12 
An ELEVATED BEACH AND RECENT CoAstaAL PLAIN NeAR PoRTLAND, ME. 
Notes oF AN ExcursIoN WITH A Party UNDER ConpucT OF PROF. 
Wma. M. Davis, Juty, 1898. By Wm. A. McBETnh. 
[Abstract.] 
Evidence pointing to the existence of such beach and recent plain in 
southern Maine as observed in the region of Portland are a belt of sand 
and gravel deposits closely following the three-hundred-foot contour line 
around an arm of the Casco Bay depression. The belt is quite continuous 
through the distance traced and apparently much further, and it slopes 
gently down toward the inclosed valley. Exposures along streams and in 
gravelpits, wells, etc., show depth and character of deposits. What are ap- 
parently sandpits modify the course of some of the streams crossing the 
deposits. Several drumlins stand on the upper border of the belt with bluff 
frontages upon it, which resemble the wayve-cut drumlins in Boston Har- 
bor. Undercut cliffs of rock also front upon it with heavy water-worn 
talus fragments at their base. The country falls off abruptly in places 
from the lower edge of the belt to the basin below. The floor of this de- 
pression is covered with a light gray marine clay, the drainage channels 
of which are narrow and steep-sided, showing recent origin. 
The deposits of sand and gravel are thought to be a beach line ele- 
vated about 300 feet above the sea. Postglacial age is indicated by the 
wave-cut drumlins and undisturbed conditions of deposits. The much 
later age of the lower plain is indicated by the immature drainage lines 
and slight weathering. The order of movements evidently has been sink- 
ing of the region, depesition of clays in basin and formation of beach, 
elevation of from three hundred to four hundred feet, redrowning of the 
lower levels of the basin. 
Wastep EnrercGy. By Pror. J. L. CAMPBELL. 
A VESUVIAN CycLE. By C. A. WALDO. 
Ordinarily Vesuvius is in a state of mild activity. A single visit, how- 
ever, does not show the periodical aspects of its manifestations. It was 
the fortune of the author of this note to visit Naples in the summers of 
1890, 1891, 1894 and 1896, and on each of these occasions to make the 
