The original topography of Boston was ill suited for use by a great population. It was that of a peninsula, almost an island, rising abruptly from the harbor in three drumlin-shaped hills. Nearby were islands and peninsulas of similar formation, separated from each other and from the mainland by river and harbor, and by broad stretches of marsh reaching irregularly into the glacial slope from surrounding hills of almost solid rock. The panorama which they made was one of remarkable beauty and

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... versity, and there were many favorable spots along the rivers and upon the glacial slopes suitable for farming and fishing, which were soon sought out and occupied. Scattered villages grew up about these early settlements, and Boston came to be a city with many suburbs, each quite separate in local irZterest and government, yet all looking to it as their chief city. In 1880 the aggregate population within a radius of twelve miles was about eighty thousand; it is now