~H4% 



200 Proceedings Port. So<\ Nat. Hint. 



Isle ail Hunt, among the islands. With the exception of the 

 latter, which is a part of Knox Conntv, all these towns are 

 in Hancock County. 



Topography 



In its topographical aspects the eastern Penobscot Bay re- 

 gion presents features more or less common to all that part 

 of the coast of Maine which lies between Casco and Machias 

 Bays. The great irregularity of the shore line, the presence 

 of the numerous fjord-like indentations, the deep, narrow 

 channels, and the innumerable islands are all characteristics 

 of a drowned coast. In this tyjDe of topography a former 

 land area has undergone submergence, the lower portions of 

 the old river valleys becoming the bays and deep channels, 

 and the hilly uplands giving rise to the many islands. The 

 extreme irregiilarity of the contours of the present land 

 areas, as well as of those now below the surface of the sea, 

 has been caused by weathering and erosion^ clearly in pre- 

 glacial times. In fact, the entire region represents a 

 peneplain worn down from former highlands by this con- 

 stant denudation. As a result elevations of any considerable 

 height are extremely rare. Only the few hills with a rock- 

 structure resistant enough to withstand the general wearing 

 down have persisted. Isle an Haut, so named by ChamjDlain, 

 one of the earliest explorers in this region, is one of these 

 residual mountains, or monadnocks. Xext to Mount Desert 

 it is the highest island on the Atlantic coast' of the United 

 States. Together with Mount Desert, and the Camden Hills 

 on the mainland to the west, Isle an Haut constitutes the 

 most conspicuous remnant of the old mountains formerly on 



1. Staler, N. S.. Geology of the Island of Mt. Desert. 8tli Ann. Re- 

 port Dir. U. S. Geol. Survey, 1886-7, p. 994. 



