I. INTRODUCTION 



Location 



The Penobscot Bay region in Maine is situated on the 

 coast about midway between the eastern and we, tern bound- 

 aries of the state. Although, in its strictest application, 

 the term "Penobscot Bay" should be only used for the body 

 of water at the mouth of the Penobscot River, in general it 

 is applied to all the waters between Mount Desert Island 

 on the east and White Head on the west, and to the ad- 

 joining land areas as well. This Penobscot Bay region, as 

 it may be called, lies between meridians 68° 25' and 69° 15' 

 west longitude and parallels 43° 5U' and -44° 35' north lat- 

 itude. It comprises approximately 1,200 square miles, 

 nearly t^wo-thirds of which is water. Of the land about one- 

 half belongs to the mainland and the remainder to islands. 

 The latter vary in size from the smallest ledges to some 

 which contain as many as 30 square miles. Politically the 

 region embraces some twenty-five townships, all of which 

 border on the Bay, and which are situated in either Han- 

 cock, Knox or Waldo County (see map, Figure 1). 



Physiography and Climate 



The physiographic and climatic features of the Penob- 

 scot Bay region were described by the author in some de- 

 tail in the introduction to an earlier paper (15) which 

 dealt with the flora of the eastern part of the area. Con- 

 sequently, in order to avoid repetition, only the more im- 

 portant points brought forward in the former discussion 

 will be presented here. 



In its topographical aspects, particularly its extremely 

 irregular coast line and the presence of innumerable is- 

 lands, the Penobscot Bay region illustrates the character- 

 istic features of a drowned coast. The area represents a 

 peneplain worn down from former highlands by pre-glacial 



