SoLLAS — A Map to show the Distribution of Eskers in Ireland. 797 



transported lengthwise of the kames, and in general farther than morainal material 

 originally derived from the same locality. In other words, kame drift is glacial 

 drift plus a variable amount of water drift." The proof which the foregoing 

 extract affords of the transport of material composing the esker, in a direction 

 corresponding to its length and to its downward slope to the south, is confirmed 

 by the observation that the gravel is less rounded and waterworn in the eskers 

 near their origin on the north than farther south, and further by the prevailing 

 direction of the dip of the stratification of the esker material, as well as by the 

 expansion of many of the eskers into broad kame plains, as they approach their 

 southern termination. 



In their meandering, branching, looping, and other characters, the eskers of 

 Maine precisely resemble those of this country ; but they are of much greater 

 length, sometimes extending for a distance of 150 miles. 



The following extract will complete our account of this admirable memoir : — 

 " During the Champlain Period, the sea probabl}' stood in the central parts of 

 Maine at a height of 300 or 400 feet above its present level, and many kames 

 were submerged during that period. The sides of a kame that has not been 

 under the sea usually slope at the angle of stability of loose materials in air ; while 

 those that have been submerged have the form of low rounded bars, whose sides 

 slope at the angle of stability of such materials in water. The fossiliferous 

 Champlain Clays have hundreds of times been seen overlying the kames, and I 

 have taken Mya, Balanus, and shells of other marine genera from the undisturbed 

 clay found in the depression in a kame. The difference, in the physiognomy and 

 structure of the kame which has been under the sea and that which has not, is so 

 great as to show conclusively that the kames proper cannot have been of marine 

 origin." — (Proc. Amer. Soc. Adv. Sci., loc. cit., p. 518). 



" Again, the kames bear the same relation to drainage basins as ordinary 

 streams. At their northern ends, all, so far as known, originate in places favourable 

 for collecting a considerable body of water from the melting glacier. That the 

 flow of water was svnfter in some parts of the streams than in others is shown by 

 the nature of the deposits. Short slopes do not seem to have much affected the 

 rate of flow, but on up-slopes or levels of several miles in length, the kames are 

 usually large and of fine material, while on long down-slopes, or near the height of 

 the higher divides, or in the jaws of narrow passes, \h.ey may wholly disappear, or 

 be represented by the larger pebbles only. Every long kame-system in the State 

 shows this alternation of finer and coarser material varying according to the slope. 

 The map shows how often the kames disregard the lines of natural drainage. From 

 this it may be inferred that these rivers were contained within ice walls, and 

 that the ice surface was far from agreeing with the underlying land surface. That 

 these rivers, for the most part, flowed in superficial channels in the ice is a fair 



