the surrounding trees 
 (having them name as many as they can), and to 
 the drainage. Then we follow the course down to 
 the bridge that spans the outlet of the lower pond 
 and study the waterfall there, noting how the brook 
 has worn away the rocks and widened its little 
 valley. Before we leave the pond the pupils 
 will enjoy seeing the ducks and geese, but care 
 must be taken that they do not lose sight of 
 the more important things in viewing the less 
 important. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 19 
 
 When the stream was much larger than it is now 
 (before the forests had been cut away) this spot was 
 for many generations occupied by a mill of one kind 
 or another. The first one was built as long ago as 
 1662, and was used for fulling cloth. At the time 
 when Lowell wrote his poem " Beaver Brook " (1848) 
 a grist-mill stood at the foot of the cascade : — 
 
 "Beneath a bony buttonwood 
 The mill's red door lets forth the din; 
 The whitened miller, dust-imbued, 
 Flits past the square of dark within." 
 
 At the foot of the fall we note the old wall, a part 
 of the foundation of the last mill that stood here 
 as late as 1875. 
 
 Now we plunge down into the cool, moist bottom- 
 lands, noting the character of the vegetation, — 
 ferns, mosses, flowering plants and shrubs of many 
 kinds. We study the bed of the brook, seeing how 
 it divides and re-unites, noting how it has widened 
 its small valley as much as the surrounding hills will 
 permit, and how in flood time it has transported the 
 larger stones down stream. We follow its course 
 until it is crossed by the bridge over Trapelo Road, 
 and we are on the edge of the level flood-plain 
 and among the famous Waverley Oaks. 
 
 The plain is some seventy-five feet lower than 
 the ponds, and the work that Beaver Brook has 
 done in cutting down its channel and widening its 
 valley should be emphasized. The level floor of 
 this little plain should be distinctly recognized, 
 
20 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 and the pupils asked to draw a sketch of the course 
 of the stream from pond to end of flood-plain. The 
 older pupils may be shown the fine terraces made 
 by the stream in past ages. 
 
 Some of the old English pasture-shrubs may 
 here be studied if you care to take the time, — 
 hawthorn, buckthorn, privet and barberry. 
 
 Aside from the brook, the venerable oaks are 
 the principal objects of interest in the Reservation. 
 We see them all about us, the largest standing on 
 the glacial kame overlooking the brook. Various 
 authorities have estimated their age at from four 
 hundred to one thousand years. They are undoubt- 
 edly the oldest oaks on the continent ; and it gives 
 our pupils a vivid glimpse into the past to stand 
 beneath the shade of one of these hoary relics of a 
 former day and to realize that long before Colum- 
 bus set out on his westward voyage they were 
 standing here ; that " Leif Ericson may have hunted 
 the deer and bear among them, and Gudrid, the 
 wife of Thorfinn Karlsefni, may have rested under 
 these same branches." 
 
 There are twenty-six of these old oaks, the largest 
 measuring eighty feet in height and over eighteen 
 feet in circumference at the height of one's head. 
 They are carefully cared for by the Metropolitan 
 Park Commission. One of the trees, which was 
 blown down some years ago, showed an age of 
 over eight hundred years. 
 
 A copy of the topographical map of the Reserva- 
 tion may be secured from the Commission (14 
 
BOSTON BASIN 21 
 
 Beacon Street), and a sketch put on the board 
 before starting on the trip. 
 
 Main points to be noted: ponds and their for- 
 mation, waterfall, narrow valley and work of run- 
 ning water, terraces, broad flood-plain, oaks, and 
 glacial eskers. 
 
 GRADE IV. LESSON 3 
 The State House Dome 
 
 The dome of the State House commands an ex- 
 tensive view of Boston and its surroundings. 
 Admission is always free from 9 a. m. to 4 p. m. 
 Take the elevator (east side of the building) to the 
 fifth floor; pass along the corridor to the south 
 end, and the door to the dome will be found open. 
 The climb up the one hundred and fifteen steps is 
 a long but easy one, and perfectly safe, as the 
 stairs are guarded by heavy wire netting all the 
 way to the top. 
 
 The four windows face essentially the four car- 
 dinal points of the compass. Boston lies spread 
 out before us like a map. If we begin at the north 
 window we see in the distance the level sky-line of 
 the upland in Maiden, Medford and Arlington; 
 to the northeast, east and southeast, the sea 
 bounds the horizon, with Revere and Winthrop, the 
 harbor islands and the end of the Nantasket pen- 
 insula. On the south rise the Blue Hills, with 
 the observatory on Great Blue easily discernible on 
 a clear day. Thence, with scarcely a break, the 
 
22 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 hills sweep around to the west and north until they 
 join those first mentioned. 
 
 To the west the basin of the Charles, with its 
 bridges and broad esplanade, forms a beautiful 
 picture, with Beacon Street running parallel to 
 the river. From no other spot in the city can such 
 a view of the recent improvements along the 
 Charles be obtained. The Craigie Dam and drive- 
 way, with its recreation grounds and lock, are in 
 plain view. The whole city lies beneath us, and 
 after seeing it from this point the children will re- 
 turn to their study of Boston with a zeal that will 
 well repay the teacher for taking them on this 
 field trip. 
 
 It will be well for the teacher to make the trip in 
 advance some Saturday morning (the State House 
 closes at noon on that day) and decide on just 
 what features should be emphasized. Then, when 
 the class has first reached the top of the dome, 
 teach the lesson before they have become tired 
 studying the many things to be seen. It will 
 be well to limit the number of pupils to twenty 
 or less, as the space at the windows is rather 
 small. 
 
 Little more than what has been outlined above 
 should be attempted with fourth-grade pupils for 
 this field lesson. Children are easily tired and the 
 State House is to be studied exhaustively in one of 
 the eighth-grade trips. A glance at the historical 
 paintings and the battle-flags may perhaps be 
 taken on the way out; but the most successful 
 
BOSTON BASIN 23 
 
 teachers are those who attempt to show only a few 
 things, and those thoroughly, in a single lesson. 
 
 GRADE IV. LESSON 4 
 Peabody Museum, Cambridge 
 
 (Reached from Park Street Subway station or Hanover 
 Street, via Harvard Square, or via Beacon Street, Somerville; 
 stop at Museum Street on latter route.) 
 
 Nowhere else in the world is to be found so com- 
 plete and interesting a collection showing the life 
 and customs of the Eskimos and American Indians 
 as at this museum. Every teacher who teaches 
 American history dealing with the Indians or the 
 French and Indian wars should visit the museum 
 and if possible take at least a division of her class 
 to see the collection. 
 
 Many teachers make a serious mistake in attempt- 
 ing to show their pupils too much on a single 
 trip. Far better is it to have a definite impres- 
 sion of a few things than a hazy idea of many. If 
 we older people can retain but few vivid impres- 
 sions on any one excursion, it should be a warning 
 to us not to expect young children to remember 
 more than we can ourselves. Therefore on this 
 trip it will be well if we do not try to see more than 
 what is contained in a single room, or in two at 
 most. We may tell the pupils that there are just 
 as interesting exhibits in the other rooms in the 
 building, and encourage them to come and see the 
 
24 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 rest with their parents or some older companion 
 (children unaccompanied by an adult are not ad- 
 mitted). A desire to see the other things will be 
 one of the best results of the trip. 
 
 Before starting, every child should be furnished 
 with a pencil and a tablet having a stiff back, as 
 sketches and notes should be made on the spot. A 
 good plan will be to arrange the members of the 
 class in groups of four or five, each in charge of one 
 of the more responsible pupils, and have the 
 groups assigned to different cases with instructions 
 to copy the description and make notes and 
 sketches (drawings) of the most important models, 
 which are here marked with a star (*). 
 
 Second Floor, Room 24. — *A model of the houses 
 of the Haida Indians (Queen Charlotte Islands, 
 south of Alaska) faces you as you enter the door. 
 Tall, painted totem poles stand before the houses, 
 and on the beach in front are boats, frames for 
 drying meat, canoes and kyaks, models of men and 
 women at work, and other interesting features 
 connected with the life of the Indians. Note the 
 descriptions given on the card. 
 
 To the right of this model is a life-size figure of a 
 ^Northwest coast Indian chief in full costume. 
 The inner garment is of dressed deerskin orna- 
 mented with totem figures. The blanket he wears 
 was woven of the wool of the mountain goat. In 
 his hand he holds a figure representing a mythical 
 monster. The front of his head-dress shows an 
 * Of special interest. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 25 
 
 eagle bearing in its claws a killer- whale. Down 
 his back hangs a splendid ornament of ermine skins. 
 The space inclosed by the fringe of seal whiskers 
 on his head was filled with bird down which fell 
 like snow in the motions of the dance. The com- 
 panion piece to the left is that of a *Nookta woman 
 in full costume. 
 
 Suspended from the ceiling are several *kyaks 
 made of sealskins, some fully twenty feet in length. 
 These are from the Eskimos of Labrador. Over 
 the case to the right of the door as you enter is an 
 ^Eskimo dog sled brought from North Greenland 
 by Commander Peary; and in the case beneath 
 this are some tiny models in bone and ivory of 
 Eskimos, dogs, sledges, seals, etc. Here also may 
 be seen many articles of clothing, harpoons, bows 
 and arrows, snowshoes of various shapes, models 
 of sail-boats, and a great variety of similar objects. 
 
 This room is so full of interesting things that it 
 is hard to select the ones for special mention. A 
 *fire-making set of four pieces — wooden hearth, 
 drill, drill-thong and mouth-piece — should not 
 escape notice. The beautiful fur costumes from 
 Baffin Land in the upright case (northeast corner 
 of the room) should be studied. They show both 
 summer and winter costumes of men and women. 
 The *baby's fur suit (Cumberland Sound) will de- 
 light the pupils. 
 
 On the north side of the room may be studied 
 *models of the winter homes of the central Eskimos 
 * Of special interest. 
 
26 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 of Baffin Land, showing exterior and interior of 
 the igloo in all stages of construction. A study 
 of one of these models will be worth more than any 
 amount of reading. As , the pupils stand about 
 the case read aloud to them the following : — 
 
 "Two types of winter houses are built by these 
 Eskimos, the durable stone houses and the more 
 common snow huts. The former usually consist of 
 an excavation in the earth, the sides and passage- 
 ways being walled with stones. A whale rib serves 
 as a frame for the window. The roof frame is formed 
 of poles or whale bones lashed together. Over this 
 sealskins are stretched, and upon these is a thick 
 layer of shrubs. Over all this the summer tent of 
 sealskins is stretched and held in place by stones. 
 The interior arrangement is similar to that of the 
 snow-house. 
 
 "The snow-house is built singly or in groups of 
 two or more, having a common entrance and separate 
 ante-chambers. Each hut is occupied by two families, 
 each woman having her own lamp for heat and light 
 and her own cooking-pot and drying-frame. A win- 
 dow of seal intestines admits light. A piece of thin, 
 fresh-water ice is fitted to a hole in the wall to enable 
 the inmates to see out. Meat is stored in vaults 
 adjoining the stone house, or on high stone plat- 
 forms out of reach of the dogs." 
 
 In the rear of the room is the life-size figure of a 
 *Helpa woman in native costume, with a good de- 
 scription on the accompanying card. Nearby is a 
 * Of special interest. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 27 
 
 model showing the elm-bark lodges of the Iroquois. 
 The rear wall-case is filled with articles collected 
 among the Indians of California. 
 
 Among the thousands of articles shown in the 
 other cases in Room 24 are numerous totems, a 
 huge feast-dish used by chiefs in ceremonial feasts, 
 Indian dolls, a great variety of fishing implements, 
 *war-masks and helmets of the Tlingits of Alaska, 
 a fine ^ceremonial mask with the figure of a winged 
 monster on the crest, and one of hammered copper 
 inlaid with mother-of-pearl. 
 
 GRADE IV. LESSON 5 
 Local History Trip 
 
 This field lesson should be within easy walking 
 distance of the schoolhouse. In almost every 
 school district in Boston or suburban cities there 
 will be found an abundance of historical material, 
 if one searches the local histories. Some famous 
 man or woman of the early days may be made 
 the subject of this lesson if there are no monuments 
 or tablets near at hand, and stories read or told to 
 the class concerning his life and deeds. The men, 
 places or events commemorated in the names of 
 the surrounding streets may be the topic. The 
 name of the schoolhouse will offer ample material 
 for a good lesson. 
 
 * Of special interest. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 GRADE V. LESSON 1 
 
 Arlington Heights 
 
 (Reached via Sullivan Square cars through Somerville, or 
 by Hanover Street, via Beacon Street, Cambridge, or from 
 Park Street Subway station via Harvard Square. Fare on 
 each line 5 cents. The first is the most direct route and passes 
 over Winter Hill in Somerville, one of the drumlins on the 
 floor of Boston Basin.) 
 
 BESIDES Winter Hill other drumlins may be 
 noted on the way; Bunker Hill, with its his- 
 toric monument; the Chelsea and Everett hills 
 across the Mystic, just after leaving Sullivan Square, 
 and especially College Hill in Medford, upon which 
 Tufts College is located. As we near Arlington 
 Centre, Spy Pond should be pointed out on the 
 left, and the level character of the land noticed. 
 The edge of the "Basin," as we ascend the hill at 
 Arlington Centre, is easily recognized. If time 
 permits, the class should get off the car at Pleasant 
 Street, Arlington, walk along this on the north 
 edge of Spy Pond to Lake Street, and up Lake 
 Street, to the Heights. This walk is rich in points 
 of interest, both geographical and historical. 
 
 Three points may well be emphasized on this 
 trip: — 
 
BOSTON BASIN 29 
 
 1. The Boston Basin. 
 
 2. The surrounding upland. 
 
 3. Soils and soil-making. 
 
 To these may be added a study of the broader 
 features of glacial action as illustrated in the 
 lakes, kames, drumlins, etc., seen along the way. 
 With such splendid type-forms of these features as 
 are to be seen on this trip it is not well to devote 
 the time exclusively to any one feature. 
 
 Spy Pond, at the edge of the basin's rim, and 
 scarcely ten feet above sea level, lies at our feet. 
 As we ascend the escarpment we note how the 
 character of the soil changes, growing coarser and 
 poorer as we go up . Here and there we see the ledges 
 of the underlying bed-rock exposed to view — 
 largely of a very hard granite — and a great deal 
 of glacial till and many boulders scattered over the 
 entire surface. This is seen in the many stone- wall 
 fences hereabouts, and in the foundations of houses, 
 and should be compared with the bed-rock, that 
 the pupils may determine for themselves whether 
 the surface boulders were brought from a distance 
 or were broken from the original bed-rock. 
 
 Samples of soil, — fine at the base of the hill, 
 coarser midway up, and coarse rock waste at the 
 top, — should be collected, preferably by one or 
 two of the older members of the class, for a per- 
 manent addition to the cabinet. Specimens of the 
 underlying ledges and of the different glacial rocks 
 should also be taken back to school for further study 
 and comparison. If the trip is made in spring or 
 
30 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 fall, many specimens of leaves, flowers, etc., may 
 be secured for work in Nature study. The trees 
 should be identified along the way, and the more 
 important of the shrubs and bushes noted. 
 
 When we have arrived at the top of the hill, we 
 have, spread out at our feet, a broad panorama. 
 Stretching southeasterly towards the sea is the 
 level flood-plain formed by the Charles and Mystic 
 rivers, dotted here and there with drumlins, and 
 covered with the buildings of Cambridge and Som- 
 erville. Beyond are the thickly-settled peninsulas 
 of Boston, Charlestown, and Chelsea, with the 
 islands on which are East Boston and Orient 
 Heights, and in the far distance the lesser islets of 
 Boston Harbor. 
 
 Directly to the east of us, and extending to Sau- 
 gus, are the old hills forming the northern border of 
 the basin. Nestled at the foot of the hills, or 
 climbing their sides and extending up the side 
 valleys, are the cities of Medford and Maiden. To 
 the south is Belmont; southwest, Waltham and 
 the other cities bordering the Charles ; and to the 
 south, fifteen miles away, the Blue Hills mark the 
 opposite border of the basin. 
 
 Looking to the north and west, we see the hills 
 of the worn-down upland stretching away, the re- 
 markably even skyline broken in the distance by 
 the loftier peaks of Wachusett and Monadnock. 
 The latter, nearly seventy miles distant, may 
 readily be distinguished from the highest hill on a 
 clear day. The reason for the evenness of the sky- 
 
BOSTON BASIN 31 
 
 line should be made clear, and the meaning of the 
 term "peneplain" taught. 
 
 If these points are clearly taught in advance, 
 the class instructed as to just what it is expected 
 to see, the objects clearly pointed out in the field 
 trip and again talked over and explained in the 
 classroom after the trip, and the teaching crystal- 
 lized in a written report from every member of the 
 class, you will find that it has been an exceed- 
 ingly profitable lesson. If you can take a camera 
 along and make a few lantern-slides of the type- 
 forms seen, — and incidentally of the class while 
 at Arlington Heights, — it will add greatly to the 
 interest of the trip, and be of help in taking future 
 classes to this place. 
 
 Arlington Heights — Historical Notes 
 
 On the ride from Boston to Arlington we pass 
 many interesting historical places. Just above 
 the Baptist church, opposite Kidder Street, is a 
 tablet telling how four citizens were killed by 
 British soldiers retreating from Lexington. Fur- 
 ther on is a tablet marking the site of the White 
 Horse Tavern, "Where met the Committee of 
 Safety in 1775." Pupils will be interested to know 
 that in this tavern, on the day before the battle of 
 Lexington, the Committee of Safety met. Two of 
 the members were Elbridge Gerry (afterward Vice- 
 president) and Colonel Lee, who spent the night 
 at the tavern. They were surprised at early dawn 
 by the British soldiers, and barely escaped capture. 
 
32 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 If we get off the car at Pleasant Street we find a 
 stone tablet bearing this interesting inscription: 
 "At this spot on April 18, 1775, the old men of 
 Menotomy captured a convoy of eighteen soldiers 
 with supplies on the way to join the British at 
 Lexington." These "old men," left behind by the 
 minute-men who marched to Concord, had the 
 unique distinction of making the first capture in 
 the Revolutionary War. Not far away six of Lord 
 Percy's soldiers were captured by an old woman 
 who was digging dandelion greens, if we can believe 
 local tradition. 
 
 Twenty-two men were slain by the British in 
 Arlington on that day, and twelve of them were 
 buried in the old graveyard near where we stand. 
 They were interred without coffins, in the clothes 
 they had worn when they fell. The grave is marked 
 by a granite monument. Not far away were buried 
 several of the forty British soldiers killed in the 
 retreat from Concord. The hardihood of some of 
 our early ancestors is well illustrated by the case 
 of old Samuel Whittemore, in whose memory a 
 tablet is found on Mystic Street. The record of 
 this tough old patriot reads as follows: — 
 
 "Near this spot Samuel Whittemore 
 
 Then 80 years old 
 
 Killed three British soldiers April 19, 1775. He was shot, 
 
 bayonetted 
 
 Beaten and left for dead, 
 
 But recovered and lived 
 
 To be 98 years old." 
 
BOSTON BASIN 33 
 
 Pupils who have read John T. Trowbridge's 
 charming stories will be interested to have his 
 home pointed out. It is on Pleasant Street, near 
 Spy Pond. Five minutes' walk beyond the church 
 green is the Jason Russell house, in which a dozen 
 Americans were slain by the retreating English 
 soldiery on April 19. 
 
 GRADE V. LESSON 2 
 
 Visit to T Wharf — Fishing Industry 
 
 Boston ranks second in the fish industry of the 
 world, being surpassed only by London. The 
 centre of this large trade is found at T Wharf, 
 where the fares are brought by the schooners and 
 trawlers for distribution to the different parts of 
 the country. A visit to this wharf is one of the 
 most interesting in the whole course. A careful 
 perusal of the daily papers, especially the Post's 
 column, " Along the Water Front," will tell you 
 when the boats are in and business is at its best. 
 
 A typical day's receipts during the summer, as 
 reported by the Post for July 14, 1910, is shown 
 below : — 
 
 " The arrival at T Wharf yesterday of the seining 
 schooner Oriole with a catch of 2800 fresh mackerel 
 was most timely, as the local supply was about de- 
 pleted. Captain Charles Maguire received thirty- 
 two cents each for his fish. This is the second trip 
 of the Oriole here inside of a week. Since starting 
 
34 
 
 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 his season, four months ago, Captain Maguire has 
 stocked $9000, which places him in a top-notch place. 
 Seiners Shenandoah, Captain James Gannon, and 
 Victor, Captain John McFarland, each with 2000 
 fresh mackerel, were in at Provincetown yesterday. 
 Their fares were sent here by rail. 
 
 "Two trips of swordfish were at the pier yester- 
 day, the Hockmomock, with twenty-two fish, and the 
 small Georgiana with four. The fish brought nine- 
 teen cents a pound. 
 
 "A fleet of twenty-three trawlers arrived at T 
 Wharf during the day, bringing in a total of 717,900 
 pounds of mixed fresh fish, including 181,500 pounds 
 of haddock, 347,700 pounds of cod, 61,300 pounds 
 of hake and 127,400 pounds of pollock. 
 
 "Haddock sold yesterday at 3^ cents, large steak 
 cocl 3 cents, markets 2J cents, hake at 2\ cents, steak 
 pollock 2 cents a pound. 
 
 "The vessels and their fares: 
 
 Seaconnet .... 
 
 Genesta 
 
 Fannie B. Atwood 
 Helen B. Thomas . 
 Gladys & Nellie . 
 Philip P. Manta . 
 
 Regina 
 
 Mary C. Santos . 
 MaryE.Silveira . 
 Nettie Franklin . 
 Helen B. Thomas . 
 Hattie F. Knowlton 
 James & Esther 
 Ignatius Enos . . 
 Jessie Costa . . . 
 Rose Dorothea . . 
 
 Haddock 
 
 10,000 
 
 15,000 
 
 30,000 
 
 12,000 
 
 28,000 
 
 7,000 
 
 16,000 
 
 1,000 
 
 8,000 
 
 2,500 
 
 12,000 
 
 7,500 
 
 3,000 
 
 500 
 
 12,000 
 
 3,000 
 
 Cod 
 
 4,800 
 
 9,500 
 
 13,000 
 
 4,000 
 
 5,500 
 
 31,000 
 
 5,000 
 
 60,000 
 
 19,000 
 
 40,000 
 
 4,000 
 
 500 
 
 16,000 
 
 2,000 
 
 46,000 
 
 40,000 
 
 Hake 
 
 300 
 
 8,000 
 
 5,000 
 
 15,000 
 
 51,000 
 
 15,000 
 1,500 
 
 500 
 
 Pollock 
 
 2,000 
 
 500 
 
 4,000 
 
 4,000 
 
 500 
 
 20,000 
 
 1,000 
 
 1,500 
 
 4,000 
 
 300 
 
 500 
 
 1,500 
 
 8,000 
 
 7,000 
 
BOSTON BASIN 35 
 
 Haddock Cod Hake Pollock 
 
 Mattakeeset ...... 4,000 22,000 ... 15,000 
 
 Louisa R. Sylva .... 4,000 22,000 . . . 20,000 
 
 Mary T. Fallon .... 6,000 2,400 1,200 400 
 
 Trilby 500 ... 1,200 
 
 Marion 4,000 
 
 Laura Enos ... ... 8,000 
 
 Nettie 500 ... 4,000 
 
 The following figures, taken from the report of 
 the Boston Fish Bureau (January, 1910), give an 
 idea of the amount of business done by the fish 
 dealers of the city during a single year : 
 
 Mackerel, fresh, bbls 42,720 
 
 Mackerel, salt, etc., bbls . . 36,248 
 
 Codfish, salt, etc., qtls 43,529 
 
 Herring, frozen, bbls 18,811 
 
 Herring, canned and smoked 847,623 
 
 Swordfish, fresh, no 5,114 
 
 Smelts, fresh, boxes 25,993 
 
 Shad, fresh, bbls 1,736 
 
 Other Fresh Fish, bbls 33,519 
 
 Other Fresh Fish, boxes 15,286 
 
 Live Lobsters, pkgs 45,394 
 
 Canned Lobsters, boxes 40,516 
 
 Bloaters, boxes 58,555 
 
 Boneless Fish, boxes 47,988 
 
 Hake, Haddock, Cusk, qtl 21,000 
 
 Other Salt Fish, bbls 14,369 
 
 Other Salt Fish, boxes 37,350 
 
 Other Salt Fish, drums 51,266 
 
 Sardines, boxes 1,151,126 
 
 In visiting T Wharf some such outline of facts 
 to be obtained, as the following, may be given the 
 class in advance, and the pupils asked to obtain 
 as much of the information on the spot as they 
 can: — 
 
36 FIELD LESSONS. 
 
 Kinds of fish seen? 
 
 Where were they caught? 
 
 How were they caught, — with line, trawl, seine, 
 spear, harpoon? 
 
 What has been done to keep them from spoiling? 
 
 How are they being prepared for market? 
 
 Where are they to be sent? 
 
 What are the most valuable varieties, and why? 
 
 What kinds are classed as "groundfish," and 
 what does that mean? 
 
 Kinds of boats used for getting the different fish? 
 
 How is a steam trawler fitted up? 
 
 Where does the harpooner stand when after 
 swordfish? 
 
 What is used for bait for different kinds of fish ? 
 
 What kinds of diseases do fishes have? 
 
 Are preservatives (chemicals) allowed in pre- 
 paring for market? 
 
 What nationalities do you find among the 
 fishermen? 
 
 Are any of the boats from another country? 
 
 What wages do the men on the fishing-boats get? 
 Men on the wharves ? 
 
 What do the owners of the boat get for the fish? 
 
 How does this compare with the retail price you 
 pay at home? 
 
 Study the method of buying on the wharf. 
 
 What is the object of the Fish Exchange? 
 
 Is there a "Fish Trust," or combination of 
 buyers or of sellers? 
 
 Similar questions will suggest themselves to you, 
 
BOSTON BASIN 37 
 
 and the search for the information at first hand will 
 add much to the interest your pupils will take 
 in the trip. 
 
 GRADE V. LESSON 3 
 
 Trade with South America 
 
 The Houston Line steamers, plying between 
 Boston and Rosario and Buenos Ayres, Argentine 
 Republic, come to the National Docks, East Bos- 
 ton. The arrival of these steamers may be learned 
 by watching the marine news in the daily papers, 
 or by writing to the agent of the line, A. C. Lom- 
 bard's Sons, 156 State Street, Boston, from whom 
 permission should be asked to take the class on 
 board the ship. The docks may most easily be 
 reached via the East Boston Tunnel. Take a 
 Jeffries Point car, and ask the conductor to stop 
 at the nearest point to the National Docks. 
 
 Have the class supplied with notebooks and 
 pencils for making a list of the raw products im- 
 ported and the manufactured articles sent back. 
 One of the officers is usually found who will be glad 
 to take the pupils over the ship, tell of the country 
 and its people, show some of the South American 
 coins and such curios as may happen to be on 
 board, and give facts concerning the trade with 
 Argentina. Pupils invariably enjoy hearing the 
 facts from an officer, especially if he wears a be- 
 coming uniform; and the problem of discipline is 
 solved in this way. 
 
38 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 Sailing vessels loaded with South American 
 woods, rubber, salts, etc., often come to Boston, 
 and their arrival and place of docking may be 
 learned from the daily press. Ask the pupils to 
 keep watch for news of such arrivals; you will be 
 kept informed, and they will learn a great deal 
 about commerce outside of their text-books. 
 
 GRADE V. LESSON 4 
 
 Cambridge Geological and Agassiz Museums 
 
 Arrangements should be made in advance with 
 Prof. W. M. Davis of Harvard University, for 
 bringing pupils to see the models and maps. These 
 are kept in the Geological Department, on Oxford 
 Street. 
 
 Curtis's model of Metropolitan Boston is found 
 on the fourth floor of the Geological Museum, and 
 may be seen at any time if arrangements have been 
 made with some member of the department. A 
 full description of the model has already been 
 given in Chapter I. 
 
 Several interesting models of land and water 
 forms may be seen in the Agassiz Museum, notably 
 one of the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 In the Museum of Comparative Zoology the 
 animals, birds, fishes and reptiles are grouped ac- 
 cording to the different life regions, and offer an 
 interesting field for study. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 39 
 
 GRADE V. LESSON 5 
 
 Beacon Hill and Vicinity 
 
 For the State House and grounds use as much 
 as seems advisable of the outline for Grade VIII. 
 The Beacon (the tall shaft surmounted by the 
 eagle), the Devens and Banks monuments on the 
 east, the Hancock tablet on the northeast balus- 
 trade; the equestrian statue of General Hooker; 
 and the statues of Horace Mann and Daniel Web- 
 ster may be seen in a few moments. 
 
 The statue of Columbus in Louisburg Square 
 is not nearly so fine as the one in the Cathedral 
 grounds on Washington Street, but will repay the 
 short walk from the State House. It is at the north 
 end of the Square, next to Mount Vernon Street. 
 
 Boston Common — Historical 
 
 Boston Common dates from 1634, when the 
 whole peninsula was purchased from its first settler, 
 William Blaxston, for $150. It was set apart as a 
 training-field, and in 1640 part of it was made a 
 public pasture. In 1646 the number of cattle al- 
 lowed to graze here was "70 milch kine, and one 
 horse for Elder Oliver. " A freeholder might keep 
 four sheep instead of a cow, if he preferred. A 
 keeper was appointed, who received "two shil- 
 lings and sixpence for the head of every cow that 
 goes there." 
 
40 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 Besides being a pasture it was used for various 
 other purposes. Here were built the common 
 Granary, the first schoolhouse, the powder-house 
 and watchhouse; later the almshouse, the work- 
 house and the bridewell or jail were erected. The 
 old hay-scales were located at the southern end 
 of the Common, and a deer-park was built after it 
 had ceased to be a public pasture. 
 
 Formerly the Common was somewhat larger than 
 at present. The cow-pasture included the land 
 now occupied by the State House; the eastern 
 boundary extended to Mason Street, the southern 
 to Carver Street, and the western side, where 
 Charles Street now runs, was covered by water at 
 high tide. 
 
 Besides the large drumlin still called Beacon 
 Hill there were four smaller elevations (kames), 
 called Powder House Hill, Ridge Hill and Fox Hill. 
 The fourth was so small that it was not designated 
 by a special title. The remnants of the two first- 
 mentioned may still be traced. 
 
 It will be impossible, in the short space at our 
 disposal, to more than touch upon a few of the 
 most important historical events connected with 
 the Common. Any good history of Boston, like 
 Drake's, will prove a perfect mine of information 
 concerning it. 
 
 In accordance with the stern customs of the 
 Puritans, public executions took place here. The 
 first recorded instance is the hanging of Mrs. 
 Dorothy Talbye, on December 6, 1638, for killing 
 
BOSTON BASIN 41 
 
 her daughter Difficulty. Ten years later a woman 
 was publicly hanged on Fox Hill as a witch, and still 
 another in 1656. The next year three Quakers were 
 here put to death. Several captured pirates expi- 
 ated their crimes on the Common before assem- 
 bled thousands: John Quelch and his five asso- 
 ciates hi 1704, and Captain William Fly and his 
 two lieutenants, Cole and Greenville, in 1726. 
 Fly's body was hung up in irons at Nix's Mate as 
 a warning to all others who might be inclined to 
 piracy, and his two companions were buried in the 
 shifting sands of the same island. 
 
 During the siege of Boston, in 1775-1776, the 
 British soldiers were encamped here, and the hills 
 on the Common were strongly fortified. For many 
 years the old windmill (where the Soldiers' Monu- 
 ment now stands) was a familiar landmark. In 
 those days the "Frog Pond" was merely a bit of 
 marsh, flooded in wet weather, where the boys went 
 in swimming in warm weather and skating in 
 winter. The spirited account of the Boston lads 
 and General Gage may be read before the trip. 
 
 Some idea of the monetary value of the Common 
 may be gained from the fact that the land upon 
 which either Park Street church or St. Paul's stands 
 would bring a million dollars at any time. But as 
 a recreation-ground this open space in the heart 
 of the city is worth more than any amount of 
 money. 
 
 Boston Common, in the heart of the "Hub," is a 
 park of forty-eight acres, with the rolling surface 
 
42 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 characteristic of glacial till. It consists partly of 
 land eroded from the nearby drumlins and partly 
 of tidal flats filled in by man. It rises in elevation 
 from about fifteen feet above sea-level on the west- 
 ern side to eighty-five feet at the corner nearest 
 the State House. The rounded hills, the artificial 
 pond, the walks running in every direction and 
 shaded by noble trees, the fountains, monuments 
 and statues, make it one of the most attractive 
 parks in the country. 
 
 It has from the earliest times been an integral 
 and vital part of Boston. " Perhaps no other city 
 park in the world is more closely entwined with the 
 historic interests and warm affections of the sur- 
 rounding population than this," as Baedeker says. 
 The splendid Soldiers' Monument, designed by 
 Martin Milmore and erected in 1871-1877, is on the 
 site of the famous old Boston Elm (1630). The 
 Crispus Attucks Monument, commemorative of the 
 men who fell in the Boston Massacre (March, 1770), 
 is near the east side of the Common. The "Long 
 Walk," from Joy Street to Boylston Street, was 
 made famous by our "Autocrat of the Breakfast 
 Table," and is daily traversed by thousands. About 
 the Brewer Fountain crowds gather in summer when 
 band concerts are given here. At times, especially 
 on Sundays, one may hear the doctrines of every 
 known religion and political party expounded by 
 speakers on the Common, and many such groups 
 may be seen at the same time. Liberty of speech 
 has always been granted here from the times 
 
BOSTON BASIN 43 
 
 of Phillips and Garrison to the present day. The 
 statue of Leif Ericson on Commonwealth Avenue, 
 near Massachusetts Avenue, is a splendid piece of 
 sculpture, and represents the Norse hero as he is 
 sighting the shores of Vinland in the distance ; but 
 the walk is too long for children of the fifth grade 
 who have already seen the State House and 
 Common. 
 
 The Public Garden is on land that has been re- 
 claimed from the sea. Not until 1859 was the work 
 of making a public pleasure-ground of the locality 
 begun. The twenty-four acres is perhaps as beau- 
 tiful a garden as any equal area in this hemisphere. 
 The lover of flowers finds it a constant source of 
 delight ; the student of botany can find here nearly 
 every tree and shrub that will grow in our climate ; 
 and the tired laborer and the weary mother find the 
 rest and peace they need so much. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 GRADE VI. LESSON 1 
 
 Peabody Museum 
 
 Read carefully the suggestions (Peabody Museum, Grade 
 IV) in regard to taking classes to this museum. 
 
 1. A S we enter the door, the room directly ahead 
 ^~V of us is the principal one devoted to the 
 North American Indians. We will first examine 
 the models in the cases near the centre of the room. 
 The most conspicuous of these are the two con- 
 taining the models of a Dakota Indian in full war- 
 dress, and a squaw of the same tribe in native 
 costume. These should be carefully studied and 
 the description written by the pupils, group by 
 group. 
 
 2. Model showing part of a camp of one of the 
 Central Plains tribes. This is as fascinating as an 
 Indian story, and shows, among other things, a 
 portable skin tepee and its furniture; figures of 
 braves and squaws making blankets, drying pemmi- 
 can, and doing various other things ; scaffold buri- 
 als; a transporting frame used with a pony when 
 the village moved ; one Indian tattooing another ; 
 targets, bows and arrows, etc. ; men in war dress 
 
BOSTON BASIN 45 
 
 and in ordinary costume; barricades against ene- 
 mies, etc. 
 
 3. Model of an earth-covered lodge of the Omaha 
 Indians. An opening in the side of the model shows 
 the interior arrangement of the lodge and the man- 
 ner of its construction. The covering of turf and 
 the opening at the top to allow the smoke to escape 
 should be noted, and the printed description on the 
 card copied. 
 
 4. Model showing dwellings of the New England 
 Indians (Algonquin tribes). Perhaps this should 
 receive the most careful study of anything in the 
 room. It shows two types of forts, — the round and 
 the square ; and three types of houses, — the round, 
 the Mandan long house and the conical type. 
 There are birch-bark boxes and dishes, wooden 
 bowls and ladles, baskets for holding corn, pots, 
 pestles and wooden mortars, soapstone vessels, 
 wolf-traps and fish-traps, and other minor articles 
 and utensils; two Indians are at work making a 
 dug-out ; the method of drying fish is shown, and 
 much valuable information is given on the accom- 
 panying card. 
 
 5. Houses of Wichita Indians, Indian Terri- 
 tory. (Models.) The Indians are at work upon a 
 dwelling. Tall slender saplings have been cut and 
 stripped of branches and planted in the earth 
 around a circular area of hard ground. The tops 
 are made to meet, and are fastened together by 
 means of tough fibres of bark. This framework is 
 reinforced by cross twigs and is then thatched, as 
 
46 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 the model shows. Note the interior of the dwelling 
 that is half completed ; see the broad seats around 
 one half of the house, the fireplace in the centre, 
 the couches with coverings of skins, the table, the 
 dried corn and other food. At the opposite end 
 of the case is a completed dwelling with a small 
 hole at the top for letting out the smoke, the 
 door with its skin flap or inner curtain for keeping 
 out the wind. Here are shown also models of 
 frames for drying buffalo meat; a fireplace with 
 fire half burned out; a thatched shelter or work- 
 house, open at the bottom, with a raised platform 
 inside; two scaffold shelters, used for drying corn, 
 and other interesting articles. Note the rude type 
 of ladder in the last-mentioned shelter. Have 
 pupils write a description of as many of these as 
 time will permit, and draw sketches of the simpler 
 forms. 
 
 The two long cases on the north side of the room 
 contain a map showing the locality from which 
 they came (the Gulf States), and a splendid collec- 
 tion of peace-pipes, bows and arrows, tobacco- 
 pouches, some baskets, moccasins, a buckskin 
 coat, a saddle and bridle, and a valuable peace 
 belt of wampum, besides other things. The second 
 case is especially rich in beautifully carved pipes 
 of the famous red pipestone from the Lake Supe- 
 rior region in Minnesota. A third case on this side 
 of the room contains a large assortment of baskets, 
 some finely woven blankets and several cradles for 
 carrying papooses. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 47 
 
 Among the articles in the upright cases on the 
 west wall (Apache Indians) the following are espe- 
 cially worthy of notice; rattles belonging to the 
 medicine men, a fine shield, water jars and gran- 
 ary, moccasins, carrying-frame for the women, slat 
 cradles, and a large collection of woven baskets. 
 Further along are fish-hooks and line used by the 
 Mohave Indians, different games for men and chil- 
 dren, a woman's bark skirt, amulets, children's 
 clothing, cradles, some beautiful bead work, toma- 
 hawks and similar objects. 
 
 The south wall contains specimens collected from 
 the Sioux tribes, and include a great variety of 
 tools, war clubs, clothes, head-dress, household 
 implements, etc. The large skins against the wall 
 with the picture-writing will escape the notice 
 of the pupils unless their attention is called to them, 
 and they are among the most valuable articles in 
 the Museum. The stone and woodenware clubs, the 
 beaded cradles and the articles used in the reli- 
 gious rites of these tribes, should receive attention ; 
 especially the stuffed buffalo skull, the sacred pole 
 and the Omaha sacred pipe of fellowship. 
 
 The Shoshone relics include baskets, a bed of wil- 
 low roots bound together, a lizard-catcher, bark 
 torch, bull-roarer (a charm), moccasins, baskets, 
 and ladles. 
 
 On the left of the door as we came in are the 
 figures of a Pi Ute man and woman and a 'collec- 
 tion of dress and utensils. On the right are some 
 handsome buckskin and fur garments from the Al- 
 
48 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 gonquin tribes of Labrador ; snowshoes, a gorgeous 
 beaded cloth coat, and a bow taken from an Indian 
 in Sudbury, Mass., in 1665, by the man who shot 
 him. 
 
 Room 12. A stone grave from a prehistoric 
 burial-place in Jefferson County, Mo., containing 
 parts of two skeletons and a pottery dish, just as 
 they were found, first meets the eye. In the cases 
 around the walls may be found a great variety of 
 Indian pottery, some very beautifully carved and 
 moulded. Most of these are from the Southern 
 Central States. The collection of spearheads and 
 arrowheads from Missouri, the red and white pottery 
 from Arkansas and the stone hatchets from Ten- 
 nessee are among the best things in the room. 
 Shoes and articles made from cloth, and found in 
 the Salt Cave, Kentucky, are on the south side of 
 the room. 
 
 The things of most interest to the younger pupils 
 are the * model of the Serpent Mound of Adams 
 County, Ohio, and the Cahokia Mound group. The 
 former represents • a park of seventy-five acres, 
 owned by the Museum; the latter an area of two 
 and one-half square miles, containing the largest 
 group of Indian mounds in the world. The ac- 
 companying cards give much valuable information. 
 
 Other interesting objects are the two * beetles in 
 a case near the door, red ochre used for war-paint, 
 and the * pipes made in the forms of beavers, bears, 
 birds, frogs, dogs, and so on. 
 
 * Of special interest. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 49 
 
 Fifth Floor 
 
 Room 54. Indians of the Southwest. Here is 
 found the Mary Hemenway collection of Moqui and 
 Zuni Indians. It is the finest representation of the 
 Pueblo Indians in the world. To the left as you 
 enter is seen the * model of the village of Tegua, one 
 of the Moqui villages of Arizona. At the right of the 
 door is the * model of the Pueblo of Acoma, N. M. 
 Perhaps the finest model is that of the * Pueblo 
 of Taos, N. M., modelled by Prof. W. H. Jackson 
 of the U. S. Geographical Survey. It shows in 
 miniature the adobe houses, ladders, and under- 
 ground rooms, with the natural features of the 
 surrounding region. A model of Montezuma's 
 Well in Arizona and one of an ancient temple are 
 found in the northwest corner case. Along the 
 west wall are several * models of ancient cave 
 towns, one showing the ruins as they are now, while 
 below is the same town restored. An ancient * cliff 
 fortress of Arizona, and a cliff ruin in the canyon of 
 the Rio Mancos of Colorado, are worth careful 
 study. In the southwest corner is a splendid model 
 showing a restoration of Pueblo Bonito. 
 
 Too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the 
 caution, do not try to see too much in one trip. 
 In taking a class to a museum such as the Peabody 
 the children are likely to see so many things that 
 they will get only a confused idea of many objects, 
 and will come away without any clear-cut impres- 
 * Of special interest. 
 
50 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 sions. The best plan is to assign beforehand some 
 one special object or class of objects to each pupil, 
 for him to make a careful study and drawing of the 
 same and bring in a written or oral report the next 
 day. The author has sent groups of four or five 
 grammar-school pupils in charge of a parent, and 
 excellent results have been obtained in every case. 
 If the teacher visits the Museum in advance with 
 this idea in mind she can plan out a lesson that 
 will be most valuable. All talking, except by the 
 teacher, should be forbidden, and the natural ten- 
 dency of children to call the attention of teacher or 
 comrades to what he finds of especial interest 
 stopped at the outset. Then, when the trip is re- 
 viewed in the class-room (and this should never 
 be omitted), each child will have something to re- 
 port on that he knows more about than the others 
 do, and will be ready to tell in an interesting way 
 what he has seen. The valuable practice in written 
 or oral expression thus gained by the pupil is one of 
 the most helpful features of this work. 
 
 GRADE VI. LESSON 2 
 
 Central American Trade, Long Wharf 
 
 Long Wharf may most easily be reached by the 
 Elevated, stopping at State Street station. A letter 
 addressed to the United Fruit Company, Long 
 Wharf, Boston, will bring information concerning 
 the time of arrival of the steamers. They run 
 
BOSTON BASIN 51 
 
 very regularly, and there is almost always one of 
 the ships in port. They ply between Boston and 
 Port Limon, Central America, bringing bananas for 
 a cargo, and carrying back manufactured articles, 
 mostly structural iron and steel for bridges and 
 buildings, railroad material and similar articles. 
 
 The Esparta is the largest of the fleet, the Limon, 
 Admiral Dewey and Admiral Farragut being 
 small. They are British steamers. The officers are 
 most cordial, and are ready to give the class much 
 valuable information concerning Central America 
 and our trade relations with Costa Rica. 
 
 GRADE VI. LESSON 3 
 
 Winthrop — Shore Features 
 
 Before taking this trip it will be well to re- 
 view briefly the geological history of this re- 
 gion. All the land in Chelsea, East Boston, Revere 
 and Winthrop belongs to what the geologists call 
 the Post Pliocene or Recent age, which means 
 that it has been formed in recent times. As a 
 matter of fact, the land here was formed at the 
 time of the glacial invasion. Before that time the 
 sea washed the base of the old hills as far inland as 
 where Linden and Maplewood are now located. 
 
 The soil forming the peninsula of Winthrop was 
 scraped off the upland to the north by the on- 
 moving ice and deposited on the shallow floor of 
 the old harbor in the form of long, rounded hills 
 
52 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 (drumlins), which rose above the sea-level as 
 islands when the ice had melted. The incessant 
 work of active tides and waves in time of storm has 
 greatly changed the topography since then, and 
 brought the shore features to their present shape. 
 Bearing this in mind, it will be well to make the 
 subject of our lesson not merely shore forms, 
 
 but also THE ACTION OF WAVES AND TIDES ON 
 YIELDING LAND. 
 
 We take the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn 
 ferry at Rowe's wharf, and at East Boston take 
 a train that will stop at Ocean Spray. Here we 
 alight and walk to the top of Winthrop Great 
 Head for the beginning of our lesson. 
 
 Note the peculiar shape of the hill we are on: 
 its gradual slope to the west, with steeper sides on 
 the north and south, and the cliff-like eastern face. 
 It is at once apparent that the sea has washed away 
 a full half of the hill. Look to the north and you 
 will see what has become of the eroded material: 
 it has been carried along by the prevailing north- 
 erly tides to form the beach that stretches from 
 here to Grover's Cliff. This form of beach is known 
 as a " connecting beach," and several fine exam- 
 ples are to be seen on the trip. We see one to the 
 south, joining Winthrop Head to Point Shirley, 
 which was formerly an island. The strong cur- 
 rent through "Shirley Gut" keeps this narrow 
 strait open. Note the tidal flats on the west side 
 of Point Shirley and Winthrop, where the harbor 
 is being filled by the tides, and which has to be con- 
 
BOSTON BASIN 53 
 
 tinually dredged by the United States government 
 at great expense. 
 
 We descend to the foot of the cliff, noting the 
 character of the material composing the hill. If 
 we look carefully we shall find small, somewhat 
 rounded or flattened stones of slate with distinct 
 scratches on their surface, made by harder stones 
 being rubbed or ground against them when they 
 were being carried along in the moving ice sheet. 
 We will take two or three of the best for the school 
 cabinet; compare the somewhat rounded edges of 
 these stones with the wave-washed stones and 
 pebbles we shall find on the beach, and learn 
 to distinguish an ice-worn from a wave-worn 
 stone. 
 
 At the water's edge we may study the sorting 
 action of the water on the soft though compact 
 material that composes the hill. Note where the 
 large stones and boulders are. What has become of 
 the fine soil that we see at the very top of the hill ? 
 Do the stones grow smaller or larger as we near the 
 water's edge? Why is this so? 
 
 What means does Nature take to protect the 
 beach she has been forming? Do the seaweeds help 
 protect the stones from being ground against each 
 other in time of storm? Do the mussels act as an- 
 other protection? What do you think must be the 
 general direction of the tidal currents along this 
 shore? 
 
 Such questions will stimulate thought and add 
 much more interest to the lesson than a mere re- 
 
54 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 cital of facts to your pupils, however valuable the 
 facts and however crude the answers. 
 
 As we walk along the stretch of beach that leads 
 to Grover's Cliff we will find material for many such 
 questions. Some of the shells seen on the way 
 may be taken for future study, but the class should 
 understand that the main object of study is the 
 wave action on the shore. 
 
 As we approach Grover's Cliff we note the shape 
 of the hill, how symmetrically it rises to the point 
 where the sea has cut into it ; and turning towards 
 the northwest we compare it with the perfect outline 
 of Breed's Hill at Orient Heights, which we see 
 surmounted by the stone tower. The drumlin just 
 south of Grover's Cliff is also nearly intact, and the 
 two may be compared as to general form and 
 direction. Looking back towards Winthrop Head 
 we note the re-entrant beach on its northwest side, 
 with the small tidal stream flowing into the tidal 
 inlet. Compare the two kinds of beaches and study 
 the causes that produced each. 
 
 After examining the work of the sea on Grover's 
 Cliff we cross the low stretch of made land that con- 
 nects it with the tall drumlin upon which Beach- 
 mont has been built, and ascend the latter. Here 
 we obtain a fine view of Revere Beach. In the 
 foreground is a small peninsula extending in a 
 northeasterly direction, and stretching from it into 
 the bay the skeleton of a lost drumlin — a "wit- 
 ness," as the physiographers call it. Only the 
 largest of the boulders that once formed a part of 
 
BOSTON BASIN 55 
 
 it have been left to bear witness to its former 
 existence. No doubt many more have entirety 
 disappeared. 
 
 Revere Beach is a long barrier beach. Its pres- 
 ence is due to the destruction of the drumlins we 
 have been studying; and the thousands of acres 
 of marsh land between Revere and Lynn have been 
 produced as a direct result of the presence of this 
 protecting barrier. The sea built the beach in times 
 of storm, scouring the shallow bottom of the bay 
 and flinging up the rocks and pebbles and sand, and 
 thus shutting in the Saugus River except at one 
 point. A broad, shallow lagoon was thus formed 
 in which a rank marine vegetation sprang up, grad- 
 ually filling a large part and confining the tidal 
 streams to ever narrowing boundaries. We thus 
 have before us a type-form of growing land; and 
 we shall learn that the same process of land-forma- 
 tion has produced enormous areas of new land sur- 
 face in our Southern States. 
 
 If we compare the light color of the sand along 
 the water's edge at Revere Beach with the dark 
 color of the materials composing the drumlins, 
 some inquiring pupil may ask the reason for the 
 difference in color. An examination of the larger 
 rocks at the foot of the Beachmont hill will show 
 that most of it is granite or granitic in structure. 
 The hardest constituent of granite is quartz; and 
 only the hardest parts of the stones and boulders 
 can survive the tremendous pounding and grinding 
 of the surf in storm. All else is ground to powder 
 
56 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 and carried out into deep water. So the sand that 
 forms the beach is the quartz and feldspar that in 
 part composed the boulders. 
 
 By this time the pupils should have a clear idea 
 of the meaning of the terms beach (connecting, 
 barrier, re-entrant), drumlin, cliff, tidal flat and 
 tidal marsh, and estuary, isthmus and peninsula, 
 if the teacher cares to emphasize the three last- 
 mentioned. They should know something of the 
 results of sea action on glacial till, of how con- 
 necting beaches are formed, and of the growth of 
 lagoons into marshes and solid land. Ice-rounded 
 and wave-smoothed pebbles should be distin- 
 guished; and perhaps a few of the following facts 
 in regard to the early history of Winthrop should 
 be remembered. 
 
 Winthrop — Historical 
 
 Winthrop was named for Deane Winthrop, son of 
 the Governor. He lived on what is now Shirley 
 Street (near Ocean Spray), and here he died in 
 1704. 
 
 The Indians who lived here at that time belonged 
 to the Pawtucket tribe, whose domain reached as 
 far as Portsmouth, N. H., and to Rhode Island on 
 the south. The head of the clan at Chelsea (whose 
 Indian name, Winnisimmet, is still preserved in the 
 name of the ferry) was Sagamore John, who died 
 in 1633. The Winthrop peninsula, surrounded with 
 fishing-grounds, appears to have been a favorite 
 
BOSTON BASIN 57 
 
 resort of the red men, and many remains of their 
 wigwam villages have been found upon it. 
 
 Slavery flourished here in early times, and the 
 negro burying-ground in the north part of the town 
 had many quaint monuments. Connected with 
 the Bill mansion, on Lincoln Street (now over two 
 hundred years old), were several negro slaves, and 
 their bills of sale are still in existence. 
 
 As late as 1875 the whole population of Winthrop 
 consisted of a few scattered nouses up and down the 
 eight miles of coast. Of late years the town has 
 become not only a great summer resort, but the 
 permanent home of more than seven thousand 
 people. 
 
 GRADE VI. LESSON 4 
 
 Trade with England 
 
 Of the several steamship lines plying between 
 Boston and English ports the steamers of the 
 Cunard and White Star lines are the largest, and 
 offer the best opportunities for the study of freight 
 and passenger traffic. Others may be found in the 
 list at the end of this volume, and arrangements 
 may be made to visit any particular steamer when 
 in port. 
 
 On the two lines mentioned visitors are not al- 
 lowed on board on the day of sailing. The time 
 to go is the day after the ship gets into port, as the 
 cargo is then being taken from the hold, and may 
 be examined by the class. Notebooks should be 
 
58 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 carried along, and a complete list made of the arti- 
 cles actually seen. The accommodations for first, 
 second and third class passengers are willingly 
 shown, if you see the purser as soon as you reach 
 the wharf. 
 
 For information as to the date of arrival and per- 
 mission to go on board address the following: 
 Cunard Line (to Liverpool), C. P. Sumner, Agent, 
 126 State Street, Boston. White Star Line (to 
 Liverpool and Mediterranean ports), White Star 
 Line, 84 State Street, Boston. 
 
 The Cunarders dock at East Boston, and the 
 wharf may most easily be reached by taking a 
 Jeffries Point car in the East Boston tunnel. The 
 White Star docks are in Charlestown, a few min- 
 utes' walk from the City Square station of the 
 Elevated. 
 
 GRADE VI. LESSON 5 
 Faneuil Hall to the Granary Burying Ground 
 
 History Trip No. 2 
 
 (See History Outline, p. 60, School Document No. 14, 1909.) 
 
 1. Faneuil Hall. Built by Peter Faneuil, a 
 wealthy French Huguenot whose grandfather 
 had come from New Rochelle. The donor was 
 counted the richest man in Boston at the time of 
 his death (1742). 
 
 Faneuil Hall was finished in 1742, and was half 
 the size of the present building and two stories high. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 59 
 
 It was intended as an exchange for the Boston mer- 
 chants, and the second story was generously added 
 by Mr. Faneuil to furnish a hall for general meetings 
 of the citizens of the town. It has truly been de- 
 scribed as the " Cradle of Liberty/' for beneath its 
 roof the greatest of our Revolutionary and Aboli- 
 tion orators have stirred the hearts of Boston's 
 citizens and set in motion those impulses that have 
 twice changed the course of history in this country. 
 
 The interior was burned out in 1763, and the next 
 year the state rebuilt and enlarged the hall, raising 
 the money by means of a state lottery. The first 
 oration delivered here was in 1743, on the occasion 
 of the death of Peter Faneuil. Master Lovell of 
 the Latin School was the orator. Some of the most 
 important events that have occurred in this his- 
 toric old building are as follows: 
 
 Illumined by the town at the repeal of the 
 Stamp Act (1766). 
 
 Fitted up as a theatre by General Howe, and 
 plays given here during the winter of 1775-1776. 
 
 Count D'Estaing banqueted by the town in 
 September, 1778. 
 
 Lafayette given a great dinner in 1784. 
 
 Prince Jerome Bonaparte dined here in 1804. 
 
 President Jackson was tendered a reception in 
 1833. Vice-President Van Buren and Commodore 
 Hull were among the celebrated men present. 
 
 The French Prince de Joinville entertained at a 
 grand ball in 1841. 
 
 Lord Ashburton received by the citizens in 1842. 
 
60 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 Wendell Phillips gave his first great anti-slavery 
 oration at a mass meeting here. 
 
 2. Adams Square, named in honor of Samuel 
 Adams, the great Revolutionary patriot. See the 
 history of the man, and study the characteristic 
 pose of Adams in the statue that stands here. 
 
 3. State House Square contains, first: — 
 
 The Old State House 
 
 The Old State House at the head of State Street 
 is on the site of the first Town House, erected in 
 1657-1659, burned in 1711, replaced by a brick 
 structure which was also burned in 1747 with all 
 the town records. The building now known as the 
 Old State House was erected in 1748, and has been 
 used for many purposes. 
 
 "Besides being used as a Town House/' says 
 Drake, ". . . it has been occupied by the General 
 Court of the Colony and of the State, by the Council 
 of the Province, and as a barracks for troops. It was 
 the first Exchange the merchants of Boston ever 
 had. In it met the Convention to ratify the Con- 
 stitution of the United States. In the west end was 
 located the Post-Office in its beginning. . . . Under 
 its shadow was enacted the Massacre by a detach- 
 ment of the 29th British Regiment, the result of con- 
 stant collisions between the people and the soldiery. 
 ... In the Chamber of Representatives Independ- 
 ence was born, and here originated the most impor- 
 tant measures which led to the emancipation of the 
 colonies. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 61 
 
 " It was customary to read the commissions of the 
 royal governors in presence of the court, attended 
 by military display, in the Court House, as it was then 
 called. The news of the death of George II and the 
 accession of George III was read from the balcony. 
 The popular indignation against the Stamp Act found 
 vent, in 1766, in burning stamped clearances in front 
 of this building. A council of war was held by 
 Gage, Howe and Clinton here before the battle of 
 Bunker Hill. On the 18th of July, 1776, the Decla- 
 ration of Independence was read from the east bal- 
 cony to a multitude that completely filled State 
 Street (then called King Street). Here the Constitu- 
 tion of Massachusetts was planned. In 1778 Count 
 D'Estaing made a splendid entry into Boston with 
 his fleet, and was received by Governor Hancock 
 in the Council Chamber. ... In 1789 Washington 
 received the homage of the people from a temporary 
 balcony at the west end. . . . There have been a 
 lottery office, engine-house, and even a newspaper 
 published in the old building. " 
 
 The Square also contains Boston Massacre tablet, 
 and site of the Massacre. The circular rows of 
 cobble-stones in the street to the east of the Old 
 State House mark the spot where the first blood- 
 shed of the Revolution occurred. 
 
 4. Devonshire Street, formerly called "Pudding 
 Lane" for an old street in London, is one of the 
 oldest streets in the city, being in the section settled 
 by Winthrop's colonists in 1630. 
 
 5. Milk Street, formerly Fort Street, as it ex- 
 tended from the Province House (at the head of 
 
62 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 the street) to the South Battery or Sconce. It was 
 once a part of the residential section of the city, 
 but now contains not a single dwelling. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin was born at the corner of 
 Milk and Washington Streets on January 6, 1706, 
 in a house that formerly stood directly opposite 
 the Old South Church. 
 
 Robert Treat Paine, signer of the Declaration of 
 Independence, lived at the corner of Milk and 
 Federal Streets. Howe's headquarters were at 
 the corner of Milk and Oliver Streets. The great 
 fire of 1872 was stopped at the corner of Milk and 
 Devonshire Streets. 
 
 6. Old South Church. The most famous church 
 building in America. On the front will be found a 
 tablet reading: 
 
 OLD SOUTH 
 
 Church gathered 1669 
 
 First House built 1670 
 
 This House erected 1729 
 
 Desecrated by British Troops 1775-76 
 
 It was called the South Meeting House because 
 it was in the south part of the town at the time it 
 was built. 
 
 Boston Massacre orations were delivered here 
 by Lovell (1771), Church (1772), Warren (1773), 
 Hancock (1774), and the famous second address by 
 Warren in 1775, when he had to climb into the 
 building by a window in the second story. 
 
 The Boston Tea Party left the church for Griffin's 
 
BOSTON BASIN 63 
 
 wharf (December 16, 1773), and went down Milk 
 and Pearl Streets to the wharf, which was at the 
 foot of the latter street. 
 
 General Burgoyne's regiment, the Queen's Light 
 Dragoons, set up a riding-school in the church. 
 The floor was covered deep with gravel, and liquor 
 was served in the gallery. Pews were used for fuel, 
 and in one instance for a pig-sty. 
 
 Used as a recruiting station in 1862, and as a 
 post-office after the great fire. The clock, when it 
 was first put in, was considered the finest in 
 America. 
 
 Is now used as a museum of Revolutionary relics, 
 of which it contains many. 
 
 7. School Street. Laid out in 1640, and called 
 " the lane leading to Centry Hill." Later named 
 Latin School Street. The old Latin School, founded 
 in 1634, was situated just below King's Chapel. 
 Franklin's statue in front of City Hall stands about 
 where the eastern limit of the school yard ended, 
 and Franklin was one of the famous pupils of this, 
 the first of all our schools. Among the other men 
 whose names have become household words and 
 who received their early education in this school 
 were John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Cotton Mather, 
 Sir William Pepperell and many others. The tab- 
 let commemorating the site of the school should be 
 noted. 
 
 8. City Hall. The present building dates from 
 1862, the cornerstone having been laid that year. 
 The land has been owned by the town since 1645, 
 
64 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 having been deeded by Thomas Scott o. The first 
 Town House was built about 1658 and stood at 
 the head of State Street. The second, erected 
 after the loss of the first by fire in 1711, was burned 
 with all the town records in 1747, but was rebuilt 
 the following year. For eighty years Faneuil Hall 
 was used as a Town House, and the Old State 
 House was similarly used from 1830 to 1840, when 
 the old County Court House was remodelled for a 
 City Hall. 
 
 In front of City Hall stand two famous statues, 
 one of Benjamin Franklin, as has already been men- 
 tioned, the other of Boston's most famous mayor, 
 Josiah Quincy, who with the architect Bulfinch 
 transformed the city and gave her that impulse 
 that has made her the second port in the country. 
 Quincy was later made President of Harvard Col- 
 lege. Note the inscriptions on the two monuments. 
 
 9. Tremont Street. One of the old streets. Many 
 names have been given the different parts of what 
 is now called Tremont Street. The part from 
 School to Boylston was formerly called Common 
 Street, the section between School and Winter being 
 long known as Long Acre, from a famous street in 
 London. "Old 'Treamount Street/" says Drake, 
 " began in 1708, at the extreme corner of Court 
 Street and Tremont Row, as they are now, 
 and extended around the base of what was first 
 called Cotton Hill, from the residence of Rev. John 
 Cotton. The northerly part was called Sudburv 
 Lane." 
 
BOSTON BASIN 65 
 
 10. Adams Square. The square dates from 1879. 
 The statue was designed by Anne Whitney. Of 
 it Bacon says : 
 
 "It portrays him as he is supposed to have ap- 
 peared when before Lieutenant-Governor Hutchin- 
 son and the Council, in the Council Chamber of the 
 Old State House, as chairman of the committee of 
 the town meeting the day after the Boston Massacre 
 of 1770, and at the moment that, having delivered 
 the people's demand for the instant removal of the 
 British soldiers from the town, he stood with a reso- 
 lute look awaiting Hutchinson's reply.'' 
 
 11. Cornhill was the rendezvous of the patriots 
 who organized the famous Boston Tea Party. 
 Near here James Franklin had his printing-office, 
 where Benjamin Franklin learned his trade, and 
 where he helped publish the "New England 
 Courant," one of the first newspapers printed in 
 the New World. 
 
 On Brattle Street, nearly opposite Marston's 
 restaurant, was the old Murray's Barracks, where 
 was quartered the Twenty-ninth regiment of British 
 Regulars, whose presence brought on the Massacre. 
 The first Quaker meeting-house stood where now 
 we see the Quincy House, and the Brattle Square 
 Church stood opposite it. The American House 
 stands on the site of General Joseph Warren's 
 house. 
 
 12. Scollay Square. The first Free Writing 
 School, begun in 1683, was just above the present 
 
66 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 entrance to the subway. It continued in existence 
 for over a hundred years. 
 
 13. Court Square. The associations connected 
 with this locality are of the anti-slavery period. In 
 February, 1851, the slave Shadrach was rescued by 
 a mob of Abolitionists, and two years later was 
 the Anthony Burns riot, in which one man was 
 killed. The Court House stands on the site of the 
 old Colonial Prison, where were imprisoned the 
 unhappy Quakers, the so-called witches, and at 
 least one world-famous criminal, — Captain Kidd. 
 Court Street was first called Prison Lane, then 
 Queen Street. To the east of the Old Court House 
 stood Governor John Endicott's house. 
 
 14. Pemberton Square was originally the estate 
 of Rev. John Cotton, who built a house here in 1633. 
 Sir Harry Vane built a house near by in 1635. 
 Here lived John Hull, at whose mint were made 
 the pine-tree shillings, the first money minted in 
 the colony. Governor Bellingham lived for many 
 years in a mansion that stood where we now find 
 the Suffolk Savings Bank; and later the beautiful 
 house and grounds of Peter Faneuil occupied the 
 same site. 
 
 15. Tremont Street. The Parker House stands 
 on the site of the birthplace of Edward Everett 
 Hale, and of Oliver Wendell, grandfather of the 
 poet. In the old Granary Burying-ground lie 
 the remains of three signers of the Declaration of 
 Independence, — John Hancock, Samuel Adams 
 and Robert Treat Paine; Governors Bellingham, 
 
BOSTON BASIN 67 
 
 Dummer, Bowdoin, Increase Sumner, Sullivan and 
 Gore; Chief Justice Sewall; Paul Revere; Peter 
 Faneuil; the parents of Benjamin Franklin, and 
 the Boston Massacre victims, besides many other 
 famous men, among them the Revolutionary 
 orator and patriot, James Otis. 
 
 16. King's Chapel; original church erected in 
 1688. Enlarged 1710. The present building dates 
 from 1754. Mural tablets dating from the Pro- 
 vincial period. Communion table of 1698 still in 
 use. General Joseph Warren's funeral was held 
 here. Tablet to Oliver Wendell Holmes, written 
 by Charles W. Eliot. 
 
 17. Post Office. Here was checked the great 
 Boston fire of November 9-10, 1872, which 
 burned over sixty acres, and destroyed property 
 worth $60,000,000. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 GRADE VII. LESSON 1 
 
 Roof of Schoolhouse or near-by Hill 
 
 THIS lesson is for the purpose'of teaching the 
 practical use of the compass in determining 
 direction; for applying this knowledge in making 
 a sketch-map of the region in sight, giving true 
 direction to the street lines, etc.; and for deter- 
 mining the position of the sun in relation to the 
 true west, and by a systematic observation of the 
 lengthening or shortening of the sun's shadow at 
 noon, determining its (apparent) southward or 
 northward journey. 
 
 By means of landmarks on the horizon, the four 
 cardinal points of the compass, with the school- 
 house or hill as the centre, may be definitely and 
 permanently fixed. The direction of important 
 places within sight may be determined, and later, 
 from a study of maps, the position of near-by 
 towns, distant cities, and the great land masses 
 may be fixed in mind . Pupils should be urged to pro- 
 vide themselves with an inexpensive but accurate 
 compass, and should be taught how to use it in case 
 they become lost in a forest ; i. e., how to travel in a 
 straight line in any desired direction. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 69 
 
 In making the first sketch map a small area, with 
 fairly straight streets or bounding lines, should 
 be selected. Later larger and more complicated 
 areas may be attempted, and a lesson or two given 
 in reading and constructing maps by the use of 
 contour lines, such as are used on the maps issued 
 by the United States Geological Survey, and on the 
 map of Boston and vicinity issued by the Metro- 
 politan Park Commission. 
 
 For determining the length of the noon shadow 
 get one of the boys during the manual-training 
 period to mortise a two-foot stick into a board two 
 feet by two feet, and select some convenient place 
 where the shadow may be measured along a level 
 surface. If measurements are made regularly at 
 noon once a month during the year, and a record 
 kept on a cardboard placed in some conspicuous 
 place in the room, the class cannot fail to see the 
 connection between the lengthening of the noon 
 shadow and the shortening of the day up to the 
 time of the winter solstice (December 21), and the 
 lengthening day and shortening shadow to the 
 summer solstice, six months later. The autumnal 
 and vernal equinoxes, when the days are twelve 
 hours long and the sun rises directly in the east, 
 will thus come to have a definite meaning, and the 
 change in seasons will be made clearer to the 
 children. 
 
 g0ST0B -«-» «*£" 
 
70 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 GRADE VII. LESSON 2 
 
 Commerce with India, China, Japan 
 
 The two steamship lines ranning from Boston to 
 the Far East are : The American and Indian Line, 
 A. C. Lombard's Sons, Agents, 156 State Street, 
 Boston; China and Japan Steamship Lines, Patter- 
 son, Wylde & Co., Chamber of Commerce Building, 
 Boston. 
 
 Write to either one for information as to date of 
 arrival of one of their steamers and permission to 
 take a class on board. The latter is not usually 
 necessary, as the officers are very courteous and 
 obliging about allowing pupils on shipboard. Both 
 lines usually dock at Mystic Wharf, midway of the 
 long wharf connecting Charlestown and Chelsea, 
 and reached from City Square, Charlestown, by any 
 Chelsea, Revere or Beachmont car. 
 
 This trip is strongly urged as a great incentive to 
 the study of Asiatic countries. To see Indian coolies 
 at work, barefooted and in their native costumes, 
 to talk with a real live Mohammedan, and have 
 him tell of his far-away country, its people and cus- 
 toms, is an experience that a child will never for- 
 get, and is worth many days of study from books. 
 It will prove a delightful trip to the teacher who 
 has not visited one of these steamers. To see the 
 Chinese or Japanese coolies is almost as interesting. 
 The cargoes often contain many articles both 
 curious and valuable. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 71 
 
 GRADE VII. LESSON 3 
 
 Trip to General Lawrence's Park, West Medford 
 
 Before taking a class to General Lawrence's 
 Park you should visit it yourself if you are not 
 already familiar with the view. Take a good map 
 (the one to be obtained from the office of the Metro- 
 politan Park Commission is excellent for this), a 
 compass and opera-glasses, if you have them, and 
 go prepared to face a strong breeze at the top of 
 the tower. Take a West Medford car at Sullivan 
 Square and get off at General Lawrence's estate 
 (twenty-five minutes from Sullivan Square). 
 
 Prepare to explain everything to your pupils 
 which you wish them to see, as much valuable time 
 which would otherwise be spent by them in trying 
 to use the diagrams will thus be saved. 
 
 As the walk from the car and back is about three 
 miles, much of which is hilly, very young or sickly 
 pupils should not attempt the trip. Notebooks 
 are not so important here as in most field lessons, 
 and cameras are practically useless, owing to the 
 broad extent of the view. A single fare will take 
 pupils from any part of Boston or suburbs, except 
 those using the East Boston Tunnel or the ferries. 
 A full half-day should be allowed for the lesson, 
 preferably the afternoon, as it cannot be well done 
 in less than three or four hours. 
 
 After leaving Sullivan Square the drumlins of 
 Chelsea, Revere and Somerville may be plainly 
 
72 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 observed. Especially clear-cut is that upon which 
 Tufts College is located (160 feet high). We are 
 travelling along the floor of the basin, much of the 
 way being but little above sea-level. The park at 
 the western end of the Mystic River Reservation, 
 noted on the right soon after leaving Charlestown, 
 is worthy of notice, as it is the beginning of the 
 parkway leading to Middlesex Fells on the north 
 and to Revere Beach and Winthrop on the east. 
 
 The hills seen at the north — at Maplewood, 
 Maiden and Medford — are on the rim of the 
 basin. Soon after crossing the Mystic River the 
 car begins to ascend this bordering range. 
 
 We stop at General Lawrence's estate (leaving 
 the car at Winthrop Square), pass along the edge 
 of his beautiful gardens, and take the road which 
 leads for a mile through field and woods to the ob- 
 servatory. Along this level stretch of road is an 
 excellent opportunity to point out the gently 
 swelling kames to right and left — low, rounded 
 elevations of glacial till covering the underlying 
 ledges. The abundance of stone walls indicates 
 the glacial character of the soil, and the excellent 
 road we are travelling shows what good road- 
 building material the till makes. 
 
 As we enter the wooded park the character of the 
 soil changes utterly. Here we see the outcropping 
 of the bed-rock, the hard bluish-gray ledges of 
 felsite, one of the oldest of all rocks. A few speci- 
 mens, of the standard size, 4 in. X 3 in. X 1 in. 
 should be taken on the way home. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 73 
 
 The effects of weathering on hard rocks are well 
 illustrated here. Fragments of the ledge, from 
 pieces as large as a stove to the finest soil, may be 
 seen. Other phenomena that should be noted are 
 the splitting action of frost and freezing water, 
 of the roots of plants and shrubs, and even of trees 
 growing in the crevices of the ledges. All this 
 should be pointed out, and talked over in the class 
 after the lesson. 
 
 Poison ivy is very abundant here, and should be 
 identified and pupils warned against coming in 
 contact with it. The means taken to protect the 
 trees against the ravages of the gypsy and brown- 
 tail moths may be noted, and the telephones placed 
 here and there in the park for the use of the fire- 
 wardens and police are worthy of passing notice. 
 If desired, the journey to the observatory may be 
 made interesting by identifying as many as possible 
 of the trees, ferns or flowers along the road. 
 
 Having arrived at the tower we proceed at once 
 to the top ; 1 and before our pupils have become 
 
 1 When you have reached the top of the tower you may have 
 some difficulty in reading the maps there shown for your guid- 
 ance. The following directions may be of service: Find on 
 the map posted on the top platform a point marked N 
 (North). Stand at the post in the centre of the floor and look 
 for that corner of the tower marked N in white letters over- 
 head. This will give you the northern point of the horizon; 
 and by swinging towards the northwest you can easily locate 
 Mount Monadnock, a blue, conical peak on the sky-line. 
 In the same way, by referring to the diagram, you can dis- 
 tinguish Mount Wachusett to the west, Great Blue Hill 
 (with the observatory on top) as the highest hill to the south, 
 and so on. 
 
74 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 tired from the extended view we point out and 
 emphasize the three broad features we wish to im- 
 press upon their minds: 
 
 1. The remarkably even sky-line, especially to 
 the west and southwest ; i. e., the level of the old 
 plain, — the "peneplain." 
 
 2. The rim of the Boston Basin, from the north- 
 east, curving to the west and southeast. 
 
 3. The densely populated flood-plains of the 
 Charles, Mystic and Neponset rivers. 
 
 The tower, standing on a hill two hundred and 
 twenty-nine feet above sea level, lifts the spectator 
 to a height of three hundred and ten feet, and 
 gives a view hardly to be equalled in eastern Massa- 
 chusetts. The great danger is that, with all the 
 interesting things to be seen from it, pupils will 
 overlook or forget the important things in the 
 multitude of details which the view affords, and 
 in attempting to identify familiar places will pay 
 too little heed to the fundamental features of topog- 
 raphy here presented. 
 
 1. The Peneplain. — The even sky-line to the 
 west can readily be explained and understood as an 
 uplifted plain, with an average elevation of about 
 two hundred feet. Towards the north and south, 
 where it is more broken, the peneplain may be 
 traced if you imagine the tops of the hills to be con- 
 nected. Explain that the gaps are valleys worn 
 away by the rivers, and that the higher hills are 
 remnants of the old hard mountains, and the pene- 
 plain will readily be recognized on all three sides. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 75 
 
 Remember that it rises gradually towards the west 
 and north, and dips down to the sea to the east and 
 south. 
 
 2. The Valleys. — From this elevation the valley 
 of the Charles may be traced from where it breaks 
 through the upland, off to the southwest, around 
 the rim of the basin, to its estuary (its old drowned 
 valley) on the east. The Mystic lies at our feet, 
 largely hidden by trees and intervening hills. Its 
 meandering course on its tidal flats, however, is 
 plainly seen; and the valley of the Neponset may 
 be noted to the south, where it sweeps around the 
 base of the Blue Hills. Tell your pupils that the 
 two last-mentioned rivers were once merely 
 branches of the Charles, which was the master- 
 stream. 
 
 3. The Rim of the Basin. — This is not so clearly 
 seen from the tower as from some point on the 
 flood-plain, but with the aid of your map it may be 
 traced from Lynn around by Arlington to the Blue 
 Hills and the sea. If the pupils have already 
 sketched it from the board they will all the more 
 readily recognize it here. 
 
 4. The Flood-Plain. — Identify the cities nes- 
 tled along the rim of the basin, beginning at the 
 east : Lynn, Maiden, Medf ord and Belmont ; then, 
 where the Charles curves along the edge of the 
 upland, find Waltham, the Newtons, Riverside, 
 Needham and Dedham. Locate Readville, Milton 
 and Quincy to the south. 
 
 Point out the broad, rather hilly plain between 
 
76 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 the Charles and the Neponset, from Watertown 
 through Brookline, Jamaica Plain, Forest Hills, 
 Roslindale, to Mattapan and thence to the sea. 
 
 Show how the land upon which are Cambridge, 
 Somerville and Charlestown (except the drumlins) 
 was brought down from the uplands by the Charles 
 and the Mystic rivers ; how East Boston, opposite 
 where the rivers join, owes its origin to their com- 
 bined action, as do also much of Chelsea and Win- 
 throp. Boston proper and South Boston, with much 
 of Roxbury and Dorchester, rest on silt brought by 
 the Charles. The view from the tower shows all 
 this with great clearness ; and these facts should be 
 reviewed by references to the map after the field 
 lesson is over. It is now seen that all of "Greater 
 Boston" rests on the waste brought from the up- 
 land by these rivers, with glacial hills scattered 
 over the flood-plains. 
 
 The difference in density of population between 
 the basin and the upland is very apparent from this 
 lofty view-point, especially on a clear day after the 
 leaves have fallen, or in early spring. Explain why 
 people have preferred to settle on the lowlands, — 
 the ease of transportation and communication, 
 nearness to the harbor and river-mouths (hence 
 greater commercial facilities) ; the richer bottom- 
 lands of the plains, etc. On the uplands are 
 steeper roads, therefore poorer ones ; coarse, grav- 
 elly soil; lack of railroad facilities; distance from 
 harbors, markets, etc. Compare the farmhouses 
 seen on the hillsides with houses in the suburbs. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 77 
 
 Two other features may well be studied here; 
 the lakes and the higher mountain-summits. Win- 
 chester Lower Reservoir, Spy Pond and Fresh 
 Pond are clearly visible. Their presence may be 
 explained as due to the obstructions left in the val- 
 leys of the rivers by the ice-sheet. Lakes that for- 
 merly occupied some of the hollows have already 
 been drained ; all those we see are only temporary 
 features of the landscape, and will finally dis- 
 appear unless preserved by man. The pupils will 
 be interested in the subject of lakes, and a talk on 
 their origin, history and disappearance will prove 
 to be a profitable one after the field lesson. Any 
 good text-book in Physical Geography will give 
 the necessary information. 
 
 Of the mountains seen in the distance, Monad- 
 nock in southern New Hampshire is the highest. 
 It has been selected as the type form of a mountain 
 of very resistant rock, rising above a worn-down 
 peneplain, and possessing the rounded outline 
 characteristic of these ancient mountains. The 
 physiographers call all such elevations "monad- 
 nocks." 
 
 Wachusett, the lofty peak on the northwest, is 
 in our own state, and is of similar formation. 
 
 Summary. — The essential features of this les- 
 son are: 
 
 a. The " Floor of the Basin," fairly level as a 
 whole, and thickly populated. 
 
 b. The rivers, which have largely carved out 
 the basin, and their flood-plains. 
 
78 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 c. The "Rim of the Basin," where the sur- 
 rounding hills meet the plain. 
 
 d. The old peneplain, with its even sky-line 
 broken by the rivers and their valleys. 
 
 e. The hard residual mountains, rising as mo- 
 nadnocks above the surrounding upland, and left 
 as witnesses of a once mighty mountain range. 
 
 /. The evidences of glacial action: the kames 
 along the roadside; the drumlins scattered over 
 the valley floor and about the harbor; and the 
 lakes and ponds which add so much to the beauty 
 of the scenery, and are so valuable as reservoirs 
 for the surrounding cities. 
 
 GRADE VII. LESSON 4 
 North Square to Griffin's Wharf 
 
 History Trip No. 3 
 
 (See History Outline, p. 60, School Document No. 14, 
 1909.) 
 
 North Square, Paul Revere House. 
 
 From Faneuil Hall take North Street until you 
 come to North Square. The old house once occu- 
 pied by Paul Revere is No. 19 North Square. A 
 knock on the old brass knocker will bring the at- 
 tendant to the door, and you will be ushered into 
 the living-room where Revere entertained the 
 notable men of Revolutionary Boston. 
 
 The room probably presents much the same ap- 
 
BOSTON BASIN ' 79 
 
 pearance, as far as the general outline goes, as it 
 did a hundred and thirty-five years ago. The 
 heavy beams that support the second floor are the 
 original timbers. The fireplace is as it was ; and a 
 part of the ancient wall-paper is to be seen at the 
 rear of the room. A tin lantern of the period, 
 thought to be the handiwork of Revere, stands on 
 a table near the fireplace. Other interesting relics, 
 though not connected with the famous patriot, are 
 an ancient Bible printed in 1646 ; a flint-lock with 
 a barrel seven feet in length, with a powder horn 
 and toddy-flask, which hang over the fireplace. 
 
 In the kitchen you will find the original fireplace, 
 and in a cupboard a brace of pistols that belonged 
 to Revere. His toddy-warmer stands on the man- 
 tel-piece. The door connecting the two rooms was 
 dug out of a mass of debris in the cellar when the 
 house was purchased by the Paul Revere Asso- 
 ciation in 1907, and seems to have fitted this frame. 
 
 On the second floor there is little of close associa- 
 tion with Revere. The windows from which he 
 showed the transparencies on the night of the 
 Boston Massacre are the front ones looking out on 
 North Square. The window-frames are doubtless 
 the original ones. Some colonial furniture of the 
 period is to be seen here, including an old-fashioned 
 four-posted bed and a highboy with a secret 
 drawer. 
 
 There is so little of historical interest in the 
 house that unless arrangements can be made with 
 those in charge to admit the class at reduced rates 
 
80 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 (the regular admission is twenty-five cents) a view 
 of the exterior of the house may suffice. It im- 
 presses one at a glance with a feeling that it has been 
 a part of the history of our country, and every 
 schoolboy and schoolgirl in Boston ought to visit 
 it, as well as the 
 
 Old North Church 
 
 which is but a few rods distant, on Salem Street. 
 This is not only one of the most famous of Boston's 
 churches, but it is the oldest, having been begun in 
 1723. The large tablet over the door states that 
 
 THE SIGNAL LANTEKNS OP 
 
 PAUL REVERE 
 
 DISPLAYED IN THE STEEPLE OP THIS CHURCH 
 
 APRIL 18, 1775, 
 
 WARNED THE COUNTRY OF THE MARCH OF THE 
 
 BRITISH TROOPS TO CONCORD AND LEXINGTON. 
 
 The view from the top of the steeple, designed 
 by Bulfinch, and reached by a climb up the one 
 hundred and forty-six steps, shows the harbor across 
 which Revere rowed and his landing-place, now 
 occupied by the Navy Yard. The cemetery at the 
 north is Copp's Hill, no longer " wrapped in a 
 silence sombre and still," but echoing the noises of 
 this crowded section of the city. A fine view of 
 Boston and its surroundings is had from the win- 
 dows. Remember that from this very steeple Gage 
 watched the battle of Bunker Hill. 
 
 On our way down we pause to note the chime of 
 eight bells, the best in the city, placed here in 1744. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 81 
 
 The interior of the church is interesting. The high- 
 backed pews, with the rear row higher than the 
 others; the holes for the tithing-men's wands; 
 the pew in which Gage sat; the fine old organ; 
 the cherubim and the hand-wrought chandeliers, 
 relics of the French and Indian wars; the silver 
 communion service presented to the church in 
 1733 by King George ; the bust of Washington by 
 Houdon; and in the chapel the " Vinegar Bible," 
 so called because the Parable of the Vineyard is 
 erroneously spelled " Vinegar " ; the old tin lan- 
 tern, and the foot-stoves, — all these will interest 
 your pupils. Much interesting additional informa- 
 tion concerning the old church may be obtained 
 from the sexton. 
 
 Not far away, at the corner of Salem and Sheafe 
 Streets, lived Robert Newman, who hung the lan- 
 terns out for Revere; and perhaps you might em- 
 phasize the fact that he took far more risk than did 
 Paul Revere. 
 
 On Sheafe Street you may point out the house in 
 which was born the Rev. S. F. Smith, author of 
 " America." 
 
 Copp's Hill Burying Ground is on Hull Street, 
 named for that Hull who minted the pine-tree 
 shillings. (Tell your pupils the story of how, when 
 his daughter Hannah married Judge Sewall, John 
 Hull gave as dowry his daughter's weight in shil- 
 lings.) The house which stands with its end to the 
 street is the old Gallop house, built in 1722, and 
 used by Gage as his headquarters on June 17, 1775. 
 
82 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 On Copp's Hill are the graves of the Mathers — 
 Increase, Cotton and Samuel; of Captain Thomas 
 Lake, " perfidiovsly slain by y e Indians at Kenni- 
 beck, Avgvst y e 14th, 1676 "; of Captain Daniel 
 Malcolm, celebrated in Holmes's poem, "The 
 Battle of Bunker Hill," his grave still bearing the 
 marks of British bullets; of Edmund Hartt, who 
 built the Constitution; and of many other inter- 
 esting men and women of bygone days. Bacon 
 states that "a corner of the inclosure by Snowhill 
 Street was formerly used for the burial of slaves"; 
 and adds that "Near the Charter-Street entrance is 
 a willow grown from a slip from the willow at 
 Napoleon's grave." 
 
 On leaving Copp's Hill we take Charter Street, 
 which keeps in remembrance the Provincial Charter 
 of 1692. As we pass Foster Street we recall that 
 during the days of Andros the Colonial Charter was 
 hidden for a while (in 1681) at the house of John 
 Foster, for whom the lane, now street, was named. 
 As we pass the corner of Salem and Charter Streets 
 we are on the spot where that famous old adven- 
 turer, Sir William Phipps, built his brick mansion 
 on "the fair Green Lane" of Boston. When you 
 get back read to the class the remarkable story of 
 this poor boy in Swett's "Stories of Maine." 
 
 We turn down Greenough Lane into Commercial 
 Street and a few steps bring us to Constitution 
 Wharf, with its tablet inserted in the brick front of 
 the American Sugar Refining Company's warehouse. 
 The story of the frigate is told in another part of 
 
BOSTON BASIN 83 
 
 this book. It will be well to call attention to the 
 fact that the Boston was built here as well as "Old 
 Ironsides/' and to look up the story of that 
 famous frigate in some good history of the city. 
 
 Just south of Constitution wharf we pass Bat- 
 tery wharf, the site of the old "North Battery/' 
 one of the early fortifications of Boston. Another 
 battery, the South Battery (often called the Boston 
 Sconce), was situated at what is now Rowe's wharf. 
 In those days the tide ebbed and flowed as far as 
 Dock Square, and the two batteries were connected 
 by a long wooden harbor defence called the Barri- 
 cado, with openings for vessels to go and come. 
 We shall follow the line of the Barricado as we pass 
 south along Atlantic Avenue. 
 
 Take note of the different steamship lines as we 
 go along the Avenue : for Norfolk, Va., at Battery 
 wharf; for the Provinces, at Union wharf; for 
 Europe (Clyde Line) and Savannah, Ga., at Lewis 
 wharf; for Newfoundland and Prince Edward 
 Island, at Commercial wharf; for the Grand 
 Banks, at T wharf; and as we pass Long wharf 
 at the foot of State Street we are opposite the 
 oldest wharf in the city (formerly Boston Pier, 
 1710). 
 
 Directly under Long wharf runs the East Boston 
 Tunnel, with its double curve, one of the finest 
 engineering feats in the world. From Central 
 wharf steamers run to Philadelphia and to Glouces- 
 ter; from India wharf, to New York and Maine. 
 
 After passing Otis wharf and the end of Oliver 
 
84 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 Street we come to the site of Griffin's or the "Tea 
 Party" wharf, the end of our trip. 
 
 Here, at the foot of Pearl Street, is a tablet bear- 
 ing the following legend: 
 
 Here formerly stood 
 GRIFFIN'S WHARF 
 
 at which lay moored on Dec. 16, 1773, three 
 British ships with cargoes of tea. To defeat 
 King George's trivial but tyrannical tax 
 of three pence a pound, about ninety 
 citizens of Boston, partly disguised 
 as Indians, boarded the ships, 
 threw the cargoes, three hun- 
 dred and forty-two chests 
 in all, into the sea, 
 and made the world 
 ring with the patriotic 
 exploit of the 
 BOSTON TEA PARTY. 
 
 "No, ne'er was mingled such a draught 
 
 In palace, hall, or arbor, 
 As freemen brewed and tyrants quaffed 
 That night in Boston Harbor." 
 
 GRADE VII. LESSON 5 
 
 Lexington. Historical Trip 
 
 Lexington may be reached either direct from Sullivan 
 Square terminal without change of cars, or from Park Street 
 via Harvard Square and Arlington Heights. The former is 
 the quicker route, but the latter takes one over much of the 
 ground covered by Lord Percy in his retreat from Lexington. 
 A good plan is to take the shorter route going, and to return 
 by Cambridge if time permits. Fare on either line, ten cents. 
 Running time from one to one and a half hours. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 85 
 
 It will be of interest to the pupils to see the tab- 
 lets along the route if the Cambridge trip is chosen, 
 especially the Wadsworth House at Harvard Square, 
 Massachusetts Hall, the Cambridge Common, the 
 Washington Elm, site of the White Horse Tavern, 
 Cooper's Tavern and the Jason Russell House in 
 Arlington, and other Revolutionary landmarks 
 along the way. These may be pointed out, espe- 
 cially if you have a megaphone and have told the 
 pupils where to look for the places. 
 
 It may be well to alight from the car at the old 
 Munroe tavern, though only the outside can be 
 seen, even if we go up to the house. The principal 
 things to be noted about the famous old inn are as 
 follows : The room on the left, as you face the house, 
 was used as a hospital for the wounded British 
 soldiers while Lord Percy had his headquarters 
 here; on the right is the bar-room, where a de- 
 crepit old man served grog to the scarlet-clad sol- 
 diers who shot him as he was attempting to leave 
 the inn ; on the southeast side, up one flight, is the 
 room in which Washington dined when on his last 
 trip to New England, November 5, 1789. The 
 chair in which he sat is at the foot of the stairs. 
 The tablet outside tells us that the tavern was 
 built as long ago as 1695. 
 
 We may climb up to the top of the hill and see 
 where Lord Percy planted one of his two cannon to 
 cover the retreat ; or we may go back to the road 
 and walk directly to the stone cannon marking the 
 spot where the other cannon was placed. After 
 
86 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 reading the inscriptions we proceed to the village 
 green. 
 
 Here we first inspect the stone pulpit which 
 marks the site of the old meeting-house, immor- 
 talized in Longfellow's poem on Paul Revere. 
 Back of it is the elm planted by President Grant 
 on the hundredth anniversary of the battle. 
 
 On the hillside to the west is the wooden belfry 
 from which was rung the alarm calling the minute- 
 men on the dawn of the 19th of April, 1775. It 
 stood on the green near the church. It was built in 
 1761 on the spot where it now stands. 
 
 Returning to the green we cross over to the stone 
 boulder marking the line of the minute-men, with 
 Captain Parker's memorable words engraved be- 
 neath an ancient flintlock. The gun that Parker 
 carried may be seen in the Senate Chamber at the 
 State House. 
 
 The next point of interest is the granite obelisk 
 just back of which are buried the eight men who fell 
 in this memorable skirmish. The monument was 
 finished in 1799, and its rather bombastic inscrip- 
 tion will be read with interest by the pupils. Re- 
 mind them that where they stand have stood such 
 heroes as Lafayette, Kossuth, Grant and others. 
 
 Across the street on the north is the Munroe 
 house, to the shelter of which Caleb Harrington 
 was running when he fell mortally wounded. 
 
 We walk through the secluded churchyard, paus- 
 ing only long enough to see the Eustis monument, 
 that erected to Captain Parker, and the graves of 
 
BOSTON BASIN 87 
 
 the ministers Hancock and Clarke. Then we come 
 out in front of the Jonathan Harrington house and 
 read the inscription on its front, take a look at the 
 old Buckman tavern (1690), and continue our 
 walk along Elm Avenue and up Hancock Street 
 to the Hancock-Clarke house. 
 
 This was built in 1689, and was the residences of 
 the two ministers who were the only pastors of the 
 historic church on Lexington green for over a cen- 
 tury. In this house Samuel Adams and John Han- 
 cock were sleeping when roused to their danger 
 by the strident call of Paul Revere. It will be re- 
 membered that one of the purposes of the British 
 in their expedition was to capture these two men, — 
 a fact of which Revere was evidently aware. The 
 interesting Revolutionary and Colonial relics in the 
 different rooms are worthy of a very careful ex- 
 amination, and exhaustive notes should be taken 
 by the pupils. 
 
 On the way back we may ascend "Granny Hill," 
 on whose summit Sam Adams stood at sunrise of 
 the 19th, and as he heard the firing exclaimed, 
 "What a glorious morning for America!" 
 
 Returning to the Common we end our trip with 
 a visit to the old Town House, which contains sev- 
 eral valuable relics of the fight, the most interesting 
 being the brace of handsome pistols worn by the 
 redoubtable Major Pitcairn. After their capture 
 they became the property of General Israel Putnam, 
 who carried them throughout the war. Here, too, 
 is the tongue of the bell whose warning note called 
 
88 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 the minute-men from their beds to face the regu- 
 lars from the mother country. Some spirited 
 paintings, relics of Washington, etc., might be in- 
 spected if we had the time; but the class has by 
 this time seen all that it can retain, so we will 
 take the next car for Arlington and return home 
 over the road taken by the exhausted and terrified 
 redcoats under shelter of Percy's escort. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 GRADE VIII. LESSON 1 
 Charlestown Nlavy Yard 
 
 Reached via elevated or surface cars to City Square. Fare 
 five cents from any of the suburbs. From City Square walk 
 along Chelsea Street or turn to the right and go along by the 
 Hoosac Tunnel docks, where at the White Star or the Leyland 
 docks some European steamer is almost always to be seen. At 
 Wapping Street is the main entrance to the Navy Yard, which 
 is always open to visitors (except Sundays). 
 
 THE main purpose of this trip is to study the 
 development of our navy. Here may be seen 
 many types of fighting craft, and three ships that 
 have taken part in the four naval wars of our his- 
 tory : the famous old Constitution, which first saw 
 service in the war with the pirates of Tripoli, and 
 was the central figure in the wonderful sea-fights 
 of the War of 1812-1814; the Wabash, which saw 
 service in the southern blockade during our Civil 
 War; and the New York, one of the most famous 
 of the battleships engaged in the recent war with 
 Spain. 
 
 'Besides these there may usually be seen other 
 types of ships, cruisers, torpedo-boats, torpedo-boat 
 destroyers, submarines, etc. A well-planned les- 
 son should be given in advance on the wooden frig- 
 ate and battleship, the invention of the little 
 
90 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 Monitor in 1862, and the essential feature of the 
 revolving turret emphasized in all modern battle- 
 ships; also the revolution in naval architecture 
 inaugurated by the substitution of iron and steel 
 for wood in shipbuilding. Many other valuable 
 lessons in modern inventions are also taught on this 
 trip, as, for instance, the use of wireless telegraphy 
 in peace and war, the semaphore for signalling, the 
 shape and use of torpedoes, and similar lessons. 
 
 The land upon which the Yard has been built 
 was formerly Moulton's Point, where the British 
 soldiers landed from the Somerset and Frolic for 
 the battle of Bunker Hill. The Yard covers an 
 area of nearly a hundred acres, and is owned by the 
 United States government. The water-front ex- 
 tends for a mile and three-quarters in a north- 
 easterly direction, and contains one of the largest 
 dry docks in the world, made of hammered granite 
 with a floor of oaken timbers. It is 750 feet long 
 and 125 feet in width, and the first ship ever docked 
 in it was the Constitution, in 1833, with Commo- 
 dore Hull on her deck. 
 
 Ships are no longer built here, but many of the 
 largest vessels of our navy are sent here for repairs 
 or to be fitted out for service. During the summer 
 of 1910 the great battleship North Dakota was put 
 in commission here and made ready for her Euro- 
 pean cruise. It has for many years been the home 
 of the most famous of all our ships, the old Con- 
 stitution, and is likely to be her home for the next 
 hundred years. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 91 
 
 The yard contains huge machine-shops, a rope- 
 walk over a quarter of a mile long, store-houses, 
 shops in which are cast heavy cannon, a magazine 
 and arsenal, and in one of the oldest buildings in 
 the Yard (built in 1803) a Naval Museum. This is 
 at the right as we enter the Yard, and, if open, 
 may well serve as the first thing of interest to be 
 seen on our trip. 
 
 After seeing the interesting relics here shown we 
 proceed directly to the wharf on the right where 
 "Old Ironsides" reposes in majestic peace. The 
 writer has many times been disturbed if not dis- 
 gusted by the levity displayed by the average boy 
 who visits this consecrated old ship, and suggests 
 that teachers who take pupils on board her instil 
 into them something of the veneration shown by the 
 older visitors. The following plan has been adopted 
 by some teachers with excellent results : 
 
 First, take the class in a body up into the bow of 
 the frigate and tell them that the vessel is a frigate, 
 and what the term means. Then give them a brief 
 summary of her splendid history. Impress upon 
 them the fact that no ship in the world is so 
 famous (except Nelson's flagship, the Victoria) or 
 is visited by so many thousands of people; that 
 heroes like Lawrence and Hull and Decatur and 
 Bainbridge have trod her decks, often dyed with 
 the blood of her brave defenders; that Lafayette 
 and Lord Byron and many other famous men have 
 come aboard to pay homage to her splendid his- 
 tory. Have one of the pupils read or recite Holmes's 
 
92 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 stirring poem. Tell them that, although the Con- 
 stitution sometimes was compelled to run from a 
 superior force (as on the occasion when she was 
 chased for three days by a whole fleet of English 
 ships), she never lost a battle in which she was 
 engaged. 
 
 " Old Ironsides " 
 
 The keel of the Constitution was laid at Hartt's 
 (now Constitution) wharf in November, 1794, ac- 
 cording to an act passed by the Third Congress 
 and approved by President Washington. The 
 copper bolts and spikes used in her hull were fur- 
 nished by Paul Revere. The frigate's sails were 
 made in the Old Granary, where now stands Park 
 Street Church. Her first figure-head was one of 
 Hercules with uplifted club. It was shot away in 
 the attack on Tripoli, and was replaced by a figure 
 of Neptune. Later a scroll, now preserved on 
 board, and lastly a bust of Andrew Jackson, orna- 
 mented her bow. 
 
 After two unsuccessful attempts at launching, 
 the Constitution was finally floated on Saturday, 
 October 21, 1797. Commodore James Sever chris- 
 tened her with a bottle of choice old Madeira wine. 
 She was the first of the new frigates to carry the 
 fifteen stars and stripes under canvas. She carried 
 44 guns, 400 men, was of 1576 tons burden, and 
 cost, ready for sea, $302,719. 
 
 On August 13 she proceeded to sea under the 
 command of Samuel Nicholson, who had been a 
 
BOSTON BASIN 93 
 
 lieutenant with Paul Jones in his action with the 
 Serapis. The fourth lieutenant was Isaac Hull, 
 who, fifteen years later, won such glory in the same 
 frigate in her famous action with the Guerriere. 
 The first crew were, with few exceptions, natives of 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 The first and second cruises were unimportant. 
 On August 14, 1803, under the command of Com- 
 modore Preble, "the father of our navy," she 
 weighed anchor from Boston for the Mediterranean. 
 Here, under the walls of Tripoli, she received her 
 first baptism of fire. In that brief but memorable 
 war she played a conspicuous part, and for the first 
 time in history made the American flag known and 
 feared by the dwellers of that inland sea. 
 
 In 1804 the frigate was commanded for a short 
 time by the brave but ill-fated Decatur, with Law- 
 rence as his first lieutenant. 
 
 When the War of 1812 broke out, the Constitution 
 was in command of Isaac Hull, whose ingenuity 
 enabled him to escape a whole British fleet when 
 becalmed off Marblehead in July, 1812. The story 
 appeals strongly to every wide-awake American 
 schoolboy. The method by which it was accom- 
 plished was as follows. 
 
 The frigate carried two " umbrellas, " so called, 
 made of stout spars attached to a central spar like 
 an umbrella frame. These were covered with can- 
 vas, and could be opened or closed. While the 
 British ships were being towed towards the Con- 
 stitution by marines in boats, Hull caused his "urn- 
 
94 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 brellas" to be carried out ahead of his ship and 
 then warped his vessel up to them, so contriving, 
 that while one was being hauled in the other was 
 being put in position. In this way he left his pur- 
 suers astern before they discovered the clever 
 Yankee trick. These old " umbrellas' ' are one of 
 the most interesting sights at the Navy Yard. 
 
 Of the famous fight between the Constitution 
 and the Guerriere you have already told your 
 pupils; but it should be pictured so vividly that 
 when they stand upon this historic deck they can 
 see, in imagination, the whole glorious combat. 
 An interesting incident in the battle is told by 
 Drake as follows : — 
 
 Hull, who had a good deal of the bluff sailor about 
 him, exclaimed when he saw the mast of the Guer- 
 riere, go by the board, " Hurrah, my boys, we Ve 
 made a brig of her." A shipmaster, prisoner on 
 board the Guerriere, gives an interesting account 
 of his experience during the action. While the 
 Constitution was manoeuvring for position, Captain 
 Dacres of the English vessel asked his prisoner, 
 "Do you think she will strike her flag without 
 firing? " 
 
 The prisoner obtained permission to retire into 
 the cockpit. He goes on to say: 
 
 "Within one moment after my foot left the 
 ladder the Constitution gave that double-shotted 
 broadside which threw all in the cockpit in a 
 heap on the opposite side of the ship. For a 
 moment it seemed as if heaven and earth had 
 
BOSTON BASIN 95 
 
 struck together: a more terrific shock cannot be 
 imagined." 
 
 After the firing ceased the prisoner returned to 
 the deck, and continues : — 
 
 "What a scene was presented, and how changed 
 in so short a time, during which the Guerriere 
 had been totally dismasted and otherwise cut to 
 pieces, so as to make her not worth towing into 
 port. On the other hand, the Constitution looked 
 perfectly fresh, and even those on board the Guer- 
 riere did not know what ship had fought them. 
 Captain Dacres stood with his officers surveying 
 the scene — all in the most perfect astonishment. " 
 
 " At this moment a boat was seen pulling off from 
 the hostile ship. As soon as within speaking dis- 
 tance, a young gentleman (Midshipman, late Com- 
 modore Reed) hailed and said, ' Commodore Hull's 
 compliments, and wishes to know if you have 
 struck your flag? ' At this Captain Dacres appeared 
 amazed, but recovering himself and looking up and 
 down, he deliberately said: "Well, I don't know, 
 — our mainmast is gone, our mizzenmast is gone, 
 and upon the whole you may say we have struck 
 our flag.'" 
 
 The little hurt received by the Constitution in this 
 engagement — her hull showing only here and there 
 a scar — gave her the name of " Old Ironsides," by 
 which she was familiarly known. Her crew, in- 
 deed, affirmed that the Guerriere* s shot fell harm- 
 less from her " iron sides." 
 
 The next man to command this famous frigate was 
 
96 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 William Bainbridge, who had been captured in the 
 Philadelphia at Tripoli in 1803. On December 12, 
 1812, off the coast of Brazil, the Constitution fought 
 and destroyed the Java, which struck her flag only- 
 after the loss of every mast and spar and the death 
 of her brave commander Lambert. In those rough 
 times it is a source of satisfaction to know that 
 when the officers of the Java were put off at San 
 Salvador they expressed the warmest gratitude for 
 the humane and generous treatment they had 
 experienced. 
 
 In 1813, with Captain Charles Stewart in com- 
 mand, "Old Ironsides' 7 sailed out of Boston Harbor 
 in spite of the fact that seven British warships were 
 lying in wait for her outside. She returned in June, 
 1814, and was chased into Marblehead by the 
 frigates Tenedos and Junon. In December of the 
 same year Stewart closed the naval career of the 
 frigate with the brilliant capture of two English 
 ships, the Cyane and the Levant, off the island of 
 Madeira. In all she captured eight armed vessels, 
 carrying one hundred and fifty-eight guns, and ten 
 unarmed prizes. Her flag has been seen in nearly 
 every sea, and her deck has been trod by many 
 famous men. In 1882, while in the Mediterranean, 
 Lord Byron paid her a visit, an incident of which was 
 his remark that "he would rather have a nod from 
 an American than a snuff-box from an emperor." 
 
 It is worthy of note, in passing, that Commodore 
 David Porter, of Civil War fame, was at one time a 
 first lieutenant on this famous old ship. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 97 
 
 Pupils will be interested in "The Affair of the 
 Figure-head/ ' as told by Drake in his u 01d Land- 
 marks of Boston." It serves to show how bitter 
 was political feeling during the days of Andrew 
 Jackson's presidency. Of course they all know the 
 circumstances which gave rise to Holmes's famous 
 poem, and they will study it with renewed in- 
 terest after they have been on board "Old Iron- 
 sides." 
 
 The Receiving-ship Wabash 
 
 The United States steam frigate Wabash was built 
 by the government at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. 
 She is one of four similar ships which at the time 
 of their construction were considered the best mod- 
 elled and most powerful men-of-war afloat, and 
 were largely copied by other nations. 
 
 She was built in 1855, and her dimensions are as 
 follows : displacement, 4,650 tons ; depth, 23 feet ; 
 speed under steam alone, 7 knots; cost, $854,430. 
 She carried 37 officers and 650 men. 
 
 In 1863, when she first saw active service in 
 naval warfare, her armament consisted of forty- 
 two 9-inch, and one 11-inch smooth bore Dahlgren 
 guns, one 8-inch Parrott rifle, and one 30-pounder 
 rifle. 
 
 On May 25, 1858, she was placed in commission 
 with Samuel Barron as captain, and became the 
 flag-ship of the Mediterranean squadron. On the 
 16th of May, 1861, she initiated the blockade off 
 Charleston, S. C, and in August of the same year 
 
98 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 she formed part of the squadron under Rear- 
 Admiral Stringham which captured Forts Hatteras 
 and Clark, at Hatteras Inlet. These forts were 
 commanded by Captain Samuel Barron (her old 
 commander), who, after the surrender, remarked 
 to Admiral Stringham that he never felt so proud 
 of the "Old Navy" as he did when the shells from 
 the ships were coming into the forts with such 
 rapidity and accuracy. 
 
 The most important engagement in which the 
 Wabash took part was the storming and capture of 
 Port Royal, S. C, on November 7, 1861, in which 
 she led the line. In this action a shot struck No. 
 16 gun and killed Thomas Jackson, the captain of 
 the gun. Members of her crew were engaged in 
 some of the most daring of the storming parties in 
 the war. One hundred men and officers from the 
 Wabash manned Battery Siegel in the bombard- 
 ment and capture of Fort Pulaski, Ga. Her men 
 assisted in the reduction of Fort Wagner, off 
 Charleston, S. C. 
 
 In the fall of 1864 she went north, and took part 
 in Admiral Porter's two attacks on Fort Fisher. 
 She lost more men in this action than did any other 
 vessel. 
 
 After serving as the flagship of the European sta- 
 tion in 1871 she was put out of commission at the 
 Boston Navy Yard, where she has remained ever 
 since. For the last thirty-five years she has been 
 used as a receiving-ship, where the officers and 
 men who are waiting for assignments to their re- 
 
BOSTON BASIN 99 
 
 spective ships, or whose vessels are undergoing 
 repairs at the Navy Yard, are assigned a temporary 
 home. The day's routine is enlivened by music and 
 dancing, and a great deal of freedom is allowed the 
 men who make the Wabash their home. During the 
 hours from ten to four visitors are always welcome, 
 and a half-hour on board the Wabash is one of the 
 pleasant est features of a trip to the Navy Yard. 
 
 GRADE VIII. LESSON 2 
 
 Boston as a Commercial Port 
 
 The object of this field lesson is to get a compre- 
 hensive view of the port of Boston in relation to 
 foreign and domestic trade. The lesson should in- 
 clude as many of the wharves and freight yards, 
 grain elevators and vessels, as can be seen in a 
 single trip. The remainder of the lesson may be 
 taken by groups who have learned on this trip what 
 to look for, and can report to the rest of the class 
 on their return. 
 
 The Elevated stations furnish an excellent van- 
 tage-point from which to view the different parts of 
 the harbor. 
 
 If we start at Dudley Street terminal and take 
 an Atlantic Avenue train we may see something of 
 the shipping in the South Bay and Fort Point 
 Channel, although a much better view can be ob- 
 tained by coming from Dudley Street by a Dor- 
 chester Avenue car, securing transfers to the 
 Elevated when we pay our fares. This will take us 
 
100 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 along the South Boston water-front and enable 
 us to see Carter's, Johnson's, Leatherbee's, Smith's, 
 Craft's and Emery's wharves on the Boston side, 
 with whatever ships may be moored along Fort 
 Point Channel. Boston wharf, on the South 
 Boston side, is directly opposite the South Station. 
 
 Stopping at Rowe's wharf we note the coast- 
 wise shipping about here, Foster's wharf (Bangor 
 steamers) just south, and India wharf (New York 
 freighters) to the north. A glimpse of the harbor 
 and the steamers and sailing-vessels lying at 
 anchor may be had from here, but the tall build- 
 ings shut out most of the water-front. 
 
 We next pass Central Wharf, where the steamers 
 for Philadelphia and for Gloucester are moored. 
 Alighting at State Street station we note the 
 steamers of the United Fruit Company unloading 
 bananas from Costa Rica. Across on the East 
 Boston side we can see the docks of the Leyland 
 and Cunard lines for Europe, and the extensive 
 new docks of the Boston and Albany Railroad. 
 The Dominion Atlantic Railway Company's steam- 
 ers for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia leave the 
 end of Long Wharf, with the East Boston Tunnel 
 cars running directly under their keels. 
 
 Taking the next train north we note the forest 
 of masts about T Wharf, where the fishing-boats 
 are unloading their fares. Next come the Eastern 
 Packet Pier and Commercial Wharf, with the 
 Plant Line of steamers to Canadian ports. At 
 Lewis Wharf the Clyde Line and the -Ocean Steam- 
 
BOSTON BASIN 101 
 
 ship Company have their headquarters. Next 
 north is Sargent's Wharf, with the tall building of 
 the Bay State Sugar Refinery shutting out the view 
 of the water. Next above is Union Wharf, with a 
 line running to Maine and the Provinces, and the 
 large United States Bonded Warehouse on the 
 north. 
 
 We again alight at the Battery Street station. 
 On our right is Lincoln Wharf, and on the left 
 Battery Wharf, with a steamer line running to 
 Norfolk, Va. Across the harbor is the East Boston 
 water-front, with Lombard's, Leighton's, Morri- 
 son's and Whidden's docks, largely given up to 
 coastwise trade, though now and then a tramp 
 steamer from some foreign country is seen moored 
 at one of them. Constitution Wharf, with its tall 
 grain elevator, comes next on Atlantic Avenue. 
 
 Again taking the train we go to North Station, 
 passing Fiske's Wharf, the North End Park and the 
 Boston Gas Company's property. At North Sta- 
 tion we pass through the turnstile and take an 
 Elevated train for Charlestown. 
 
 As we cross the bridge we get a good view of the 
 Hoosac Tunnel docks, with the piers of the Warren, 
 Furness and White Star Line steamers to Europe. 
 The tall grain elevators here tell us something of 
 the kind of freight carried, though Boston has lost 
 greatly in the past ten years as a grain-exporting 
 port. A study of the reasons that have led to this 
 deplorable state of affairs and the part that the 
 railroads have played furnish a theme that will 
 
102 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 interest the older pupils and will appeal to their 
 civic pride. 
 
 At City Square we see on the left the extensive 
 freight yards of the Boston and Maine Railroad, 
 to which we owe so much of our foreign and do- 
 mestic commerce. It brings grain, cattle and all 
 kinds of food-stuffs from the West for the waiting 
 steamers to Europe. When back in the class-room 
 trace on the map the movement of these staples 
 from West to East. 
 
 We obtain transfers and take a surface car for 
 Chelsea (a Revere or Beachmont car will answer), 
 and go as far as the centre of Chelsea Bridge. Here, 
 better than at any other place in the city, we can 
 see the extent of Boston's commerce. To our right, 
 as we face Chelsea, is the Allan Line dock, whose 
 ships run to Glasgow. Here, too, come steamers 
 from Hull, England ; from Germany, from Calcutta 
 and Colombo ; from China, Japan and the Philip- 
 pine Islands. Perhaps we shall see some of them 
 loading or unloading, and may inspect their car- 
 goes before returning home. 
 
 On our way back we may take note of the North 
 Union and South Union stations, the latter one of 
 the largest in the world ; and of the great piers of 
 the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, 
 which has recently leased from the State the great 
 Commonwealth docks, just south, for a term of 
 fifteen years at a rental of $70,000 a year. 
 
 A copy of the Report of the Metropolitan Im- 
 provements Commission's " Public Improvements 
 
BOSTON BASIN 103 
 
 for the Metropolitan District" (1909), obtained 
 through your State representative or senator, will 
 give you in detail the broad plans for the future 
 improvement of Boston and suburbs, and contains 
 maps and plans that will be of help in the classroom 
 in many ways. 
 
 GRADE VIII. LESSON 3 
 The State House 
 
 The object of a visit to the State House is twofold : 
 first, to see the monuments, statues and tablets 
 about the building and the State House itself, with 
 the different departments that are here housed; 
 and, secondly, to study the method of passing a 
 law. 
 
 The class is given in advance certain facts in 
 regard to the building : that the southern end, with 
 the dome above, was the first part to be built, and 
 was completed in 1798, the corner-stone having 
 been laid three years before by Samuel Adams 
 (then Governor), assisted by Paul Revere. Two 
 additions have been made, in 1855 and 1889- 
 1895, the latter at a cost of two and a half million 
 dollars ; the entire cost to date has been something 
 over seven million dollars. The park and site 
 occupy six acres of land. 
 
 As we approach the State House from the Com- 
 mon we stop first to view the beautiful memorial 
 to Robert Gould Shaw at the corner of Park and 
 Beacon Streets. It is one of the best of all St. 
 
104 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 Gaudens's works, and the inscriptions should be 
 carefully noted, and time taken to at least copy the 
 following words: 
 
 WITH HEAKT THAT BEAT A CHARGE HE FELL 
 FORWARD AS FITS A MAN 
 
 BUT THE HIGH SOUL BURNS ON TO LIGHT MEN'S FEET 
 WHERE DEATH FOR NOBLE ENDS MAKES DYING SWEET." 
 
 Next of interest is the bronze equestrian statue 
 of Major-General Joseph Hooker, " Fighting Joe/' 
 sculptured by D. C. French, the horse by E. C. 
 Potter. A study of this splendid monument will 
 add new interest to the heroic deeds that Hooker 
 performed in the Civil War. The Devens and Banks 
 statues near the east entrance to the park should 
 be studied, and some information be given as to 
 who these two men were and their services in war 
 and in peace. As we ascend the broad steps on the 
 south side of the building we note the bronze statues 
 of Horace Mann, our greatest educator, and of 
 Daniel Webster — the latter by Hiram Powers, the 
 funds having been contributed by school children 
 and teachers in 1860. 
 
 The tall pedestal, with the eagle perched on its 
 top, marks the site of the old beacon erected in 
 1634-1635, from which the hill took its name. The 
 inscription upon the bronze tablet in the base was 
 prepared by Ex-President Eliot of Harvard. The 
 inscriptions on the four sides of the beacon give a 
 fine summary of the chief events of the Revolution, 
 
BOSTON BASIN 105 
 
 and may well be assigned to four of the pupils 
 for reproduction. 
 
 The interior of the building contains so many 
 things of interest that care must be taken in select- 
 ing the most important. We first enter Doric Hall, 
 with its statues of Washington and Andrew, the 
 war governor; its brass cannon dedicated to Major 
 Buttrick and Captain Davis of Concord Bridge 
 fame; its numerous tablets, and its paintings of 
 sixteen of the Governors of the Commonwealth. 
 In the passageway in the , rear of Doric Hall is a 
 colored skylight containing the names of the ten 
 republics that preceded our own. 
 
 Grand Staircase Hall. — Beyond Doric Hall 
 is one of the most beautiful staircases in the New 
 World. It is of Italian marble, with a balcony 
 formed of twelve Ionic columns. As we reach the 
 second floor and look back we see in the stained 
 glass windows figures emblematic of Manufactures, 
 Commerce, Education, Fisheries and Agriculture. 
 The seal of the Colony of Massachusetts and of the 
 Commonwealth are cut in marble at the head of the 
 stairs. The historical paintings upon the wall at the 
 head of this staircase are worthy of careful study. 
 
 1. Writs of Assistance. — This painting by Reid 
 represents James Otis making his famous speech 
 against the granting of the infamous Writs. " The 
 scene," says John Adams, "is the Council Cham- 
 ber in the old Town House in Boston. The date is 
 in the month of February, 1761. ... In this 
 chamber, round a great fire, were seated five 
 
106 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 judges, with Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson at 
 their head, as Chief Justice, all arrayed in their 
 new, fresh, rich robes of scarlet English broadcloth ; 
 in their large cambric bands and immense judicial 
 wigs. Otis was a flame of fire ! 1 1 will, to my dying 
 day, oppose with all the powers and faculties God 
 has given me, all such instruments of slavery on 
 the one hand and villainy on the other, as this Writ 
 of Assistance is/ said he. American independence 
 was then and there born." 
 
 2. The Boston Tea Party. — This shows one of 
 the British East India ships anchored at Griffin's 
 Wharf. It is the night of December 16, 1773. The 
 Boston warehouses are shown in the background, 
 and on board the ship may be seen the "Indians" 
 who are mixing that famous brew that England 
 found so little to her taste. The painting is full of 
 life and the spirit of the times, and is a source of 
 great interest to every visitor. 
 
 3. Paul Revere' s Ride. — No American boy or 
 girl needs to be told what this painting represents. 
 Longfellow's poem has made both the story and its 
 hero immortal. We see Revere dashing through a 
 village street warning the country folk "to be up, 
 and to arm !" 
 
 Two small panels complete the group of paint- 
 ings. The one at the right is a portrait of Samuel 
 Adams, the one at the left a medallion of John 
 Hancock. In the background is a group of flags 
 used by the Massachusetts colonists before the 
 adoption of the stars and stripes. They are the 
 
BOSTON BASIN 107 
 
 "Bunker Hill" flag, the " Rattlesnake" flag, a white 
 flag with a pine tree in the corner, and a red flag, 
 blue union, with the crosses of St. Andrew and 
 St. George. 
 
 Memorial Hall. — Civil War Flags. — Me- 
 morial Hall is almost in the centre of the State 
 House. It is dedicated to those who gave their 
 lives in the War of the Rebellion, and in the niches 
 about the circular room are kept the battle-flags 
 carried by Massachusetts troops in that war. The 
 dome, containing the eagles of the Republic, and in 
 stained glass the great seal of the Commonwealth 
 surrounded by the seals of the other twelve original 
 states, surmounts the round gallery with its pillars 
 of Siena marble. A visit to this room should be a 
 lesson in patriotism never to be forgotten. The 
 return of these battle-torn flags is the subject of 
 one of the historic paintings about the gallery in 
 Memorial Hall. These are as follows : — 
 
 1. The Pilgrims on the Mayflower (painted by 
 Henry 0. Walker). "A group of Pilgrims is seen 
 on the deck of the Mayflower at the end of their 
 long voyage. Worn with suffering and fatigue they 
 are gazing at the shore, which is at last in sight. 
 The painting aims to represent the spirit of that 
 moment. The actual forms of the Pilgrims are not 
 known ; types have been selected to represent their 
 physical bearing. Over their heads are two angels 
 bearing an open Bible, and across the painting is 
 the inscription, 'For the Lord is our defence, and 
 the Holy One of Israel is our King V" 
 
108 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 2. John Eliot preaching to the Indians. — In this 
 painting by Walker, John Eliot, the Apostle to the 
 Indians, is seen expounding the Scriptures to the 
 savages at their village at Natick, on the banks of 
 the Charles River. 
 
 3. The Fight at Concord Bridge (painted by Ed- 
 ward Simmons) . — In this splendid picture the 
 minute-men are hurrying down the road to dis- 
 lodge the British, who may be seen in the distance. 
 The atmosphere of the painting breathes forth the 
 very spirit of those stirring times. 
 
 4. The Return of the Colors. — In this is to be 
 seen the event that occurred at the State House on 
 December 22, 1865, when the flags of the different 
 regiments that served in the Civil War were re- 
 stored to the custody of the Commonwealth. Gov- 
 ernor Andrew is receiving the colors from the hand 
 of Major-General Darius Couch. 
 
 Passing out of Memorial Hall, and ascending the 
 main staircase, we notice a stained-glass window 
 containing reproductions of the various official 
 seals of Massachusetts from 1630 to the present 
 day. 
 
 On the third floor, west wing, are the executive 
 departments, the first of which is the Council 
 Chamber. In keeping with the general Grecian 
 plan of the building, it is in the Corinthian style of 
 architecture. _ The decorations of the wall should 
 not escape notice. The north side is ornamented 
 with the caduceus and cap of liberty, representing 
 peace and freedom ; the east wall by a golden star, 
 
BOSTON BASIN 109 
 
 representing Massachusetts, one of the thirteen 
 states; the south wall by the scale and sword of 
 justice, emblems of executive power; the west wall 
 by the coat-of-arms. Wreaths of oak and laurel 
 complete the decorations. Here are displayed ten 
 flags representing distinct periods in the history of 
 Massachusetts and the United States. The best 
 description of these is found in the excellent Guide 
 to the State House, compiled by Ellen M. Burrill. 
 
 We are now ready to take up the second part of 
 our programme, the study of how our state laws 
 are made. For this purpose we first enter the vis- 
 itors' gallery of the Senate Chamber, and while we 
 are waiting for the General Court to convene (at 
 two o'clock) we take a look at the room and its dec- 
 orations. The galleries are formed by Doric col- 
 umns, surrounded by Doric entablatures. The 
 four flat arches, united by a circular cornice above, 
 form in the angles four pendants to the dome. The 
 latter are adorned with emblems of commerce, ag- 
 riculture, peace and war. 
 
 Over the President's chair are the national and 
 state flags, a gilded eagle like the one on the old 
 Beacon, holding in its beak a large scroll with the 
 inscription, "God Save The Commonwealth of 
 Massachusetts," and upon the north wall are the 
 state arms. Hanging on the opposite wall are an 
 old King's-arm musket, captured from the British 
 by Captain John Parker at Lexington (the first 
 firearm taken from the enemy in that war), and the 
 gun Parker used in that battle. In the niches are 
 
110 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 busts of the following men in the order named: 
 Rev. S. F. Smith, Colonel Gardiner Tufts, Ben- 
 jamin Franklin, Henry Wilson, Lincoln, Washing- 
 ton, Sumner, Lafayette and George S. Boutwell. 
 This room was for a hundred years (1798-1895) 
 the House of Representatives. 
 
 Before the Senate convenes the different steps in 
 the passage of a bill into a law should be clearly un- 
 derstood by the class. The bill is drawn up by (we 
 will say) one of the senators. Then it is brought 
 before the proper Senate committee, reported 
 favorably upon, printed and introduced into the 
 Senate. (Copies of the calendar of the day may 
 be secured from the proper officials in advance.) 
 The bill passes its first, second and third readings 
 and is sent to the House, where it must pass three 
 readings before being engrossed (written out by 
 hand on parchment) and sent to the Governor for 
 his signature. It is then given into the keeping 
 of the Secretary of State, who files it away among 
 the state archives. 
 
 After spending sufficient time in the Senate to 
 understand the method of transacting business we 
 pass along the west corridor to the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, entering the visitors' gallery. The room 
 is finished in white mahogany, the entire wall being 
 beautifully panelled. The gallery is surmounted 
 by ten Corinthian pillars, and above is the famous 
 coved ceiling. The coat-of-arms and names of the 
 counties are wrought in the glass, and upon the 
 frieze are the names of fifty-three noted sons of 
 
BOSTON BASIN 111 
 
 Massachusetts. The national and state flags are 
 draped over the Speaker's chair; at the right is the 
 United States shield ; at the left, the state coat-of- 
 arms. Opposite the desk, between the two central 
 columns, is suspended the historic codfish, emble- 
 matic of one of the chief industries of the state. 
 The one we see suspended over the centre of the 
 gallery has been in the House for over one hundred 
 and twenty-five years, and takes the place of a 
 still older one which used to hang in the Old State 
 House previous to 1773. 
 
 We secure copies of the House calendar giving the 
 order of business of the day, and our representative 
 will be glad to furnish us with the printed lists show- 
 ing where the different members sit. We study 
 the method of procedure in the House as we did 
 in the Senate, and then, if arrangements have 
 already been made, or can now be made, we pass 
 into the Governor's room to shake hands with His 
 Excellency. 
 
 From here we go into the Senate reception-room 
 (the old Senate Chamber) in the east wing. The 
 state arms face the entrance, and on the walls of 
 the room (which is of Ionic design) hang portraits 
 of twenty governors. 
 
 Among the many interesting relics found on the 
 walls of the old Senate Chamber the following are 
 worthy of special notice: A musket used at the 
 battle of Concord, April 19, 1775 ; a drum beaten at 
 the battle of Bunker Hill; a Hessian hat, drum, 
 sword and gun captured at the battle of Benning- 
 
112 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 ton, and presented by General John Stark ; a drum 
 carried by the 6th Massachusetts Regiment through 
 the streets of Baltimore, April 19, 1861 ; and many 
 flags, the most famous of which is the celebrated 
 " Betsy Ross" flag. 
 
 The State Library is found at the north end of 
 the building on the third floor. It contains nearly 
 one hundred and fifty thousand books, and is 
 the second largest state reference library in the 
 country. Its most famous volume is the original 
 "History of Plimouth Plantation," in the hand- 
 writing of Governor Bradford, sent to the Common- 
 wealth in 1897 by the Bishop of London. 
 
 If time permits it will be well to visit some of the 
 state departments. A brief directory of the most 
 important rooms is given: 
 
 Sub-Basement. 
 
 Rooms 1-3. District Police, Inspectors, etc. 
 Room 7. State Forester. 
 
 Basement 
 
 Room 15. Civil Service Commission. 
 
 Room 27. G. A. R. Department of Massachusetts. 
 
 Room 30. State Board of Charity. 
 
 First Floor 
 
 Room 111. Adjutant-General. 
 Room 124. Bank Commissioner. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 
 
 Room 131. Harbor and Land Commission. 
 
 Room 136. State Board of Agriculture. 
 
 Room 141. State Board of Health. 
 
 Room 148. Sergeant-at-Arms. 
 
 Room 155. Information Room. 
 
 Room 158. Fish and Game Commission. 
 
 Second Floor 
 
 Room 225. Attorney-General. 
 
 Room 227. Treasurer- and Receiver-General. 
 
 Room 232. Auditor of Accounts. 
 
 Room 246. Insurance Commissioner. 
 
 Room 256. Bureau of Statistics of Labor. 
 
 Room 264. Adjutant-General. 
 
 Third Floor 
 
 Room 331. Secretary of the Commonwealth. 
 Room 341. Post-Office. 
 
 Glerk of the House. 
 
 113 
 
 Fourth Floor 
 
 Rooms 425 to 431. Committee rooms. 
 Room 434. State Archives. 
 Room 443. Reporters. 
 
 Fifth Floor 
 
 Rooms 501 and 502. State Board of Health Lab- 
 oratories. 
 Room 505. Committee on Fish and Game. 
 South end of fifth floor, entrance to dome. 
 
114 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 These departments are outside the State House : 
 Boston Transit Commission, 15 Beacon Street. 
 Metropolitan Park Commission, 14 Beacon Street. 
 Charles River Basin Commission, 367Boylston Street. 
 State Board of Education, Ford Building. 
 Gas Commission, Ford Building. 
 Massachusetts Highway Commission, Ford Building. 
 Railroad Commissioners, 20 Beacon Street. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 OPTIONAL FIELD LESSONS 
 
 NO. 1. — GRADES V TO VIII 
 
 Middlesex Fells Reservation 
 
 (Reached from Sullivan Square terminal. Twenty 'five 
 minutes. Fare, 5 cents from city or suburbs.) 
 
 THE route newly opened by the Boston Ele- 
 vated takes us through Charlestown along the 
 level flood-plain of the Mystic River by numerous 
 drumlins to Medford, where after crossing the 
 Mystic we ascend the edge of the Boston Basin. 
 We pass to the east of Pine Hill (240 feet high) along 
 the valley of Intervale Brook, by Wright's Pond, 
 and alight near Porter's Cove, at the southwest 
 end of Spot Pond. The region is one of exceptional 
 beauty, especially if the field trip is taken in spring 
 when the flowers are in bloom, or better still, in the 
 autumn, when the leaves are in all the glory of their 
 fall foliage. 
 
 Our objective point is Bear Hill Observatory on 
 the northern border of the reservation; and we 
 may enjoy the beautiful walk along Forest Street 
 to Dark Hollow Pond, where we turn to the left, 
 then follow the first turn to the right along Dark 
 
116 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 Hollow, by Winthrop Hill (named for the Puritan 
 governor) to Bear Hill. 
 
 This is the highest elevation in the Fells, and 
 commands a view not to be surpassed in eastern 
 Massachusetts except from the top of Great Blue 
 Hill on the south. The observatory was erected 
 years ago by the Appalachian Club, and while 
 closed by boards around the base, is still freely used 
 by visitors to this enchanting spot. Young pupils 
 should not be taken up, however, as the railing is 
 not sufficiently safe to assure one against accidents 
 of a serious character. 
 
 The view from the top is a splendid one, espe- 
 cially on a clear day, and embraces a broad extent 
 of territory. To the north, at our feet, lies Stone- 
 ham; northeast is Reading; and away on the 
 horizon is the Danvers Insane Asylum, among the 
 distant hills. Turning to the east we see the spires 
 and factory chimneys of Lynn, backed by the 
 blue of the open ocean at Nahant and beyond. 
 Southeast, across the flashing waters of Spot Pond, 
 are the hills of Chelsea and East Boston, with the 
 island-dotted harbor in the background. Bunker 
 Hill Monument, the gilded dome of the State House, 
 and on a clear day Boston Light, are plainly visible. 
 
 South of us stretches the broad expanse of the 
 Fells, crowned with numerous hills and dotted with 
 a dozen ponds. At the foot of the plateau lie Mai- 
 den and Medford, the valleys of the Mystic and the 
 Charles, with their densely populated flood-plains, 
 and the Boston Basin stretching away to the south, 
 
BOSTON BASIN 117 
 
 where it is bounded by the lofty Blue Hills, with 
 the observatory on Great Blue in plain view. 
 
 Just below us to the west is North Reservoir 
 with its forest-clad shores, across which rise the 
 hills of Arlington and Arlington Heights. South- 
 west lies the South Reservoir, and Winchester 
 on the upland hills, backed by the summits of 
 Wellesley Hills. On the west and northwest Win- 
 chester and Woburn, and in the far distance the 
 blue dome of Mount Wachusett, and even Monad- 
 nock, seventy miles away in New Hampshire, are 
 visible on a clear day. 
 
 From this point of vantage may be taught a 
 graphic lesson on the formation and topography of 
 the Boston Basin, the surrounding upland or pene- 
 plain, and the monadnocks that rise above its 
 surface, bearing witness to the great resistance of 
 these granite hills. This should be the main 
 object of the trip; though a wise teacher will 
 take the opportunity to point out many other 
 features on the way, — geological, botanical and 
 ornithological. 
 
 On our return we may take the footpath at the 
 base of the hill and so come back by way of the 
 North and Middle Reservoirs, a route that is even 
 more charming than the one by which we came, 
 though slightly longer. It will take us by Wana- 
 panaquin Hill between the two reservoirs, across 
 Great Neck, and along Hannah Shiner Ledge. 
 The latter was named for the last of the Indians 
 who lived here. Bearing to the left we pass around 
 
118 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 the base of Gerry Hill and along Brooks Road to 
 Porter's Cove, where we take the electric car for 
 Boston. 
 
 It is interesting to note that this reservation is 
 one of the largest in the country, covering an area 
 of twenty-seven hundred acres, and containing the 
 water supply of Melrose, Maiden and Winchester. 
 The tract has been preserved in its pristine wild- 
 ness, and now that the cars run through it thousands 
 of the lovers of Nature visit it constantly. Such 
 names as Bear Hill Den, Panther Cave, Deer Hill, 
 etc., remind us of the times when its fastnesses 
 were inhabited by wild animals ; and many Indian 
 names and legends are preserved in such desig- 
 nations as Squaw Sachem Rock, Indian Spring, 
 Wenepoykin Hill, Wamoset Hill, and Nanepashemet 
 Hill. 
 
 NO. 2. — GRADES IV TO VIII 
 
 Franklin Park 
 
 Franklin Park, named after the famous Revo- 
 lutionary and Colonial patriot, is the largest park 
 within the limits of the city. It contains five hun- 
 dred and twenty-seven acres, and is connected by 
 a beautiful driveway with the celebrated Arnold 
 Arboretum on the west and by Columbia Road 
 with Marine Park at South Boston on the north- 
 east. 
 
 It lies between Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica 
 Plain and Forest Hills, and is easily accessible by 
 
BOSTON BASIN 119 
 
 electric cars from any part of the city. Situated 
 in the great central conglomerate belt of the Boston 
 Basin, the outcrops are all of this kind of rock, and 
 many interesting ledges of pudding-stone may be 
 studied in the park. Most of the land has an ele- 
 vation of eighty to one hundred feet above the sea, 
 and the higher eminences rise to a height of one hun- 
 dred and forty to one hundred and eighty feet. In- 
 terspersed with numerous ponds and dotted with 
 beautiful shade trees, the park presents an in- 
 teresting study for a field trip. 
 
 In several places faults and dykes are to be found, 
 as at the northern corner in Jamaica Plain, where 
 the carriage road has been cut through the con- 
 glomerate, giving several fine exposures of fault- 
 ing. The stone shows a considerable variety in 
 texture, in some localities containing very large 
 stones, and in others only small pebbles and sand. 
 In those outcrops that have long been exposed to 
 weathering the disintegration has reduced the rock 
 to soil ; often the pebbles have been loosened from 
 the enclosing matrix of volcanic lava and have 
 fallen out. The wave- worn character of the peb- 
 bles and stones is clearly seen, showing that they 
 were on an old beach when the lava flowed down 
 over them and cemented them into the present con- 
 glomerate. Specimens of both the coarse and finer 
 varieties should be taken for the school cabinet; 
 and the granitic character of the enclosed pebbles 
 should be made a subject for further study. 
 
 An unusual opportunity is offered here for the 
 
120 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 study of trees and shrubs. Some mention should 
 be made of the interest the city takes in its children 
 in giving them this splendid playground and in 
 maintaining it for them at great expense. The 
 fight it has to wage against the gypsy and brown- 
 tail moths; the maintenance of the golf links, 
 tennis courts and ball-grounds ; the lighting of this 
 great area at night ; the band concerts and fireworks 
 given absolutely free; the presence of the Metro- 
 politan Park policemen to make it safe for boys 
 and girls to play without the guardianship of their 
 parents; the establishment of the out-door school 
 for weak-lunged children, — all should be dwelt 
 upon, and made the basis of a lesson in civics. Our 
 duty in return for all the city so freely gives — 
 merely to behave ourselves and obey the simple 
 rules laid down by the Park Commission — should 
 be emphasized. 
 
 NO. 3. — GRADES IV TO VIII 
 
 Codman Hill, Dorchester 
 
 (Reached from Boston via the tunnel and Dudley Street, 
 where a car for Milton via Washington Street, Dorchester, 
 is taken, or from the North Station or Franklin Street via 
 Dorchester Avenue, a forty-minute trip by either route.) 
 
 Codman Hill is a double drumlin, one hundred and 
 forty feet above sea-level, rising gradually from the 
 north, and dipping sharply towards the south, 
 descending one hundred and twenty feet in a few 
 rods. Its general direction is from northeast to 
 
BOSTON BASIN 121 
 
 southwest. It commands a good view of the Blue 
 Hills in Milton to the south and of the Quincy 
 quarries to the southeast. Brook basins are well 
 illustrated here, and the valley of the Neponset 
 may be traced for some distance. 
 
 We ascend the southern end of the hill, on our 
 way up noting the action of rimning water in gully- 
 ing ditches, carrying away the soil and finer till, 
 and leaving the larger stones in the bed of the 
 rivulet. The unassorted character of glacial drift 
 is well illustrated, and glacial scratches may be 
 noted on the rounded blue slate stones by the 
 roadside. One or two specimens of these should be 
 taken for the school cabinet. 
 
 Part way up the hill, on the left, we go through a 
 gate to study an old brook basin. This is the valley 
 of a former brook, now extinct except during the 
 rainy weather. This was evidently once a consid- 
 erable stream, which has disappeared, either in con- 
 sequence of the cutting away of the forests, or more 
 probably from the diversion of the Neponset or 
 one of its branches by glacial action. The evidences 
 of the action of running water are very plain as one 
 stands at this elevation and looks down into the 
 little valley. 
 
 Milton Lower Mills, nestled in the narrow flood- 
 plain of the Neponset between Codman and Milton 
 Hills, lies at our feet. To the east the valley of the 
 river opens into a tidal estuary between Neponset 
 and North Quincy, where it empties into Dor- 
 chester Bay. 
 
122 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 Ascending the hill farther, we turn to the right 
 and follow a path that leads us to the summit. 
 Here we get an extensive view of the hilly western 
 border of the Boston Basin, the upland rising in a 
 series of rounded hills from two hundred to three 
 hundred feet high. To the south are the Milton 
 Hills, and in the southern background rise the Blue 
 Hills. The highest one to the right is Great Blue, 
 crowned with the observatory. It rises to a height 
 of 635 feet, and is the loftiest elevation in this part 
 of the state. Then to the east come in succession 
 Wolcott, 470 feet, Hemenway, 480 feet, Tucker, 
 450 feet, Buck, 500 feet, Chicatawbut, 524 feet, 
 with Nahandon and Kitchamakin close by; and 
 near the Quincy granite quarries Fox Hill, Wam- 
 patuck and Rattlesnake Hill. The three most 
 conspicuous are Great Blue, Chicatawbut and 
 Nahanton. 
 
 These are monadnocks, remnants of a very old 
 and once very lofty range of mountains. Professor 
 Davis estimates that these once rivalled the Rock- 
 ies and Andes in height, lifting their peaks, cov- 
 ered with eternal snow, into the very clouds. Now 
 only their roots remain; so that the hills we are 
 looking at are among the very oldest in the world. 
 They are composed of the hardest kind of granite, 
 and so are valuable as quarries for building-stone. 
 
 The tall derricks of the Milton and Quincy 
 quarries may be seen along the sky-line, with the 
 houses in Quincy dotting the hillsides. It will be 
 remembered that the state has made a great park 
 
BOSTON BASIN 123 
 
 of the Blue Hills, and those of our pupils who have 
 not already visited the observatory will wish to 
 do so after this field lesson. 
 
 By aid of compass or map we note the general 
 direction of Codman Hill, — northeast to southwest 
 along its greater axis. The evenly-curving top, 
 characteristic of drumlins, is seen to good advan- 
 tage from the persimmon tree midway between the 
 road and the stone wall. 
 
 Historically this locality is the most ancient part 
 of Boston. At our feet the Neponset Indians had 
 their village, and here, in the summer of 1614, 
 came the redoubtable Captain John Smith on his 
 voyage of exploration and barter. We can imagine 
 him, with his boat-crew of eight men, rowing up the 
 quiet Neponset, meeting and making friends with 
 the Indian sachems, and exchanging beads and 
 other trinkets for furs and maize. 
 
 Seven years later (1621) Governor Winslow, 
 with ten men and the Indian chief Tisquanto, or 
 Squantum, landed at the mouth of the river and 
 marched by our point of observation. "On the 
 banks of the river, at the head of tide-water, they 
 found the deserted residence of the deceased 
 sachem Nanepashemet, his grave, and a palisaded 
 fort — soon after, newly-gathered corn, and shortly 
 the women of the tribe, the men being absent hunt- 
 ing and fishing. The women entertained them 
 with boiled cod and parched corn, and traded with 
 them, exchanging what furs they had for other 
 articles. They engaged the Indians to plant extra 
 
124 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 corn the next spring, promising to be their pur- 
 chasers the following year. They returned to 
 Plymouth after an absence of four days, with a 
 consid rable quantity of beavers, and a good re- 
 port of the place, wishing they had been seated 
 there." (History of Dorchester, pp. 5-6.) 
 
 In 1646 we find here the Apostle to the Indians, 
 Rev. John Eliot, preaching to the remnant of the 
 Neponset tribe, and continuing his ministry until 
 after their removal to Ponkapog, on the southern 
 slope of the Blue Hills, ten years later. 
 
 NO. 4. — GRADE VIII 
 
 INDUSTRIES 
 
 Quincy Granite Quarries 
 
 (West Quincy quarries at the West Quincy station. 
 Reached from South Station. Train leaves and returns once 
 an hour. Fare, 15 cents, twenty-five rides for $2.25. By 
 electric cars via Dudley Street transfer station and Quincy 
 car. Fare, 10 cents. One and one-half hours from Winter 
 Street.) 
 
 The Quincy granite quarries are the best place 
 near Boston to study the industry of mining or 
 quarrying. They are easily accessible, though the 
 trip is longer than most of those on the list, and 
 should not be taken by the younger pupils. Some 
 previous study of the subject is necessary in order 
 to get the best results. 
 
 The quarries rise directly west of the depot to a 
 height of two hundred feet above sea level. The 
 
BOSTON BASIN 125 
 
 stone is syenite, a very durable kind of granite. 
 Granite is composed of quartz, feldspar and mica; 
 in syenite the mica is replaced by hornblende, 
 which gives the stone its dark color. In the Quincy 
 syenite the quartz is lacking, the two constituents 
 being orthoclase (a potash feldspar with two cleav- 
 ages at right angles to each other) and hornblende. 
 It is a fine-grained, crystalline, igneous rock, very 
 hard and taking a high polish. It is very durable. 
 Most of the stone here quarried is made into monu- 
 ments and tombstones, and the darker the stone 
 the more valuable it is. The dark veins are as a 
 rule found deep below the surface. 
 
 In places the syenite has been quarried to a depth 
 of two hundred and fifty feet, or fifty feet below 
 sea level. Not only may the pupils see the process 
 of quarrying being carried on here, but the cutting 
 and polishing of the stone as well. 
 
 After leaving the station take the railroad track 
 that ascends to the south and follow it to the quarry. 
 Here we may see the men at work drilling for the 
 blast, and if we stay awhile may see the charge 
 exploded. Then we may watch the dressing of the 
 stone and see it loaded upon the cars and taken to 
 the sheds for polishing. A few specimens for the 
 cabinet should be secured. 
 
126 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 NO. 5. — GRADES VII-VIII 
 EAST BOSTON 
 
 Historical — Commercial 
 
 For two centuries East Boston was known as 
 Noddle Island, from William Noddle, who settled 
 here in 1629. Shortly afterward, Samuel Maverick, 
 Gent., erected on the west side of the island a small 
 fortified mansion, with artillery to defend it, and 
 was in comfortable possession and authority long 
 before Winthrop's fleet entered the bay. "The 
 Puritans," says Sweetser, "allowed Maverick to 
 remain here on payment yearly of ( A fatt weather, 
 a fatt hogg, or XLs. in money'; he was an Epis- 
 copalian and a Royalist, and met with annoying 
 persecutions from the Boston authorities. Mav- 
 erick was the first New England slaveholder, when 
 Captain Pierce brought negroes hither from the 
 Tortugas, in 1638, and sold them in Boston." 
 
 Here was fought the second battle of the Revo- 
 lution. "On May 27, 1775, General Stark and 
 three hundred men were sent to clear out the live- 
 stock on Noddle's Island; and after they had 
 driven four hundred sheep inland from Breed's 
 Island, they engaged the British marines on Nod- 
 dle's, but were driven back when large reinforce- 
 ments of regulars crossed from Boston. In the 
 meantime General Gage had sent a schooner armed 
 with sixteen small guns, and eleven barges full of 
 
BOSTON BASIN 127 
 
 marines up Chelsea Creek to cut off the raiders, 
 while Putnam came to their relief with three hun- 
 dred men and two guns. The fight lasted all night. 
 But, although fresh troops poured over from Bos- 
 ton, the Americans forced the crew of the schooner 
 to abandon her and flee, and drove back the other 
 vessels. They took the artillery from the captured 
 vessel, and then burned her." 
 
 The fortifications were strengthened in 1812, 
 but were allowed to fall into decay after the war 
 was over, and in 1833 the barracks were removed. 
 A duel, fought here in 1819, resulted in the death 
 of Lieutenant White. Some of the finest ships 
 ever built were launched from East Boston wharves. 
 The Flying Cloud, seventeen hundred tons, made 
 the trip to San Francisco in eighty-nine days, 
 the quickest ever made by a sailing-vessel. The 
 Great Republic was the largest wooden sailing- 
 ship ever launched. 
 
 NO. 6. — GRADE VI 
 
 WOOD ISLAND PARK, EAST BOSTON 
 
 Shore Features 
 
 (Wood Island Park is reached by the East Boston Tunnel. 
 Take an Orient Heights or Shelby Street car and get off at 
 Prescott Street. An eight-minute walk to the south will 
 bring you to the park, which is no longer on an island, as arti- 
 ficially made land has now turned it into a peninsula.) 
 
 This is an excellent place to study the simpler 
 shore forms. Between two low elevations running 
 
128 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 north and south a broad level space has been made 
 into one of the best playgrounds in the city, amply 
 provided with all kinds of out-of-door apparatus, 
 such as ladders, swings, flying rings, running 
 tracks, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, etc. 
 Shade trees of many kinds, benches and a roofed 
 pavilion make it an ideal place for a school picnic, 
 and a Saturday forenoon may be most delightfully 
 and profitably spent here in study and play by 
 teacher and pupils. A physical instructor is al- 
 ways in charge, and the best of order is invariably 
 maintained. 
 
 A walk along the pleasant seashore road will 
 enable the teacher to point out to her pupils the 
 tidal flats which here extend far to the south and 
 east. Breed's Hill, a typical drumlin as yet practi- 
 cally intact, is in plain sight to the northeast. 
 The Winthrop shore stretches along the east a mile 
 away; Apple Island and Governor's Island are a 
 mile and a half to the southeast, and Fort Inde- 
 pendence looms up two and a half miles to the 
 south. Deer Island and Point Shirley are in plain 
 view, so that Wood Island is one of the best places 
 about Boston for the study of the islands of the 
 harbor. 
 
 Arriving at the southeastern end of the peninsula 
 after a five minutes' walk we find plentiful evi- 
 dence of the action of waves and tides upon the 
 soft glacial till of which the island was composed. 
 Here the shore has been worn back towards the 
 west for a long distance, the boulders stretching 
 
BOSTON BASIN 129 
 
 out into the water (best seen at low tide), being a 
 mute witness to the former extent of the land. The 
 line between the unassorted glacial soil where the 
 waves have not yet cut away the land, and the 
 well assorted sand, fine gravel, coarser gravel, peb- 
 bles, stones and boulders is very clearly defined. 
 Attention should be called to the growth of seaweed 
 at the mean water level, and explanation made of 
 how nature in this way protects the rocks from 
 further destruction by the sea. The formation of 
 flats and tidal marshes are well exemplified here. 
 
 NO. 7. — GRADE VII 
 
 Historic Squantum 
 
 The name "Squantum 7 ' was probably derived 
 from Tisquanto, the Indian chief who first be- 
 friended the Pilgrims. The place consists of two 
 drumlins and the waste derived from them and 
 washed up by the tides, forming a broad peninsula 
 which separates Dorchester Bay from Quincy Bay. 
 
 It was formerly the capital of the Massachusetts 
 tribe of Indians, whose sway extended from here to 
 Nashua, N. H., and to the Narragansetts on the 
 south. Once the tribe could muster three thousand 
 warriors; but the great pestilence of 1613 almost 
 annihilated them, and thus rendered the first white 
 settlers comparatively safe from attack. Chica- 
 tawbut, their sachem, welcomed Winthrop and the 
 Boston colonists with stately courtesy, and gave 
 them many valuable presents. "He sought them 
 
130 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 out, at the shabby village on Shawmut," says 
 Sweetser, " coming up in some state, with his 
 chiefs and women, and sitting at Winthrop's own 
 tabled 
 
 There is a tradition that in 1669 he gathered an 
 army of seven hundred warriors, marched west- 
 ward across the colony to the Hudson River, and 
 besieged the great tribal fortress of his hereditary 
 enemies, the Mohawks. The attack was unsuccess- 
 ful, and the Massachusetts retreated rapidly towards 
 Stockbridge. But the fierce Mohawks snared them 
 in an ambush among the Berkshire Hills, and de- 
 stroyed nearly the entire band after a long and piti- 
 less battle. The chieftain and fifty-eight of his 
 sagamores were slain on the field, and the green 
 plains of Squantum knew them no more. Their 
 broad corn-fields were occupied by the immigrating 
 Puritans. The feeble remnant of the tribe came 
 under the government of Chicatawbut's brother, 
 Cutshamequin, who led it up the Neponset valley, 
 whence the Apostle Eliot induced them to go to 
 Ponkapog, on the western slope of the Blue Hills. 
 Here they slowly faded away, and the last pure- 
 blooded Massachusetts Indian died in the last 
 century. 
 
 In the fall of 1621 the Plymouth Pilgrims became 
 curious about the Massachusetts, and ordered Miles 
 Standish "to goe amongst them; partly to see the 
 countrey, partly to make peace with them, and 
 partly to procure their trucke." Standish, with 
 nine men and Tisquanto as interpreter sailed round 
 
BOSTON BASIN 131 
 
 Point Allerton and landed at Squantum. He per- 
 suaded the sachem to acknowledge the authority 
 of England, and surveyed the surrounding country 
 pretty thoroughly. 
 
 Here, as well as in Florida, was supposed to be a 
 remarkable fountain. "Over at Squanto's chapel 
 yonder," says Morton (he of Merry-Mount), "is a 
 fountain of a most remarkable power ; for its waters 
 cause a deep sleep of forty-eight hours to those who 
 drink forty-eight ounces at a draught, and so on 
 proportionately." 
 
 Just north of Squantum lived Sir Christopher, 
 concerning whom see Longfellow's poem. Morton 
 says that, during his government of Merry-Mount, 
 " sir Christopher Gardiner (a knight, that had been 
 a traveller, both by Sea and Land; a good judi- 
 cious gentleman in the Mathematticks, and other 
 Sciences usefull for Plantations, Kimistry, &c and 
 also being a practicall Engineer) came into those 
 parts, intending discovery." John Lothrop Motley 
 has written a most interesting romance, "Merry- 
 Mount," dealing with the same quaint character. 
 
 Thompson, for whom the island that bears his 
 name was called, was the first white owner of 
 Squantum. It was afterwards owned by Roger 
 Ludlow, "a pious gentleman of good family." 
 Later John Glover established a tannery here, and 
 had large herds of cattle grazing upon the hills. 
 The rocky pile of Musquantum Chapel (whose pro- 
 jecting ledges form a remarkable profile of the 
 human face) was a favorite landmark in very early 
 
132 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 times. Here were held the Pilgrim Feasts of 
 Squantum, celebrated late in August of each year 
 in honor of the Pilgrim Fathers. These were con- 
 tinued until within a comparatively recent date. 
 The level flood-plain to the west of Squantum 
 Head is now used as an aviation field. Its first 
 international meet was held here Sept. 3-15, 1910. 
 The broad extent of level, grassy land and the 
 nearness to the sea render it an ideal place for 
 this purpose. 
 
 NO. 8. — GRADES VII-VIII 
 
 Historic Medford 
 
 (Scollay Square to Medford Square, five and a half miles. 
 Fare 5 cents. The route is by way of Charlestown (via Main 
 Street), Broadway, Somervnle, over Winter Hill to Med- 
 ford Square.) 
 
 Alighting from the car at George Street, we first 
 view the Royall mansion-house, a splendid exam- 
 ple of Provincial architecture. It was built in 1738 
 by Colonel Royall, who moved here from Antigua, 
 one of the West India islands, and who brought 
 with him some twenty-five slaves, for whose ac- 
 commodation he built the brick structure near the 
 porch on the south side. The interior of the house 
 shows some of the best examples of Colonial pan- 
 elling to be found in New England. For further 
 facts concerning this famous old house and its dis- 
 tinguished owners see Bacon, pp. 87-90. 
 
 Not far from Medford Square is the old Garrison 
 
BOSTON BASIN 133 
 
 house, in Pasture-Hill lane. It was the third house 
 erected in the plantation, having been built some 
 time before 1640, as a fort and dwelling-house, by- 
 Major Jonathan Wade. In the older part may still 
 be seen the " port-holes" piercing the strong bricks. 
 We now take the car to East Medford, or we may 
 walk the distance via Riverside Avenue, to see the 
 famous Cradock house, the oldest one in the 
 United States which still stands as it was originally 
 built. It was erected in 1634, and, like the Gar- 
 rison house, was designed not only as a dwelling 
 but as a fort as well. The walls are a foot and a 
 half thick, and the massive beams are of oak hewn 
 out by hand. The lookout in the rear wall of the 
 chimney, the port-holes and window shutters, and 
 the heavy door encased in iron recall vividly the 
 days when wild beasts and prowling Indians were 
 an ever-present danger. The house should be thor- 
 oughly studied and a good guide-book like that of 
 Drake or Bacon taken along. 
 
 NO. 9. — GRADES VII-VIII 
 
 Historic Somerville 
 
 The drumlins rising above the level floor of the 
 Boston Basin in Somerville formed a natural series 
 of heights overlooking Boston, and Washington 
 here began that series of ramparts and forts which 
 slowly but surely encircled the city and finally 
 drove out the investing army when he mounted his 
 cannon on the height at South Boston. 
 
134 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 The strongest of these forts was that erected on 
 Prospect Hill, where our historical trip will begin. 
 The tablet at the base of the handsome observatory 
 tells us that here, for the first time in the history of 
 our country, was unfolded the starry banner under 
 which our forefathers fought during the remainder 
 of the Revolution, and which still stands for the 
 best that mankind has found in the way of a free 
 government. If for no other reason than this the 
 class ought to visit this historic spot, and review 
 here the scene enacted on New Year's Day, 1776. 
 
 Prospect Hill also commemorates the names of 
 General Israel Putnam, "Old Put/' who made the 
 hill his headquarters after the retreat from Bunker 
 Hill; and of General Nathaniel Greene, who for a 
 time held command of the redoubt. After the sur- 
 render of Burgoyne at Saratoga a part of his army 
 was marched to Somerville — then included within 
 the limits of Charlestown — and kept under guard 
 on the summit of this hill. 
 
 An interesting tablet on the south side of Pros- 
 pect Hill (opposite Rossmore Street) records how 
 James Miller, an aged minute-man, was killed 
 here by British soldiers on the retreat from Lex- 
 ington. He and a companion were stationed behind 
 a stone wall that formerly stood at this spot, and 
 were firing at the retreating soldiers. A flanking 
 party came up in the rear, and Miller's companion 
 urged him to flee. "I am too old to run," he an- 
 swered, and remained firing until he fell, pierced 
 by a dozen balls. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 135 
 
 Central Hill marks the site of another part of the 
 chain of forts. We read on the tablet built into 
 the wall of the small redoubt which the city has 
 erected here: "This battery was erected by the 
 city in 1885 and is within the lines of the ' French 
 Redoubt/ which was thrown up by the American 
 troops under General Israel Putnam, immediately 
 after the battle of Bunker Hill ; and later became 
 a part of the besieging lines of Boston in 1775-76." 
 
 On Winter Hill was a third fort, with the "Star 
 Fort/' connecting it with the Central Hill redoubt. 
 Practically every hill about Boston was similarly 
 fortified. 
 
 One of the most interesting Revolutionary land- 
 marks in Somerville is the house used by General 
 Charles Lee, Washington's second in command, 
 during the siege of 1775-1776. It is within easy 
 walk from the little redoubt on Central Hill, and it 
 is known as the old John Tufts place. We find it 
 on Sycamore Street, at some distance from the foot 
 of the hill, a plain two and a half story wooden 
 building, near the corner of Medford Street. 
 
 Spring Hill was one of the eminences on which 
 Lord Percy planted his cannon to cover the retreat 
 of the British on that disastrous 19th of April. 
 A tablet on Willow Avenue marks the graves of 
 some British soldiers who were slain in a skirmish 
 here on the same day. 
 
 The Old Powder House, now standing in the 
 centre of a small public park, is one of Somerville's 
 most cherished relics. The bronze tablet tells us 
 
136 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 that it dates from 1704, at least the purchase of the 
 site; that it was built for a windmill, and was 
 deeded to the Province in 1747, and that on Sep- 
 tember 1, 1774, General Gage seized the two hun- 
 dred and fifty half-barrels of gunpowder stored 
 within its walls. 
 
 NO. 10. — GRADE VIII 
 
 Dudley Street Terminal and Vicinity — History 
 
 Dudley Street and the square were named for 
 the famous Dudley family that began with Gover- 
 nor Thomas Dudley, who died in 1653, and was 
 buried in the churchyard nearby. This will be the 
 first place we visit. It is usually called the Eustis 
 Street Cemetery, and is located at the corner 
 of Dudley and Eustis Streets. 
 
 Near the entrance from the latter street is the 
 Dudley tomb. Here were buried four famous 
 members of the family : Governor Thomas Dudley, 
 (died 1653) ; Governor Joseph Dudley (died 1720) ; 
 Chief Justice Paul Dudley (died 1752) ; and Colonel 
 William Dudley (died 1743). A sketch of the 
 lives and public services of the men might profit- 
 ably precede the trip, and may be found in any 
 good history of Old Boston. 
 
 The Parish Tomb, in which were interred the 
 early ministers of the First Church of Roxbury, is 
 near the centre of the burying-ground. The most 
 noted of these men was the saintly John Eliot, 
 Apostle to the Indians, and for over forty years 
 
BOSTON BASIN 137 
 
 minister of this church. His efforts to Christianize 
 the Indians, for whose education he succeeded in 
 having a college building erected at Harvard, the 
 great work he performed in translating the whole 
 Bible into their language, and the character of the 
 man himself, are fruitful subjects for interesting 
 talks with the pupils. A copy of the old Indian 
 Bible may be seen at the Harvard University Li- 
 brary (Gore Hall) by asking at the main desk in the 
 lower hall. The Eliot Monument at Newton (off 
 Kendall Street near Nonantum Corner) may be 
 seen on a later trip. The inscription on this mon- 
 ument reads: "Here at Nonantum, Oct. 28, 1646, 
 in Waban's wigwam near this spot, John Eliot be- 
 gan to preach the gospel to the Indians. Here he 
 founded the first Christian community of Indians 
 within the English colonies." Eliot's house stood 
 at the corner of Washington and Dudley streets, 
 in the rear of the lot now occupied by the People's 
 Bank. 
 
 Five of the other early ministers of the parish are 
 buried in the same tomb. An interesting grave is 
 that of "The Learned and Scholarly" poet and 
 schoolmaster, Benjamin Thompson, for a long time 
 master of the Roxbury school. The oldest tomb- 
 stone is that of a child who was buried in 1653. 
 
 In Revolutionary times a redoubt extended from 
 the burying-ground across Washington Street, at 
 that time the one road leading from Roxbury into 
 Boston. This connected with the Roxbury Lower 
 and Upper Forts near Eliot Square. 
 
138 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 Governor Shirley, during whose administration 
 the wonderful Louisburg expedition was launched, 
 had a fine mansion-house on Dudley Street, a little 
 way north of Eustis Street, which also, by the way, 
 was named for one of the early governors. 
 
 On Warren Street, near Dudley, is a stone house 
 built on the site of the birthplace of General 
 Joseph Warren. A tablet set into its front bears 
 this inscription: "On this spot stood the house 
 erected in 1720 by Joseph Warren of Boston, re- 
 markable for being the birthplace of General 
 Joseph Warren, his grandson, who was killed in the 
 battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775." 
 
 NO. 11. — GRADES VII-VIII 
 Eliot Square and Vicinity — History 
 
 (Take Roxbury Crossing car from Dudley Street and get 
 off at Eliot Square.) 
 
 The large Unitarian church which stands in the 
 centre of Eliot Square is the fourth meeting-house 
 erected on this site. The first one was built in 
 1632, and here John Eliot served as pastor for forty- 
 two of his sixty years in the ministry. The third 
 church building was used during the investment of 
 Boston as a signal station by the patriots, and so 
 became the target for numerous shots from the 
 English cannon. The present edifice is a little over 
 a century old, having been erected in 1804. 
 
 To the north is an ancient gambrel-roofed house, 
 known as the Dillaway House. It was built about 
 
BOSTON BASIN 139 
 
 1750 for a parsonage, and was so used for three- 
 quarters of a century. 
 
 At the foot of the square is one of the old mile- 
 stones or " Parting Stones'' so frequently erected 
 in Colonial times. This one was set in place by Paul 
 Dudley (the Chief Justice) in 1744, and bears on the 
 two sides the following inscriptions: "Dedham X 
 Rhode Island" and " Cambridge Watertown." 
 
 Roxbury Upper Fort, surmounted by the lofty 
 water-tower, is reached by way of Highland Street 
 and Fort Street. The tablet records the fact that 
 
 On this eminence stood 
 Roxbury High Fort 
 A strong earthwork planted by- 
 Henry Knox and Josiah Waters 
 and erected by the American Army 
 June 1775 — crowning the famous 
 Roxbury lines of investment at 
 the siege of Boston. 
 
 From this point the American army marched into 
 Boston on March 17, 1776, along Washington 
 Street, over the long, narrow Neck, and so to the 
 wharves from which the British and Tories had so 
 recently embarked for Halifax. The street took 
 its name from the fact that our first President 
 himself led the troops. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 GRADES VII-VIII 
 
 No. 12. — Cambridge — Historical 
 
 (Reached from Park Street Subway station, Dudley Street, 
 or Hanover Street. Fare 5 cents. Twenty-five minutes.) 
 
 WE proceed directly to Harvard Square, as 
 nearly all the historic spots are in the vi- 
 cinity of the square. Our route will be through the 
 college yard, across the Common to the Washington 
 Elm, to Christ Church, and so into Brattle Street, 
 finishing our walk at Mount Auburn Cemetery. 
 
 Alighting at Harvard Square we view the old 
 President's House (or Wadsworth House, as it is 
 usually called), built in 1726, and Washington's 
 residence during the first few days he was in Cam- 
 bridge. For a hundred years it was the official home 
 of the college presidents, and has been the residence 
 of many famous men. 
 
 Harvard Hall and Massachusetts Hall face each 
 other near the Johnston gate. The latter is the 
 oldest of the college buildings, dating from 1720, 
 and every brick in the venerable hall was brought 
 from England, as there were no brick-yards here 
 then. It was used as barracks by the Continental 
 troops after the battle of Lexington, and the tablet 
 
BOSTON BASIN 141 
 
 on the entry walls records the names of some of the 
 illustrious men who roomed here during the one 
 hundred and fifty years it was used as a dormitory. 
 Now it is fittingly the lecture-room in United States 
 history. Harvard Hall (1764) was also a barrack- 
 room, and here Washington was received on his last 
 visit in 1789. Hollis and Stoughton Halls, which 
 are just beyond, were the college homes of many fa- 
 mous men, Charles Sumner, Oliver Wendell Holmes 
 and Edward Everett Hale being among the number. 
 As we pass out of the gate we should read the in- 
 scriptions on either side. 
 
 Crossing the street to the First Parish Church 
 we follow the street that turns to the left and soon 
 come to the oldest cemetery in the city. A monu- 
 ment of red granite marks the resting-place of three 
 of the six Cambridge minute-men killed on April 
 19, 1775. It is related that the bodies were placed 
 in one common trench, wrapped only in the clothes 
 they wore when they fell, and that Moses Richard- 
 son's son sprang into the trench for one last fare- 
 well. The fallen patriot's grandson was captain of 
 the first company enlisted in the Civil War — 
 truly a lesson in patriotism. 
 
 Just beyond the cemetery we come to the first 
 Episcopal church built in Cambridge, Christ Church, 
 erected in 1761, modelled after a church in Italy. 
 Like many other of the buildings in the town it was 
 used as barracks at the outbreak of the Revolution, 
 when the organ pipes were melted to run into bul- 
 lets. Washington and his wife attended service 
 
142 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 in this church on the last Sunday in 1775. The 
 beautiful chime of thirteen bells was presented by 
 Harvard alumni at the centennial anniversary of 
 the historic building. 
 
 A few steps farther along we come to the most 
 historic tree still standing in the United States, — 
 the " Washington Elm." To have the pupils see in 
 imagination the scene here enacted on July 3, 1775, 
 is alone worth the trip. The newly chosen com- 
 mander-in-chief in his blue and buff uniform; his 
 aides and chosen officers, attired in the regimentals 
 of the different colonies ; the mob of brave and de- 
 termined, but raw and untrained, men called by 
 courtesy the American army; and, shading the 
 chief actors in the pageant, the noble tree whose 
 dwarfed stump remains to bear witness to its former 
 glories, — all these should be made very vivid to the 
 little group whom we have assembled at this con- 
 secrated spot. The inscription should be copied by 
 the pupils, a photograph made for use in lantern 
 talks, and further studies of the events preceding 
 and following the event of July 3 assigned to dif- 
 ferent members of the class. 
 
 As we cross over to the cannon on the Common 
 we take note of the handsome Soldiers' Monument. 
 At its base are two historic cannon. One, bearing 
 the French fleur-de-lis, was taken by the allied 
 English and Colonial troops at Quebec in 1745; 
 the other two bear the broad arrow, showing that 
 they were made in England. All were taken by 
 Ethan Allen and his "Green Mountain Boys" at 
 
BOSTON BASIN 143 
 
 Ticonderoga in May, 1775, and were later hauled 
 all the way from northern New York in the dead of 
 winter by the intrepid General Knox. Mounted 
 on Dorchester Heights, they were some of the most 
 potent reasons which Howe accepted for leaving 
 Boston on March 17, 1776. 
 
 The statue of John Bridge, in his Puritan garb, 
 may be noted and the inscription read before we 
 return to Christ Church. We pass throught the 
 narrow path to the left of the church and find our- 
 selves on the spot where formerly stood the " village 
 smithy " of Longfellow's poem. The companion of 
 the " spreading chestnut-tree' ' is still standing, 
 but the original was cut down long ago to widen 
 the street. 
 
 We are now in Brattle Street, one of the oldest 
 roads in the country, — it was an Indian trail for 
 ages before the white men came, — which led from 
 Charlestown to Watertown before either Boston or 
 Cambridge was settled. It became the fashionable 
 street of early Colonial times, and the stately resi- 
 dences that extended along it, reaching to the river 
 on the south, belonged to rich men whose sympa- 
 thies were with England at the outbreak of the war. 
 These Tories fled when open hostilities broke out, 
 and their mansions were confiscated by the Con- 
 tinental Congress. 
 
 The first of these famous houses along "Tory 
 Row" is the one at the corner of Brattle and Haw- 
 thorne Streets. It was built soon after 1700, and in 
 1717 was bought by Sir Jonathan Belcher, royal 
 
144 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 governor of both Massachusetts and New Hamp- 
 shire from 1730 to 1741. In one of the rooms on 
 the second floor was confined Dr. Benjamin 
 Church, the first traitor to the American cause. 
 Early in the war, after the battle of Bunker Hill, 
 it was used as a hospital, and wounded soldiers 
 from that fight were brought here, where some of 
 them died. 
 
 Across the street stands the most famous house in 
 the Commonwealth, if not in the country, — the 
 Longfellow house. Secluded behind its sheltering 
 hedge and shaded by noble trees, it has had as 
 dwellers within its walls many famous men. It 
 was built in 1759 by Colonel John Vassal the 
 Younger. After he fled to Boston to seek safety 
 with Gage from his angry townspeople, it was as- 
 signed to Colonel John Glover and his company of 
 Connecticut troops. On July 15, 1775, it became 
 the temporary home of Washington, and here he 
 and Mrs. Washington received many famous people 
 before they left New England in April of the next 
 year. Here Andrew Craigie entertained the Duke 
 of Kent, father of Queen Victoria; here dwelt 
 Jared Sparks while he was writing his famous his- 
 tories ; Edward Everett, the orator and statesman ; 
 Worcester, who wrote his dictionary in this house ; 
 and to this same famous house came Longfellow in 
 1837, buying it in 1843 and dying within its walls 
 in 1882. Julian Hawthorne's description of the 
 house might be read aloud to the class before or 
 after the trip. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 145 
 
 At the corner of Brattle Street and Riedesel 
 Avenue is the Richard Lechmere house. He was a 
 Tory who owned all of what is now East Cambridge. 
 At the beginning of the Revolution it was assigned 
 to Jonathan Sewall, attorney-general of the prov- 
 ince. Here were confined as prisoners Baron and 
 Baroness Riedesel, friends of "Jack" Burgoyne, 
 who had accompanied him when he started upon 
 his easy subjugation of the rebellious Americans. 
 The British general was imprisoned in another 
 Cambridge house, the "Bishop's Palace" on 
 Plympton Street, which some member of the 
 class may be sent to see and report on. 
 
 The next famous house on Brattle Street is the 
 one standing second from the corner of Appleton 
 Street, — the Lee house. Built during the days 
 of Oliver Cromwell, it is still a fine specimen of 
 Colonial architecture. The Lees owned all the land 
 from here to Fresh Pond, a half-mile to the west, 
 and south as far as the Charles River. For nearly 
 two hundred and fifty years the old mansion has 
 stood where we now see it. 
 
 Passing the Fayerweather house (built in 1745) 
 at the corner of Fayerweather Street, we cross 
 Elmwood Avenue and come to famous "Elmwood," 
 the home of James Russell Lowell. It was the resi- 
 dence of Thomas Oliver, the last royal lieutenant- 
 governor of Massachusetts, and was built a century 
 after the Lee house, — in 1760. Could we have 
 stood where we are now the night before the Boston 
 Tea Party we might have seen the grounds filled 
 
146 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 with an angry crowd of patriotic Americans calling 
 on the Governor to come out and make answer in 
 regard to the disputed tea ; and we might have seen 
 him, bareheaded and dauntless, write out his resig- 
 nation then and there to save his handsome home 
 from the fury of his enraged townspeople. In 1793 
 the house was bought by Elbridge Gerry, minister 
 to France during the Reign of Terror, Governor of 
 Massachusetts and Vice-President. In 1817 the 
 house was bought by Rev. Charles Lowell, and here 
 his illustrious son was born in 1819. Here Lowell 
 wrote most of his poems, and here he died in 1891. 
 
 Leaving Elmwood we go by way of Mount Au- 
 burn Street to Mt. Auburn Cemetery where are 
 buried so many of our noted men; or we may 
 turn back and retrace our way up Brattle Street, 
 to the historic Brattle House, noting on our way 
 the site of Leif Ericson's first house in Vinland. 
 A flat granite tablet, surrounded by a small iron 
 railing, marks the spot picked out by Professor 
 Horsford as the site of the dwelling of the old 
 Norse rover. We may send a group of boys down 
 into the field from Elmwood to investigate the 
 tablet while we walk along towards Harvard 
 Square. 
 
 On our way we pass the Waterhouse cottage, built 
 in 1753 by Professor Benjamin Waterhouse, the 
 man who introduced vaccination into this country, 
 for doing which he was long ridiculed and perse- 
 cuted. There are in the house some fine paintings 
 by the Cambridge artist Washington Allston, and 
 
BOSTON BASIN 147 
 
 a very quaint old clock dating from Revolutionary 
 times. 
 
 The Brattle house is on the south side of the 
 street, near Brattle Square. The building dates 
 from before the War for Independence. In 1775- 
 1776 General Mifflin had his headquarters in it. 
 Here for a time dwelt Abigail Adams while her 
 husband was at Philadelphia attending the Con- 
 tinental Congress. General Charles Lee — third of 
 the traitors to the cause — was a frequent visi- 
 tor, with his pet dog Spada. Margaret Fuller, 
 the author, also lived here, though her early home 
 was on Pine Street, in Cambridgeport. 
 
 One pupil might be sent to Linnaean Street, near 
 Porter Station, to see and report on the Austin 
 house, the oldest in the city, erected in 1657. 
 
 Should the lesson include Mount Auburn Ceme- 
 tery, a guide map or plan of the ground should be 
 secured from the custodian, and it will be well for 
 the teacher to make the trip in advance. Some of 
 the graves of special interest are those of the 
 following : 
 
 Longfellow, Lowell and N. P. Willis ; Motley the 
 historian ; Oliver Wendell Holmes ; Phillips Brooks 
 and W. E. Channing ; Dr. Morton, the discoverer of 
 anaesthetics; Agassiz, Charles Sumner and Mar- 
 garet Fuller. A study of the Sphinx, and of the 
 inscription on the figure, are also profitable. 
 
 If the class is interested in Norse landmarks the 
 following remains, as indicated by Count Rumford, 
 may be seen in the vicinity of Mount Auburn. 
 
148 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 We walk down Mt. Auburn Street to Willis Court, 
 near Coolidge Avenue. The first path to the right, 
 called Bank Lane (or the Bridle Path), takes us to 
 the spot where Thorfinn Karlsefni is supposed to 
 have made his settlement in 1003. There remain 
 some old stone walls, which may have been part of 
 an Icelandic hut, as it was built in the manner of the 
 people of that age. Near by is a paved stone path 
 leading to the river, similar to paths that the 
 people of Iceland have made for a thousand years 
 past. " Depressions in the ground between Bank 
 Lane and the sea-path show where a long house 
 built of turf or wood probably stood," says Bacon; 
 and he adds: "Here has been found a typical Ice- 
 landic rectangular fireplace surrounded by upright 
 stones." A little way across the open field is the 
 stone tablet to Leif Ericson referred to above, 
 which may be inspected by the whole class if we 
 make this side trip. The winding character of the 
 Charles, with its dykes (reminding one of Holland), 
 and the Stadium, on Soldiers' Field, should not pass 
 unnoticed. 
 
 Returning to the street we take a car for Boston, 
 thus finishing our lesson. 
 
 GRADE VIII 
 
 No. 13. — Charlestown — Historical 
 
 Charlestown was settled July 4, 1629. Win- 
 throp's colonists came here in 1629 and stayed a 
 year, going over to Boston in 1630. On the day 
 
BOSTON BASIN 149 
 
 when the battle of Bunker Hill was fought nearly 
 all of the four hundred buildings of Charlestown 
 were burned by the British. The Navy Yard was 
 established here in 1800. The Monument, the 
 crowning glory of the district, was begun in 1825, 
 and finished in 1842, largely through the patriotic 
 efforts of the women of Massachusetts. At the dedi- 
 cation exercises, June 17, 1843, President Tyler 
 was present, and Daniel Webster delivered one of 
 the most famous orations of modern times. This 
 should be read by the class before the trip is made, 
 and a clear idea of the battle gained by them. 
 
 Rev. John Harvard was one of the early resi- 
 dents of the town, and was buried in a graveyard 
 which was at the foot of Town Hill, but which has 
 now entirely disappeared. Samuel F. B. Morse 
 was born in the old Edes House on Main Street, and 
 John Boyle O'Reilly lived for many years in the 
 house at 34 Winthrop Street. Edward Everett 
 lived on Harvard Street while he was Governor of 
 the Commonwealth from 1836 to 1840. 
 
 Charlestown became a city in 1847 and was an- 
 nexed to Boston in 1872. The territory formerly 
 embraced in Charlestown was of great extent ; but 
 there are now only five hundred and eighty-six 
 acres within the limits of the city, including the 
 ninety-one acres of the Navy Yard. 
 
 On the site of the Public Library was the " Great 
 House' ' built for Governor Winthrop in which the 
 Court of Assistants met in 1629 and ordered that 
 Trimount should be called Boston. Up on Town 
 
150 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 Hill was the old fort, built with " Palisadoes " and 
 "Flankers" in 1629. Charlestown is chiefly in- 
 teresting, however, as the scene of the battle of 
 Bunker Hill and because it contains the Navy 
 Yard. 
 
 In preparing the class for the trip, emphasis 
 should be laid on the events that led to the battle on 
 Bunker Hill; the reinforcement of the British 
 troops in Boston; the importance of holding this 
 height which overlooked the harbor; Howe's 
 plan to take possession of it on June 17, and the 
 rapidity with which the Colonial militia acted 
 when they learned of Howe's plans. Then the as- 
 sembling of the minute-men on Cambridge Com- 
 mon; the prayer of President Langdon of Har- 
 vard as the silent yeomen stood or knelt about the 
 camp, torches and lanterns twinkling here and 
 there ; the silent march across the flats to Charles- 
 town, and the feverish work throughout the night 
 to complete the breastworks before dawn should 
 disclose them to the enemy, — all make a dramatic 
 story of intense interest. Julian Hawthorne, in 
 his History of the United States, gives a splendid 
 account of the battle that followed. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 151 
 
 GRADE IX 
 No. 14. — The Harbor Islands — Historical 
 
 Castle Island 
 
 In 1698 five thousand New Englanders seized 
 Sir Edmund Andros and imprisoned him in the 
 castle, on Castle Island, where he languished for 
 eight months. He tried many times to escape, once 
 dressed in women's clothes, and again when his ser- 
 vant made the sentry very drunk. This time Sir 
 Edmund got as far as Rhode Island, but was 
 captured and sent back. 
 
 In 1701 all the old Colonial works on Castle 
 Island were torn down and a new brick fort was 
 built. It was named " Castle William, " for King 
 William III of England, and was finished in the 
 second year of the reign of Queen Anne, 1703. 
 
 In 1744 twenty 42-pounders and two mortars 
 were sent over to the castle from England. These 
 were taken to the siege of Louisbourg in 1745 and 
 did grand service in the bombardment of the French 
 fortress. They were managed by Gridley, who 
 had been one of the chief engineers of the castle, 
 and hammered down the Grand Battery and the 
 King's Bastion, and poured their heavy missiles 
 into the heart of the Gibraltar of America. 
 
 See Longfellow's "Ballad of the French Fleet." 
 
 Some of the regiments quartered here were: 
 Shirley's and Pepperell's veterans of the Louisbourg 
 
152 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 expedition in 1753 ; the Royal Americans in 1758 ; 
 Irving' s Provincials in 1765 ; and several companies 
 of Royal Artillery in 1766-1767. 
 
 Evangeline and the other Acadian exiles were held 
 under the guns of the castle for several days in 
 1761, while the General Court debated what to do 
 with these mournful exiles. At last it was de- 
 cided that they should not be allowed to land, and 
 the transports were sent to sea again. 
 
 Several distinguished persons were buried here, 
 one being Sir Thomas Adams, another the daughter 
 of Governor Sir Francis Bernard. 
 
 In 1764 the barracks accommodated four hun- 
 dred and eighty men. That year there was a plague 
 of small-pox, and three thousand persons were vac- 
 cinated at the castle. It was occupied for six 
 years preceding the Revolution by British troops. 
 
 In 1661 the General Court ordered "That Nicho- 
 las Upshall be imprisoned at Castle I for drawing 
 Quakers here. None shall see him or speak to him 
 but members of his own family." 
 
 The castle was destroyed by fire in 1673, but 
 was rebuilt the next year. In 1676 Edward Ran- 
 dolph thus describes the fort: " Three miles from 
 Boston, upon a small island, there is a castle of 
 stone lately built, and in good repair, with four bas- 
 tions and mounted with 38 guns, 16 whole culver- 
 ins, commodiously seated upon rising ground sixty 
 paces from the waterside, under which at high-water 
 mark is a small battery of six guns. The present 
 commander is one Captain Clap, an old man; his 
 
BOSTON BASIN 153 
 
 salary is £5 per annum." There belonged to the 
 fort at the same time ten (afterward reduced to six) 
 gunners, at a salary of $50 a year. 
 
 In a story entitled "The Rebels/' by Lydia Maria 
 Child, one of the most exciting chapters, telling of 
 the burial of the treasure-chest, has the scene laid 
 at the castle. 
 
 The island is now connected with the mainland 
 at South Boston by a long walk. The original form 
 of the drumlin is almost obliterated by the building 
 of the fort, as well as by the work of the waves and 
 tides. Since the invention of modern cannon the 
 fort, as well as most of the other fortifications in 
 the harbor, has become obsolete. The granite wall, 
 once considered impregnable, would not stand an 
 hour before the guns of a modern Dreadnought. 
 But if need should arise, the islands could be for- 
 tified with long-range cannon, and Boston be made 
 as inaccessible to an enemy as of old. 
 
 In March, 1776, the castle batteries were trained 
 on the adjacent heights of South Boston, where 
 Washington had his intrenchments, but without 
 doing the Colonists very much damage. When the 
 town was evacuated, the garrison burned the bar- 
 racks, blew up the magazine and otherwise devas- 
 tated the island. Washington sent Colonel John 
 Trumbull down, as soon as possible, to take posses- 
 sion of the burning castle, and save what he could 
 from the general wreck. Trumbull was the man 
 who painted the famous scenes from the Revo- 
 
154 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 lution which may be seen in the Capitol at Wash- 
 ington. The Continental troops restored the works 
 almost immediately, under the command of Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel Paul Revere. 
 
 In 1784 the armament was increased by the 
 addition of twenty cannon taken from the "Som- 
 erset, British man-of-war/' which had been wrecked 
 on Cape Cod. 
 
 From 1785 until 1805 state criminals were sent 
 to Castle Island. During our brief war with 
 France as many as two hundred and fifty French 
 soldiers and sailors were confined there at one 
 time. 
 
 The island became Federal property in 1798. 
 The next year President John Adams visited the 
 castle, and it was renamed Fort Independence. 
 
 Lieutenant Massie of the Light Artillery was shot 
 here in a duel in 1817. He was only twenty-one 
 years old; you may read the memorial erected on 
 the glacis to his memory: 
 
 "Here Honour comes, a Pilgrim gray, 
 To deck the turf, that wraps his clay." 
 
 An interesting sight was witnessed here in 1806 
 when a band of Indians, including Osages, Paw- 
 nees, Sacs and Foxes, were received with full mili- 
 tary honors. 
 
 During the wars of 1812 and 1861-1865 the fort 
 was used as barracks and a recruiting station. It 
 was finally given up in 1880. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 155 
 
 Deer Island 
 
 1634. "Deare Ilande, so-called because of the 
 Deare which often swim thither from the Maine, 
 when they are chased by the Woolves. Some have 
 killed sixteen Deare in a day upon this Ilande." 
 
 Granted to Boston in 1634 as a game preserve, 
 for £2 a year; has remained the property of the 
 city ever since. 
 
 It was bought of Winnepurkitt, the last saga- 
 more of Lynn (see Whittier's "The Bride of Penna- 
 cook"). 
 
 King, in his "Handbook of Boston Harbor," in 
 speaking of the island says: 
 
 " No sadder scene has New England ever witnessed 
 than Deer Island in 1675-76, when, during the panic 
 caused by King Philip's war, Massachusetts tore the 
 Christian Indians from their inland homes and con- 
 fined them upon this bleak and dreary strand. The 
 penalty of death was pronounced upon any who 
 should leave this gloomy prison. . . . Eliot, their 
 saintly apostle, said that the Indians went to their 
 captivity 'patiently, humbly, and piously, without 
 murmuring or complaining against the English/ 
 sailing on the downward tide at midnight, from the 
 present site of Watertown. Through the dreary 
 winter their chief sustenance was fish and clams, 
 their only shelter the scanty thickets and the lee 
 sides of the bluffs. Out of these five hundred mar- 
 tyrs to English mistrust very many died, and were 
 sadly buried by the moaning and misty sea. Later 
 
156 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 in the winter, as town after town was destroyed by 
 the hostile tribes, and homeless fugitives poured 
 ever into Boston, the hard-pressed Provincials sent 
 down to Deer Island, asking for volunteers. Many 
 of the captives came forward, and were armed and 
 sent to the frontier (there were fifty in one company 
 alone) ; where they fought their red brethren with 
 equal valor and skill, so that they slew four hundred 
 of them, and rescued many white captives. As 
 General Gookin said, they ' turned ye balance to ye 
 English side, so that ye enemy went down ye wind 
 amain/ In May, 1676, the survivors were returned 
 to their villages in honor. Thereafter the island 
 was used as a prison for hostile Indians captured 
 
 Thompson's Island 
 
 Named for Mr. David Thompson, gentleman, of 
 London, who visited it in 1619 in search of a trad- 
 ing post with the Indians. Miles Standish came 
 here in 1620 and named it Trevour Island ; but in 
 1626 Thompson returned and established a per- 
 manent settlement on the island some years before 
 the settlement of Boston. He died here two years 
 later, and his wife and son soon returned to Eng- 
 land. In 1634 Massachusetts granted the island to 
 Dorchester, which agreed to pay £20 a year, which 
 sum was to go to the support of a schoolmaster. 
 This has been spoken of as "the first public pro- 
 vision made for a free school in the world, by a 
 direct tax or assessment on the inhabitants of a 
 town." 
 
BOSTON BASIN 157 
 
 In 1648 the island was restored to John Thomp- 
 son, son of the first settler ; he sold it to two Bristol 
 merchants. Later it was bought by Boston. 
 
 In 1775 the buildings on the island were destroyed 
 by Colonial foragers. 
 
 1834. The Boston Farm School purchased the 
 island for $6,000. Since then it has been used as a 
 home for indigent boys. Sweetser, writing in 1882, 
 said: 
 
 " There are about one hundred boys (of from eight 
 to seventeen years of age) on the island, for whom 
 the school stands in loco parentis. Up at sunrise, 
 and busied in practical studies and useful labors, 
 the lads lead a happy and contented life; and their 
 health is sufficiently preserved by the pure air of 
 the bay and their frequent baths in the sea. Some 
 of the graduates of the school have occupied high 
 and honorable positions in the outer world; and 
 many of them visit the island in after-life to renew 
 their memories of the place once so dear to them. 
 The great catastrophe of the institution is now 
 almost forgotten. It occurred in April, 1842, when 
 a large boat, full of the boys, returning from a fish- 
 ing-trip down the harbor, was upset by a sudden 
 squall, and twenty-three boys, the boatman, and a 
 teacher drowned. 
 
 "'That little island,' says one writer, ' reminds 
 me of the myth concerning Latona, who, when she 
 had no place on earth to bring forth and rear her 
 children, had an island created for her own special 
 uses; and something like it exists here; for when 
 the boys who prowl about our city streets, fatherless, 
 
158 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 motherless, forlorn and homeless, are discovered, 
 this little Thompson's Island rises as a refuge for 
 them; and here they are sheltered and educated 
 until they are fit to go forth into the great world, and 
 battle manfully with it.' " 
 
 Spectacle Island 
 
 So named because at low water it somewhat re- 
 sembles a huge pair of spectacles. 
 
 1666. For nearly a century after this date it 
 was in the possession of the Bill family. Samuel 
 Bill bought it from the son of Wampatuck, the 
 chief of the Massachusetts Indians. The deed reads 
 in part as follows: "By these presents I do fully, 
 freely, absolutely give, grant, sell, enseasse, and 
 convey unto the said Samuel Bill his heyeres and 
 Assigns forever one certain Island, Scituate in the 
 Massachusetts Bay, commonly known and called 
 by the name of Spectacle Island." 
 
 1718. A hospital was built here. 
 
 1742. Sold by the Bills to Edward Bromfield of 
 Boston. 
 
 1857. Bought by Nahum Ward for $15,000 as a 
 place for rendering dead animals. This has proved 
 a most profitable industry, and helps to keep Boston 
 clean. About two thousand dead horses are re- 
 ceived here every year, and their products are 
 hides, hair, oil and bones. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 159 
 
 Apple Island 
 
 A small drumlin noted for its beautiful elm- 
 trees. 
 
 1650. The island belonged to Boston. It was 
 sold to Hon. Thomas Hutchinson, father of the 
 Governor, in 1723. In 1802 it became the prop- 
 erty of an Englishman, Mr. Marsh, who lived here 
 with his negro servant, Black Jack, and who died 
 here in 1833. 
 
 Peddock's Island 
 
 Named for Leonard Peddock, who landed here 
 over two hundred and seventy-five years ago. 
 
 It was the scene of a remarkable tragedy, when 
 a French vessel was captured by Indians, most of 
 the crew were made slaves, and the rest killed. 
 
 In 1634 it was granted to Charlestown to keep 
 cattle upon. Then it became the property of 
 Nantasket. 
 
 May, 1775, Colonial soldiers landed on the island 
 and carried off thirty cattle and five hundred sheep. 
 The next year six hundred militia were placed here 
 to guard the entrance to the harbor. In 1778 the 
 sailors of Count D'Estaing's fleet were stationed 
 on Peddock's Island, where they erected some for- 
 tifications looking seaward. 
 
160 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 Grape Island 
 
 A favorite resort of the Indians before 1630. 
 
 1 ' Ring after ring of stones (used for baking clams) , 
 has been found here, set up edgewise, with beds of 
 clean beach-gravel in the enclosed spaces. Here 
 the careful searcher may still find stone toma- 
 hawks." (King.) 
 
 Slate Island 
 
 As early as 1630 this island was used by the 
 settlers at Boston as a slate quarry. Unlike most of 
 the islands in the harbor, it is not of glacial origin, 
 but is the remnant of an old hill, which was al- 
 most buried by the last submergence. There is 
 nothing of special historic interest connected with 
 the island. 
 
 Nut Island 
 
 A drumlin, connected at low tide with Hough's 
 Neck by a sand-bar. 
 
 Used for many years as a place for target prac- 
 tice for big cannon. 
 
 Tide action may be studied here to good ad- 
 vantage. The northern part of the island has been 
 eaten away so*that much of the hill has disappeared. 
 The formation of-flats»and beaches may be observed 
 here. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 161 
 
 George's Island — Fort Warren 
 
 Probably named for Captain John George, a 
 well-known merchant and official of Boston about 
 1700. It is some six miles from the city, and a mile 
 from Hull. It was first granted to one James Pem- 
 berton in the seventeenth century, and was sold 
 to Elisha Leavitt in 1765, for $1,700. In 1825 it 
 was purchased by the United States. 
 
 The island is so far from Boston that little 
 mention is found of it in the early records. In 1711 
 it was first used as a place where sick soldiers were 
 cared for. 
 
 The earliest fort was erected here in 1778, and 
 consisted of a large earthwork, commanding the 
 eastern approach to Nantasket Roads. Its object 
 was to protect the fleet of Count D'Estaing, then 
 lying at anchor in the harbor, from an attack by 
 British cruisers, many of which were lying off Nan- 
 tasket. Many of the guns from the French fleet 
 were landed here to arm the battery. 
 
 In 1833 the United States government began to 
 build the present fortress. It was finished about 
 1850. During the Civil War it was a very impor- 
 tant fort, being one of the chief Northern prisons. 
 Not only were Southern officers and soldiers cap- 
 tured in battle confined here, but Northerners 
 suspected of treason were incarcerated as well. 
 In November, 1861, the steamship State of Maine 
 brought here from Fort Lafayette one hundred and 
 ten political and six hundred and forty-five mili- 
 
162 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 tary prisoners. In this fort were confined the fa- 
 mous rebel emissaries Mason and Slidell. It will 
 be remembered that, to avoid war with England, 
 they were released by order of the President. 
 
 Sweetser says : 
 
 "On the morning of January 1, 1862, the garrison 
 was paraded under arms, with their backs to the gate, 
 while the prisoners and their secretaries were con- 
 ducted to the wharf, in a howling winter storm. 
 They were carried across Massachusetts Bay in the 
 tug Starlight, to Provincetown, where the British 
 war-vessel Rinaldo took them on board. During the 
 dreary weeks which they spent on this icy strand 
 the portly and jovial Mason and his lean and dys- 
 peptic companion solaced themselves by unnum- 
 bered rounds of poker, and swore and spat, and spat 
 and swore, continually, to the great and increasing 
 amazement of their orthodox guardsmen. ... A 
 horrible little triangular dungeon in the casemates 
 was long occupied by Keene, a sailor who had en- 
 deavored to blow up the United States frigate 
 Congress, with all on board.". 
 
 Eight hundred Confederates were imprisoned here 
 in the winter of 1861-1862, most of whom had 
 been captured by Burnside in his campaign against 
 Roanoke Island. General Buckner, who surren- 
 dered Fort Donelson and sixteen thousand men to 
 General Grant, and General Tighlman, who surren- 
 dered Fort Henry, were both imprisoned here. 
 In May, 1862, the fort received many Confederates 
 
BOSTON BASIN 163 
 
 captured in the battles below New Orleans, in- 
 cluding six officers of the rebel ironclad Louisiana, 
 and many officers of the Texas, Louisiana and 
 Tennessee volunteers. These Southerners suffered 
 severely from the intense cold, but were otherwise 
 well treated. Later in the war the prisoners in- 
 cluded many desperate blockade-runners, officers 
 of Longstreet's corps, and guerillas from Morgan's 
 command. 
 
 The following incident, taken from "King's 
 Handbook," will interest the boys especially. In 
 August, 1863, a daring attempt at escape was 
 made. Among the prisoners then confined in the 
 casemates were the officers and crews of the rebel 
 privateers Tacony and Atlanta. Six of these offi- 
 cers succeeded in squeezing themselves through 
 the loophole which opened from their prison and 
 dropping into the moat at night. Then, skilfully 
 avoiding the sentinels, they gained the shore. Two 
 started to swim across to LovelTs Island ; but the 
 night was intensely dark, the tide ran out like a 
 mill-race, and neither of the men was ever heard of 
 again. Lieutenants Thurston and Alexander of 
 the Atlanta crossed to Lovell's on a rude raft, in- 
 tending to capture a boat and return for their com- 
 rades. Reaching the shore more dead than alive, 
 they waited until their strength came back, and 
 then rowed out in a dory and boarded an an- 
 chored sailboat. This craft bore them out of Boston 
 Harbor at gray dawn, and they were well down 
 on the Maine coast before a United States revenue- 
 
164 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 cutter overhauled them. Two others, Captain Reed 
 of the Tacony and Major Saunders of the rebel army, 
 waited by the shore all night for the lieutenants to 
 sail in for them, and were then recaptured. Fort 
 Warren was at that time commanded by Colonel 
 Dimick, the same gallant officer who preserved 
 Fortress Monroe from seizure at the outbreak of the 
 war. 
 
 The most distinguished prisoner ever confined 
 here was Alexander Stephens, Vice-President of the 
 Southern Confederacy, who spent five months at 
 Fort Warren. 
 
 Governor's Island 
 
 Governor's Island was so named because in 1632 
 the colony gave it to Governor Winthrop (hence 
 also the name Fort Winthrop). He was to pay as 
 rental "a hhd. of wine that should be made there- 
 on." This was afterward changed to two bushels 
 of apples that should be grown there : one was to 
 go to the General Court and the other to the 
 Governor. 
 
 Here, in "Governor's Garden," with his Indian 
 servant, Winthrop was wont to spend most of his 
 summers. Here he raised the first apples and pears 
 ever grown in New England. He built a small fort 
 and a summer cottage on the island. His wife, 
 Margaret Winthrop, often came here, and with her 
 their five famous sons, each of whom gained dis- 
 tinction in after life. The eldest was Adam, who 
 was the ancestor of the Cambridge Winthrops. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 165 
 
 The second, John, was the founder of New Haven 
 and a governor of Connecticut. Stephen became 
 one of Oliver Cromwell's colonels and a member of 
 Parliament from Aberdeen. Deane founded the 
 town of Winthrop and also the town of Groton. 
 Samuel became Deputy-Governor of Antigua (one 
 of the West India Islands), and ancestor of Lord 
 Lyons and of the Duke of Norfolk. 
 
 The first shipwreck in the infant colony occurred 
 on this island, when the Friendship, bound for 
 St. Kitts, went ashore. 
 
 About 1640-1650 Governor's Island had the rep- 
 utation of being the abode of demons and witches, 
 because of strange noises reported heard there, 
 and "sparkles" of light which people declared they 
 saw issuing from the summit of the island. 
 
 In 1696 an eight-gun battery was placed on the 
 southeast point, and a ten-gun battery on the 
 southwest point. In 1745 a more formidable bat- 
 tery was begun here by Richard Gridley, the chief 
 bombardier in the Louisburg expedition. 
 
 On the day that the British evacuated Boston, 
 March 17, 1776, some of their ships were driven 
 upon the island by a severe gale. 
 
 In 1805 Fort Warren (named for the heroic de- 
 fender of Bunker Hill) was begun here. During 
 the second war with Great Britain the island was 
 heavily fortified, and the "Sea-Fencibles" went on 
 duty to guard the batteries. Mortars were placed 
 to defend the works, and furnaces were built for 
 heating cannon-balls red-hot, to blow up any hos- 
 
166 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 tile ships that might approach the island. During 
 the Civil War it was used to garrison Federal 
 troops. 
 
 Bird Island 
 
 A little to the northwest of Governor's Island 
 lay one of the "Lost Islands" of Boston Harbor. 
 This was Bird Island, and in 1630 it was fully as 
 large as Governor's Island. For many years it was 
 used as a place to hang criminals. In 1726 the 
 French miscreant Thomas Battis, with his son and 
 three Indian accomplices, were hanged at Charles- 
 town and buried on Bird Island. As late as 1790 it 
 Was "a handsome grassy island." Much of it was 
 used for sand and ballast, and what man left the 
 sea carried away. Now only a gravelly spit, with 
 a spindle rising from it, is left as a "witness" of 
 this once beautiful island. 
 
 Moon Island 
 
 One of the many changes wrought by the hand 
 of man in the topography of Boston Harbor may 
 be seen at Moon Island, which was once properly 
 so called, but is no longer an island. For three 
 centuries it was the most conspicuous object in 
 this part of the harbor, with its high and grassy 
 bluff rising boldly over Quincy Bay. Here ends 
 the Metropolitan Sewer, built at a cost of over 
 $6,000,000. The island has been changed very 
 much in shape and outline by the work of the 
 engineers. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 LANTERN LESSONS — GRADE IV 
 
 1. Homes 
 
 a. Houses 
 
 b. Churches 
 
 c. Public buildings 
 
 2. Internal land forms 
 
 a. Mountains and hills 
 
 b. Valleys and plains 
 
 3. External land forms 
 
 a. Peninsulas, capes, etc. 
 
 b. Islands 
 
 4. Internal water forms 
 
 a. Rivers 
 
 b. Ponds and lakes 
 
 5. External water forms 
 
 a. Harbors 
 
 b. Bays, gulfs, etc. 
 
 6. Coasts: Sandy and rocky 
 
 7. Lighthouses, ships, and life-saving stations 
 
 8. People: Type forms of different races 
 
 9. Occupations 
 
 10. Vegetation dependent on climate 
 
 11. Journey Geography — Yellowstone Park 
 
 12. Journey Geography — Amazon River 
 
 13. Journey Geography — Alaska 
 
 14. Journey Geography — Japan 
 
 15. Journey Geography — India 
 
 16. Journey Geography — England 
 
 17. Journey Geography — United States 
 
 18. If possible, a set of slides illustrating soils, gravels, 
 
 etc., and the action of weather and water upon them. 
 
168 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 LANTERN LESSONS — GRADE V 
 
 1. Changes in land forms caused by erosion, transporta- 
 
 tion and deposition 
 a. Water action: surface, underground and ocean 
 
 waters 
 6. Ice action: present and ancient glaciers 
 Glaciated land forms of to-day 
 
 2. Massachusetts 
 
 3. North America — Physical features 
 
 4. South America — Physical features 
 
 5. New England States 
 
 6. Middle Atlantic States 
 
 7. Southern States 
 
 8. Central States 
 
 9. Mountain and Plateau States. 
 
 10. Pacific States 
 
 11. West Indies and Mexico 
 
 12. Canada and the North 
 
 13. South America — Commercial; Brazil, Argentina, 
 
 Chile 
 With a sufficient supply of slides some of these lessons may 
 be subdivided, thus making the required twenty lessons 
 
 LANTERN LESSONS — GRADE VI 
 
 1 and 2. Physical features of the land; type forms 
 
 3. Shore-lines 
 
 4. Islands: Great Britain 
 
 5. Germany 
 
 6. France 
 
 7. Russia 
 
 8. Holland \ 
 
 9. Italy 
 
 10. Spain and Portugal 
 
 11. Austria-Hungary and the Balkan States 
 
 12. Norway and Sweden 
 
 13. Denmark and Belgium 
 
 14. Other countries of Europe 
 
 15. China 
 
 16. Japan 
 
BOSTON BASIN 169 
 
 17. India 
 
 18. Siberia 
 
 19. Turkey 
 
 20. Other countries of Asia 
 
 LANTERN LESSONS— GRADE VII 
 
 1. Local Shipping: Wharves, ships, imports, exports, etc. 
 
 2. Local Industries: Boots and shoes and leather 
 
 3. Local Industries : Woollen trade and manufacturing 
 
 4. Local Industries : Cotton trade and manufacturing 
 
 5. Local Industries: Book-making 
 
 6. 7, 8, 9 and 10. Similar industries 
 
 11. Physical features of Africa 
 
 12. Africa, Egypt 
 
 13. Africa, Barbary States 
 
 14. Africa, Congo Region 
 
 15. Africa, South Africa 
 
 16. Australia 
 
 17. South Sea Islands 
 
 18. 19, and 20. Review the countries mentioned above by 
 
 "Journey Geography " 
 
 LANTERN LESSONS — GRADE VIII 
 
 1. Relief features of the United States 
 
 2. Vegetation sections of the United States 
 
 3. United States: Industrial sections 
 
 4. United States: Great production regions 
 
 5. United States: Foreign trade cities along the coast 
 
 6. United States: Methods of transportation, foreign and 
 
 domestic 
 
 7. Cereals, growth, manufacturing and commerce 
 
 8. Animals, food and products 
 
 9. Vegetable and animal fibres, products and trade in 
 
 10. Forest products, manufacturing and trade 
 
 11. Mineral products, manufacturing and trade 
 
 12. The United States and her relation to the world's 
 
 trade 
 (Trade routes, important exports and imports, etc. 
 Use many diagrams) 
 
170 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 13. Canada and other North American countries: Com- 
 
 merce 
 
 14. Great European countries: Commerce 
 
 15. Lesser European countries : Commerce 
 
 16. Great Asiatic countries: Commerce 
 
 17. Lesser Asiatic countries : Commerce 
 
 18. African (important) countries: Commerce 
 
 19. South America and Australia: Commerce 
 
 20. General review 
 
 The work is based on Adams's Commercial Geography. If 
 a reflectoscope is available, much more work than is indicated 
 here can profitably be done. 
 
 Lantern Slides 
 Those schools not well supplied with lantern 
 slides may secure the loan of many fine sets from 
 the railroads and other sources free of cost, or at 
 a very slight expense. By arranging some time 
 beforehand, the use of these sets may usually be 
 secured without difficulty. Some of the most 
 valuable are given below: 
 
 1. The Grand Canyon of the Colorado; Santa 
 Fe Railroad, Washington Street. A beautifully 
 colored set of some one hundred and twenty-five 
 slides. 
 
 2. The Yellowstone National Park. Loaned by 
 the Northern Pacific Railway, Old South Building. 
 Colored ; about one hundred and fifty in the set. 
 
 3. Canada and the Northwest. Secured from the 
 Canadian Pacific officials, Washington Street. 
 Many of these are finely colored slides. 
 
 4. A large number of sets are loaned free by the 
 Old South Historical Society. Call at the Old 
 South Church. These sets cover many points deal- 
 
BOSTON BASIN 171 
 
 ing with the early history of Boston and Massa- 
 chusetts, and arrangements may be made for cer- 
 tain members of the Society to give the talk at your 
 school either in the afternoon or evening. Such a 
 talk, preceding a field lesson on the same historical 
 subject, will add much to the value of the trip. 
 
 5. The Gardiner Collection of slides, belonging 
 to the Geological Department of Harvard Univer- 
 sity, may be secured under certain reasonable con- 
 ditions. There are many thousands of slides in 
 the collection, covering every field of geology and 
 geography. 
 
 6. By keeping track of the current lectures given 
 at the Public Library, Boston Young Men's Christian 
 Association, Boston Young Men's Christian Union, 
 churches, schools, etc., many fine sets may be se- 
 cured, and in some cases the speaker can be per- 
 suaded to come and give the talk. 
 
 7. Professor Barton of the Institute of Tech- 
 nology has two splendid lectures, one on Greenland 
 and the other on Labrador, which he gives at a 
 nominal charge of one dollar. These are two of the 
 most instructive and delightful lectures to be 
 secured anywhere. 
 
 8. Most of the Boston schools have from a few 
 sets to several thousand slides, which may usually 
 be secured in exchange for the loan of other slides. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE GEOLOGY OF 
 THE BOSTON BASIN 
 
 THE area included in the Boston Basin is not 
 only greatly diversified in surface but is of 
 great geologic interest; containing a large variety 
 of rocks. In fact, the topography is so largely 
 dependent upon the character of the underlying 
 strata that an understanding of the basic features 
 is absolutely necessary to a correct interpretation 
 of the broad features of the region. At the same 
 time it is not proposed, in this brief treatise, to 
 give an extended account of the geology of the 
 Basin. 
 Four great classes of rocks are found here : 
 
 1. Plutonic rocks, — those which have been con- 
 solidated at a great depth below the surface. 
 They include granite, porphyry, syenite, etc., and 
 are exemplified in the granitoid rocks of the Blue 
 Hills region. 
 
 2. Aqueous and stratified rocks, composed of 
 sediments worn away from the old upland and laid 
 down in ancient seas, then subjected to pressure, 
 hardened into rock, and subsequently raised above 
 the sea. Such are the shales of Braintree, the 
 
BOSTON BASIN 173 
 
 conglomerates or " pudding-stones" of Roxbury, 
 and the Nahant rocks, which are among the oldest 
 in the world. 
 
 3. Eruptive rocks, formed of the ejectments from 
 volcanoes ; these are exemplified in the volcanic 
 rocks at Nantasket and Quincy. 
 
 4. Metamorphic rocks, produced by the altera- 
 tion of older rocks through heat, subjection to burial 
 and pressure, and to changes brought about by 
 atmospheric agencies. Examples of these are the 
 felsites of the Middlesex Fells and the Somerville 
 slates. 
 
 Spread out over almost the entire surface of the 
 Basin, and covering most of the underlying rocks, 
 often to a great depth, is a mass of unassorted 
 clay, sand, gravel and boulders — " glacial till" — 
 brought down from the north by the great ice 
 sheet. This enormous body of till or " drift" has 
 given the region its characteristic features, since 
 much of it was deposited in the form of rounded 
 hills called drumlins, and still more as large irreg- 
 ular masses of sand and gravel. The ice tore boul- 
 ders from ledges, and in some cases dug basin-like 
 hollows in the rock. 
 
 The many ponds, lakes and waterfalls which add 
 so much to the natural beauty of the region are 
 also the direct result of the glacial invasion. The 
 transported drift blocked up many of the old val- 
 leys, damming the outlets of the old streams, and 
 thereby producing many of the ponds and swamps 
 which are so common. It filled the channels of many 
 
174 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 of the rivers, turning them out of their former 
 courses, and by thus diverting them turned them 
 into new channels, where they came upon hard rock 
 ledges, producing cascades and rapids. A type 
 example may be found at Hemlock Gorge, Newton 
 Upper Falls, where the Charles now cascades over 
 the hard conglomerate. 
 
 In other words, the Boston Basin has witnessed 
 many great geologic changes in the past. The 
 Blue Hills at Milton are the worn-down remnants 
 of once mighty mountains that lifted their snow- 
 clad summits far above the clouds. Their eleva- 
 tion was accompanied by intense heat that changed 
 the structure of the rock masses deep below the 
 surface. During the untold ages that have since 
 elapsed, the mountains have disappeared, and as we 
 stand upon the present summit of Great Blue Hill 
 our feet press upon rocks that were once miles be- 
 low the surface, deep down among the roots of the 
 ancient mountains. 
 
 When we sit upon the rocks of Nahant's pic- 
 turesque shore we are resting upon a structure over 
 which thundered the billows of an old sea. Thou- 
 sands of ages before man appeared upon the earth 
 these rocks formed the muddy bottom of an ocean 
 whose waters were not yet cooled from the primal 
 creation, and the stony-covered trilobite was earth's 
 highest type of life. 
 
 As we view the Quincy hills where workmen are 
 quarrying granite, it is hard to picture these low 
 hills as mighty volcanoes belching forth steam and 
 
BOSTON BASIN 175 
 
 lava; yet geologists tell us that such they once 
 were, and far loftier than are Hecla or Vesuvius 
 to-day, and grander in their terrific explosions. 
 But that was very long ago, in the dim ages of the 
 earth's childhood. 
 
 When we stroll about among the beauties of the 
 far-famed Middlesex Fells we are among rocks 
 more ancient than the volcanic remains at Quincy ; 
 for these strata were buried by the volcanic erup- 
 tions from Quincy, and their structure was changed 
 by the heat and the enormous pressure of the 
 overlying lava. A bit of felsite picked up in your 
 rambles here could tell you a wonderful story would 
 you but study its history and the changes in the 
 earth's crust that brought it to its present form 
 and position. 
 
 The smooth rounded hills we see all about us in 
 the Boston Basin are mute witnesses of a time 
 when this whole region was buried beneath a 
 thousand feet of solid ice, — the last great geo- 
 logic change but one which the region has under- 
 gone ; for this huge mass of ice depressed the sur- 
 face to a considerable extent, and upon the retreat 
 of the glacier the land rose somewhat, as numerous 
 old sea-beaches show. 
 
 Some of the lasting effects of the glacial age are 
 seen when we view the topography of the Boston 
 Basin from an elevation like the tower in General 
 Lawrence's Park. We see, scattered over the level 
 floor of the basin, a large number of hills similar in 
 shape and in trend, composed of sand, clay and 
 
176 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 gravel, with a mixture of boulders of all sizes and 
 kinds. These drumlins are remnants of the material 
 that was scraped off the surface of the land as the 
 ice-sheet came down from the region of Labrador 
 and Hudson Bay. The shining lakes, glistening 
 like diamonds in their turquoise setting of forest, 
 are also due to the former presence of the glacier; 
 and while the ice-sheet robbed New England of 
 her fertile soil, and so made the first century of col- 
 onization here a bitter struggle for existence, it 
 added those picturesque features that give such a 
 charm to this part of the country. 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 In the preceding pages we have described some- 
 what in detail the features of the different parts 
 of the Boston Basin. Let us now summarize 
 these facts and try to get a clear idea of the 
 wonderful changes through which this area has 
 gone. 
 
 In the earliest times of which we have any record, 
 the Eozoic age, the basin was beneath the sea. 
 A vast amount of sediment from the ancient land 
 area was deposited over this sea-bottom, forming 
 a great depth of mud which was for the most part 
 clayey, though in some places calcareous or 
 silicious. 
 
 Then came a disturbance of this part of the earth's 
 crust, during which these deposits were strongly 
 compressed, being solidified into slates and thrown 
 
BOSTON BASIN 177 
 
 into sharp folds having a generally northeast and 
 southwest direction. This movement of the crust 
 was accompanied by intense volcanic activity, as 
 is usually the case in upheavals of the sea-bottom. 
 The slate and quartzite were shattered and iso- 
 lated by great volumes of basic lava which we call 
 diorite. Immense floods of this were poured out 
 upon the surface, covering the sedimentary rocks. 
 
 This elevation and volcanic eruption was prob- 
 ably followed by a very long period of quiet erosion, 
 during which the sea and the atmospheric agencies 
 greatly reduced the height of the uplifted strata. 
 
 A second period of intense and long-continued 
 igneous action followed, when only acid rocks — 
 granites and felsites — were erupted. The granite 
 appears in many different varieties, syenite being 
 one of the most common. The felsite was formed 
 chiefly as surface flows of acid lava. There must 
 have been several distinct periods of eruption ; 
 though they were probably not separated by long 
 intervals of time. 
 
 These eruptions were followed by a long period of 
 quiescence, during which the area suffered greatly 
 from erosion, though not reduced to sea-level. 
 
 An important and long-continued downward 
 movement finally began ; and as the surface of the 
 land slowly passed below the level of the sea a 
 thick bed of conglomerate was spread over this re- 
 gion. The product of the previous chemical de- 
 cay of the rocks was rapidly worked over by the 
 waves, and the fine silt, or clay, was carried out into 
 
178 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 the deeper water of the ocean, while the coarser 
 materials were strewn along the advancing beach. 
 This subsidence and rapid deposition of sediments 
 was accompanied by volcanic activity. The erup- 
 tions were largely surface flows from craters located 
 in or near the sea, though the exact position of these 
 vents has not as yet been ascertained. 
 
 Floods of liquid lava were repeatedly poured out 
 over the sea-floor where beds of gravel and sand 
 were forming; and thus we find, as at Nantasket 
 and Brighton, beds of conglomerate and sandstone 
 alternating with beds or flows of melaphyr and 
 porphyrite. Sometimes the successive flows of 
 lava followed each other so rapidly that they formed 
 very thick sheets of volcanic rock without any sed- 
 iments between, as the rocks at Hingham, Need- 
 ham, etc., prove. Occasionally the eruptions were 
 explosive, and beds of volcanic tufa were formed, 
 as at Nantasket, Brighton and Newton. 
 
 Oscillations of level probably occurred, as alter- 
 nations of the conglomerate with beds of both 
 sandstone and slate are frequently found. But 
 the downward movement prevailed, until finally 
 the water became too deep and quiet and too re- 
 mote from shore to permit the formation of con- 
 glomerate and sandstone. These coarse sediments 
 were gradually replaced by slate during the dying 
 out of the volcanic activity. 
 
 These tranquil deep-sea conditions must have 
 continued for a very long time; for the fine slate 
 sediments accumulate very slowly, and yet they 
 
BOSTON BASIN 179 
 
 acquired a depth of a thousand feet or more. A 
 few fossils found in the Nahant slates give us a hint 
 of the life that existed in these ancient seas. 
 
 During this long period of quiet deposition the 
 subterranean forces were slowly gathering strength 
 for renewed activity; and when the weakened 
 crust below the still unconsolidated sediments could 
 no longer resist the growing horizontal pressure, it 
 yielded, and thus inaugurated an important geo- 
 logical revolution. The slate and conglomerate 
 were powerfully compressed in a north and south 
 direction, and thrown into a series of gigantic folds, 
 having a general east and west trend. Although 
 they have suffered enormous erosion, these folds, 
 when not drift-covered, are still distinctly trace- 
 able, the ridges or anticlines being marked by beds 
 of conglomerate, and the hollows or synclines by 
 beds of slate. The great conglomerate anticline 
 running through the middle of the Boston. Basin is 
 the central arch in a somewhat symmetrical series 
 of folds. To the north is the Boston, Brookline and 
 Newton syncline of slate, and south of it is the Dor- 
 chester and West Roxbury syncline of slate. Con- 
 glomerate anticlines border these on the north and 
 south. 
 
 The strata were extensively broken and faulted 
 as well as folded, and in some parts of the basin 
 the displacements have more to do with the present 
 topography than does the folding. 
 
 The Boston Basin itself is probably the result, 
 in part at least, of a great slip of the crust. The 
 
180 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 sharply defined northern and southern margins of 
 the basin are best explained as due to profound 
 faults along these two lines. The downthrow in 
 each case was towards the centre of the basin, and 
 these two great displacements must be regarded as 
 of primary importance in the geological structure 
 of this region. They present on the upthrow side 
 two solid walls of crystalline rocks between which 
 the great central area of sedimentary and volcanic 
 rocks has first settled down and then suffered com- 
 pression, as in a huge vise, by the approach of these 
 north and south walls, producing the great folds 
 already noticed and most of the minor faults of 
 this region. 
 
 The whole area was doubtless elevated at this 
 time, and has remained a land area — an area of 
 erosion — during the whole latter half of the earth's 
 history. During this enormous lapse of time the 
 surface has been reduced by erosion from a region of 
 lofty mountains to one of very moderate relief. 
 The eroded material has been spread out on the 
 sea floor or scraped off by the great glacier. 
 
 Quiet erosion, accomplished chiefly by chemical 
 agencies, and finally reducing this region nearly if 
 not quite to a base-level plain, is then, so far as we 
 know, the whole story of the Boston Basin during 
 the vast interval of time separating this period of 
 great disturbance from the marked elevation of 
 the continent which gradually ushered in the glacial 
 epoch. Mechanical erosion was then in the ascend- 
 ant; but it does not appear probable that the ice- 
 
BOSTON BASIN 181 
 
 sheet modified the topography so much by the ero- 
 sion of the hard rocks as by the accumulations of 
 drift which it left upon the surface in the forms of 
 drumlins, sand plains, clay beds and kames. The 
 high land north of the basin was, on account of its 
 elevation, an area mainly of glacial erosion ; while 
 the detritus scraped from it into the basin made this 
 mainly an area of deposition, as the drumlins testify. 
 During the period of greatest glaciation the-ice sheet 
 extended far to the south and east of Boston, to 
 Cape Cod and Nantucket and possibly much farther. 
 
 A subsidence of the land finally brought back a 
 milder climate and the margin of the ice-sheet re- 
 treated northward. It did not halt long enough in 
 this vicinity to form any distinct terminal moraines ; 
 and the ground moraine or till was left chiefly in 
 the form of drumlins. Partly by subglacial streams, 
 but mainly by the great torrents and the temporary 
 lakes resulting from the final melting of the ice, the 
 drift was very largely modified, — that is, washed, 
 assorted and stratified into the sand-plains, gravel 
 ridges, or kames and clay beds, which now so gener- 
 ally occupy or fill the old valleys and form deltas 
 where the valleys emerge from the high land bor- 
 dering the basin. 
 
 In the distribution of the drift, and especially of 
 the modified drift, we have an adequate explana- 
 tion of: 
 
 (a) The ponds, lakes and swamps of this region, 
 as well as the dry kettles or depressions of the sand 
 plains ; and 
 
182 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 (b) The diverted and circuitous drainage and 
 the resulting waterfalls. The elevation of the land 
 during the coming of the ice age enabled the streams 
 to deepen their channels to such an extent that, 
 although subsequent subsidence has not apparently 
 reduced the land to its pre-glacial level, the rocky- 
 beds of the larger streams are, near their mouths, 
 from one hundred to two hundred feet below the 
 level of the sea. 
 
 Since the close of the glacial epoch the streams 
 of the Boston Basin, with their greatly reduced 
 slope and volume, have made but little progress 
 in clearing out their drift-encumbered valleys; 
 but along the shore the sea has worked with its 
 usual energy, cutting away the drift formations 
 within its reach and laying down extensive beach, 
 bar and marsh deposits. The organic deposits — 
 peat and tripolite, as well as the bog-iron ore now 
 forming in many bogs and marshes — are other phe- 
 nomena which must be referred to the present or 
 post-glacial epoch in the history of the Boston 
 Basin. 
 
 Foreign Steamship Lines entering Boston 
 
 Information as to the arrival of vessels from 
 foreign ports may be obtained and almost inva- 
 riably permission secured to go on shipboard up 
 to the day before sailing by writing the agent of 
 the company. The accompanying schedule con- 
 tains a list of the different lines having regular 
 commerce with this port. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 
 
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184 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT BOSTON 
 
 Settled in 1630; became a city in 1822. 
 
 1704, The first newspaper in North America was 
 printed here, the "Boston News Letter." 
 
 In 1750 it was the largest town in the country 
 with a population of 25,000. 
 
 1770, March 5, Boston Massacre in King Street 
 (now State Street). 
 
 1773, December 16, "Boston Tea Party" at 
 Griffin's (now Liverpool) Wharf. 
 
 1776, March 17, British evacuated the city. 
 
 1807-1815. Port of Boston closed by the Embargo 
 Act. Commerce ruined. 
 
 1822. First charter granted. Population about 
 50,000. 
 
 1840, population 93,000; in 1860, 177,000; in 
 1880, 362,000; in 1900, 560,000; in 1910, 670,585. 
 
 1872. Great fire destroyed $70,000,000 worth 
 of property. 
 
 1830-1860. Boston was the centre of the Abo- 
 lition movement. 
 
 1800-1900. Area of Boston proper was increased 
 from 780 acres to more than 1,830 acres by filling in 
 tidal flats. 
 
 Nicknamed "The Hub of the Solar System" by 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes; called "The Hub." Also 
 called "The Athens of America," because of the 
 famous philosophers and literary men it has 
 produced. 
 
 Named for Boston in Lincolnshire, England. 
 
BOSTON BASIN 185 
 
 Is said to be the most English in appearance of all 
 American cities. 
 
 "Mere wealth probably counts for less in Boston 
 than in any other large American city." — Baedeker. 
 
 Is the wealthiest city in the country in proportion 
 to its population. Valuation in 1907, $1,313,470,- 
 556. 
 
 Second city in the country in foreign commerce. 
 In February, 1910, foreign trade amounted to 
 $19,886,618, while that of Philadelphia, the nearest 
 rival, was $13,563,291. 
 
 Second wool market in the world, surpassed only 
 by London. 
 
 Second fish market in the world, surpassed only 
 by London. 
 
 Great receiving and distributing centre for leather 
 and manufactured leather goods. 
 
 Manufacturing concerns employ sixty thousand 
 hands. 
 
 Value of goods manufactured here is nearly 
 $200,000,000 a year. Leather, boots and shoes, 
 hardware, machinery, refined sugar, cotton goods, 
 books, principal manufactured articles. 
 
 Important railroad centre. Boston & Maine, 
 New York, New Haven & Hartford and Boston & 
 Albany, principal lines. 
 
 Has one of the largest railway stations in the 
 country. 
 
 Finest system of public parks of any city in the 
 world. 
 
 Fifth city in size in the United States. 
 
 Second only to New York in the output of books 
 and magazines. 
 
186 FIELD LESSONS 
 
 Has one of the best harbors in the world. 
 
 Contains many famous Colonial and Revolutionary- 
 landmarks. 
 
 Has an area of forty-three square miles. 
 
 Has done more to help develop the West than any 
 other city. 
 
 Controls the copper market of the world. 
 
 Has many great philanthropic and charitable 
 organizations. 
 
DOES WOT CIRCULATE 
 
BOSTON COLLEGE 
 
 3 9031 01565635 8 
 
 53991 
 
 DOES NOT CIRCULATE 
 
 tijd */( 
 
 BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS 
 CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. 
 
 Books may be kept for two weeks and may 
 be renewed for the same period, unless re- 
 served. 
 
 Two cents a day is charged for each book 
 kept overtime. 
 
 If you cannot find what you want, ask the 
 Librarian who • ll be glad to help you. 
 
 The borrower is responsible for books drawn 
 on his card and for all fines accruing on the 
 same.