Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/22

6 melted away; then came salt and fresh water vegetation, and a bog was formed on a very soft foundation. This bog, like the thatch beds and salt meadows of that part of the river, rested on a mud and vegetable growth below and finally became fit for tree growth, and a forest of pine was the next development, standing on a very shaky and uncertain base. The weight of the forest increased with the growth and gradually caused the mass below to become consolidated and the forest to sink below the level of the salt water. The action of the salt water destroyed the tree growth, and the whole mass finally compacted below the level of the low water line of the river. Such subsidences of land are common in many parts of the world.

An analysis of soils, made by Dr. Charles T. Jackson, State Geologist, 1839, gave the following results:

The area of Barrington at the date of its separation from the mother town, Swansea, in 1718, was much larger than at present. Rehoboth, on the north of Swansea, was a town about eight miles square and the south line of that town, which was the north line of Swansea, extended from the Pawtucket or Providence River, on a nearly east and west line to the Shawomet Purchase, or Somerset. This boundary line began at Providence River, near the present Silver Spring Station, on the P. W. & B. R. R., and extended