1869.] 241 ' [Morse. 



cutting of a new channel across the intervale opposite the Ammon- 

 congin slide. At a depth of six or seven feet, the workmen came 

 upon sticks and logs, turf and other material, indicating their burial by 

 a slide, the chasm of which, he thinks, was evident in a gully that ran 

 back from the intervale at that place. Several other gullies of like 

 character have been noticed on the river by my brother, Mr. G. F. 

 Morse. 



There are traces, however, of two slides of great magnitude, 

 one of which has quite changed the former course of Presumpscot 

 Kiver, as we shall presently see. One of these slides occurred within 

 the city limits of Portland, and has formed the abrupt embankment 

 of Bramhall's Hill. Mr. C. B. Fuller and others have oftentimes 

 remarked the evidences of a slide at this place. 



A few weeks since I made a special examination of this spot, and 

 Fig. 2 gives a sectional view of it through the line A — B on the map. 

 a represents the embankment over one hundred feet in height, b 

 the lateral ridges so characteristic of these slides, and c the level 

 mass of clay forced out by the action. 



In this view, all the characteristics of a land-slide are as plainly seen 

 as if the slide occurred but yesterday. On looking down from the 

 embankment, the lateral ridges are seen to front the embankment 

 only. While examining this slide from the point marked A on the 

 map, my attention was attracted to the evidences of a river once run- 

 ning through Deering's Oaks, and into Back Cove. In Fig. 3 I have 

 represented a sectional view through the line C — D, on the map. 

 This shows clearly a broad river bed. As one passes over the Port- 

 land and Rochester Railroad bridge, and examines the estuary across 

 which the bridge is built, he cannot help remarking the evidences of 

 the former presence of a river at that place, pouring into Back Cove. 

 The traces of a terrace still plainly exist. To the west of this region 

 are scattered brick-yards, and the whole surface is low and clayey, 

 the surface sand being quite removed, and, as I believe, by a series of 

 land-slides. All these evidences prove that at one time a large body 

 of water poured through this region, cutting out the long estuary 

 called the Fore River, producing the Bramhall slide, and, at one time, 

 on being turned aside through Deering's Oaks, assisting, at least, in 

 wearing out the estuary called Back Cove. Certainly the Stroudwater 

 River is too small a stream to have produced these results, since it has 

 no natural reservoir, and drains but a small portion of country. 



PROCEEDINGS B. S. N. H.— VOL. XII. 16 FEBRUARY, 1869. 



