236 A " S - PACKARD, Jr., ON THE GLACIAL PHENOMENA 



There were besides well-preserved fragments of a fucus and a brown alga with a broad 

 thin frond. ° 



The Leda Clays of New England. General Features of drift action in Maine. Before describing 

 the beds m winch fossils are found in Maine, let us take a glance at the topographical feal 

 ures of this district and the relative distribution of the different members o/the mate "it 

 composing the superficial deposits of the State. This we are enabled to do from personal 

 observation made m several excursions along the sea-board and into the interior Lough 



^^"18^3 ata S1V6n ^ a K HitChC ° Ck » the '**"* ° f «- G « 

 The coast of Maine while running in a general N. N. E. direction, thus corresponding to 

 the general trend of the continent consequent on the upheaval of the Appalachian Moun- 

 tain cham, forms part of a great indentation in the Eastern Atlantic coast, lying between 

 Cape Cod and Cape Sable, Nova Scotia. This direction of the coast line there is every 

 reason to think, was determined long before the glacial period. Into this broad bay the 

 river systems empty their waters, flowing, from Cape Ann to Casco Bay, in a general N W 

 and S. E. direction. The Merrimac, after leaving the limits of the State of New Hampshire' 

 flows m a northeast direction to the sea, but its general course seaward is southeasterly: 

 Going farther north, the Saco flows in a very direct southeast course. This is the general 

 course of the Androscoggin River. At this point the direction of the rivers changes The 

 Kennebec flows due south from its head-waters, Moosehead Lake. The Penobscot takes 

 its rise m the highlands isolated from the Alleghany range, and flows in a direction slightly 

 west of south. The S. E. direction is again resumed when we come to the St. Croix and St 

 John rivers, for their course lies nearly parallel to that of the Androscoggin. While as^ 

 Burning this general direction west of north, the mouths of the rivers of Maine within a few 

 miles of the sea change their course almost at right angles, and assume the N. N. E and 



N V fiTw }\ T ! liS iS qUite an im P° rtant P >nt ™ the consideration of the 



N E and N W course of the drift striaa, and explains, it would seem quite satisfactorily, 

 the remarkable differences in the course of the striae along the coast as distinguished from 

 those in the interior. ° 



In this connection let us advert briefly to the distribution of the lakes in Maine Thev 

 are by no means scattered irregularly over the surface of the State. The general direction 

 ota longer axes is N. W. and S. E ■ thus they run nearly at right angles to the bourse 

 of the fiords or deep bays. We can also perceive an arrangement into two series : one 

 the inner, higher above the sea than the other, and resting on the great water-shed of the 

 State, from which flow streams running north and south. If we draw a line through Lakes 

 Umbagog Moosehead Chesmicook and the numerous lakes (Chamberlain, Webster, Telos 

 and Churchill) which form the head-waters of the Alleguash on the one hand, and the I>e' 

 nobscot on the other and also the Schoodic Lakes and the broad, lake-like expansions of St 

 John River, we shall describe a great curve assumed by this water-shed, and which lies paral- 

 lel to the sea-coast. A lower tier of lakes, inferior in size, as they are of less importance 

 in the system of drainage, is also parallel to the coast, and situated just above the first or 

 upper falls of our great rivers, or at the head of tidal waters ; - these are Lake Sebago, 

 the large lakes lying j nst above Augusta and Bangor, and the Grand Lakes on the eastern 

 border of the State. At the tune of the deposition of the upland clays, and during the later 

 period of submergence when the osars and sea-beaches were laid down in the interior of 



