OF LABRADOR AND MAINE. 239 



above the sea,. Above this point no grooved or striated boulders were perceived. Indeed, 

 there are no indications of the action of the sea in any deposits noticed beyond a height of 

 five hundred feet above its present level, so far as I could discover anywhere in this group 

 of mountains. The same may be said of Mount Katahdin, in Maine. The upper 1000 feet 

 of its height is free from rounded transported boulders. The summit is strewn thickly with 

 huge angular blocks broken off by frosts from the subjacent strata. At the height of about 

 4000 feet above the sea, at the "Slide" on the south side of Mount Katahdin, is a large 

 mass of glacial moraine matter which has escaped denudation, and this encloses frequent 

 rounded and polished boulders of fossils of the same species of Silurian shells and of the 

 same silicious slates as are found in situ a few miles northwest, on Lakes Webster and 

 Telos. The original fine glacial mud adheres firmly to these pebbles. They were evi- 

 dently rounded by glacial streams and the pressure of the ice itself, and not by the action 

 of sea waves, for writers have noticed a large percentage of such rounded ji>ebbles in the 

 moraines in the Alps. Parallel cases of a transfer of glacial matter from lower to higher 

 levels have been noticed by geologists both in this country and in Northern Europe. Ap- 

 parently the boulder containing the Silurian Brachiopods came from the horizon now de- 

 veloped on Webster and Telos Lakes, as the species I collected from both localities is the 

 same in the beds at Webster Lake as that found on the mountain. The theory that the 

 boulders were carried up by icebergs seems untenable, since the parent beds are but 

 about twelve miles distant. 



Above this point on the mountain there were no loose, rolled boulders, but the peak was 

 covered by loose blocks detached by the powerful disrupting agency of the frost from the 

 underlying rock, as in the five higher peaks of the White Mountains, and the higher of the 

 mountains of Labrador above the rounded hills, 1000-2000 feet high, at their base. It should 

 be noticed that the summit of Mount Katahdin is a true " needle " or sharp peak, being a 

 short ridge on which two men cannot walk abreast with safety, and along which in wet or 

 windy weather it is perilous to walk from danger either of slipping down or being blown 

 over the precipice which on each side descends thousands of feet. Thus it seems reason- 

 able to infer that the sea has not risen more than perhaps five or six hundred feet above its 

 present level either in the mountainous portions of New England or over 1200 feet in any por- 

 tion of the Labrador Peninsula. On the other hand, the White Mountains and the higher 

 mountains of Maine all seem to differ from the high mountains in the northern termination 

 of Labrador, in presenting one grand stoss and lee side. The long slopes toward the north- 

 west, and the mural southeast faces are as well marked as the embossed rocks rising out of 

 the lowlands at their base. The highest five hundred feet of Mount Washington, and prob- 

 ably the summits of the surrounding peaks, and the top of Mount Katahdin, probably, 

 as stated by Professor Agassiz, rose to break the otherwise icy expanse, as at the present 

 day granitic peaks rise out of the mer de glace in the Alps, Greenland, Spitsbergen, and 

 Norway. This difference between the N. W. and S. E. sides is especially seen after riding 

 through the " Notch" from Conway, and then taking the new Cherry Mountain road from 

 the " Notch" around by way of the town of Jefferson to Gorham. All the narrow valleys, 

 deep precipices, the more rapid torrents, and the loveliest as well as grandest scenery, is 

 found on the southerly aspect of the mountains. On emerging from the " Notch," we soon 

 come out into the broad intervals and tracts, many square miles in extent, bordering the 

 banks of the Ammonoosuc River ; and there is a gradual, steady ascent from the plain up 



MEMOIRS HOST. SOC. NAT. HIST. Vol. I. Tt. 2. 61 



