Miscellanies, 379 



Kennebec river. No fossil iferous rock occurs between; the masses in- 

 crease in size as we approach their source, and immense numbers of 

 smaller ones of six or eight inches in diameter, have travelled 126 miles 

 in a right line ; the marks on the fixed rocks leave no doubt as to the ori- 

 gin of the bowlders in this state and of the truth of diluvial action on a 

 great scale, and pervading great distances. 



At Alna is a bed of oyster shells, forming a cliff 25 feet above the sea 

 level, sloping down to about G feet above high water, 180 rods long by 

 100 broad ; the shells are stratified and are in high preservation, except 

 where the frost has crumbled them to a fine shell marl. 



It is not credible that they are the result of Indian banquets, (the pop- 

 ular impression in all similar cases, which are numerous.) They are esti- 

 mated at nearly 45 millions of cubic feet and we should judge must be an 

 oceanic deposit in shallow waters, and afterwards elevated by force from 



^^ r 



below. 



At Vassalboro* tertiary shells were found in digging a well; they were 

 50 feet above the Kennebec river, and the tertiary sea appears never to 

 have risen more than 150 feet above the present tide waters in Maine. 

 Basalt in regular horizontal columns, springing in a dyke from a granite 



wall is found at Bristol; the rock contains olivine and crystallized ba- 

 saltic hornblende. 



A trap dyhc two feet wide, lies in liorizontal columns across a bed of 

 limestone in Beech wood quarry. A dyke of red compact feldspar por- 

 phyry 10 feet wide, intersects granite in Raymond, and is itself intersected 

 by two dykes of green trap, one 6 and the other 4 feet wide ; the trap 

 dykes being of course the most recent. 



In Oxford a loose granitic rock is intersected by numerous trap dykes, 



presenting great contrast of colors. 



Crystals of spodumcne are found in detached blocks of granite in 



Windham. 



Large rkJges of diluvial gravel are called in Maine horsebacks and 



whale backs. 



In the town of Liberty there are extensive beds of granular quartz well 

 adapted to the manufacture of glass. Of that portion of Dr. Jackson's 

 report which is devoted to agriculture, it is impossible within our limits to 

 give any adequate account. It is both scientific and practical, and pre- 

 sents many useful results and directions especially in regard to the use of 

 lime, of manure formed from peat, &c. It mu^t be attentively perused 

 to be fully appreciated. The report is sustained by important documents 

 derived from the communications of others not only on agriculture, but on 



the leading objects of the survey. 



Dr. Jackson and his coadjutors have acquitted themselves with so much 

 ability thus far in the survey of Maine, that we must again express equally 



our confidence and our hope that this important labor will be fully carried 



