SCIENTIFIC SURVEY. 283 



two points before mentioned, giving, of course, the altitudes as I 

 was able to compute them from a good aneroid barometer. 



3Ioxie Falls. The stream flowing from Moxie pond has a tortu- 

 ous and troubled course. It makes its way over several miles of 

 the upturned edges of clay-slate strata ; here smoothing and pol- 

 ishing them, and again, quarrying deeply into the mass, and even 

 excavating pot-holes in its path. The descent for most of the way 

 from the outlet to the Kennebec is very rapid, owing to the con- 

 tour of the district and the frequent waterfalls. At a point two 

 miles from its confluence with the main river it makes its greatest 

 descent. This cataract is caused by the abrupt breaking down of 

 the strata, much resembling certain faults. Upon each side of the 

 base of the. fall the rocks rise to an altitude of 115 feet and are 

 very precipitous. The water comes down over a jagged ledge, 

 eighty feet in a single leap of foam which gains additional white- 

 ness by its contrast with the blackened slates. It is a cataract 

 second in its singularity and beauty to none of our minor water- 

 falls, and will well repay the visit of the pleasure-seeker, the tour- 

 ist or the artist. 



The strata of the greyish-black slate dip apparently to the north- 

 east about 75°. G. L. G. 



Slaty formation in the Kennebec Valley. 

 The rocks upon which we come at the Forks of the Kennebec 

 are different apparently from any already passed over on the sec- 

 tion, and yet perhaps not more diverse than what might be ex- 

 pected on the different sides of a great anticlinal axis. The dip of 

 the strata would carry these micaceo-argillaceous slates beneath 

 the clay slate formation, and come up on its eastern border. This 

 is not impossible ; but we incline to the opinion that the strata here 

 are either inverted, or else rest upon the clay slates unconformably. 

 Although the strata at the Forks have a fosslliferous aspect far 

 more than anything to the southeast, no organic remains have yet 

 been discovered in them ; yet the time cannot be far distant when 

 they will be discovered. These slates must belong to the same 

 formation which Mr. Houghton described last year on Moosehead 

 Lake as mica schist, since both formations are similarly situated 

 with respect to the clay slate just passed over, and are succeeded 

 by Oriskany sandstone on the other side. It is the most natural 

 thing in the world to suppose these slates and schists to form a 



