132 SURFACE GEOLOGY. 



river. The height of this clay is, by estimate, 350 feet above the river 

 and nearly 250 feet above its highest terraces, or about 800 feet above 

 the sea. A well at Mr. Plaisted's house showed 15 feet of till underlaid 

 by 18 feet of clay. A few rods farther north, at nearly the same height, 

 the clay is covered by only one or two feet of till. About fifteen rods 

 farther north-west, on the steep hillside and some 30 feet higher than 

 the foregoing, a small excavation for brick-making shows a bed of clay 

 ten feet thick, and probably extending deeper, overlaid by two feet of till. 

 This clay is free from pebbles, but occasionally shows layers of sand half 

 an inch thick. Its stratification is nearly level, but slightly anticlinal, 

 dipping a few degrees at the north and south sides. 



Some light is probably thrown upon the origin of these deposits by a 

 section (Fig. 29) which was observed by the roadside between Ashland 

 and Little Squam lake. On the surface was coarse upper till, 3 feet deep, 

 TT ,.„ r , showing no marks of stratification, and 



Upper till, 3 feet. o ' 



Pebbly stratified couslsting of saud and gravel mixed 



^ ^_ _ „ j , clay, 10 feet. 



^^\€^' Lower till. with abuudant angular boulders of all 



Fig. 29.— Section lm Ashland. sizes up to four feet in diameter. Next 

 was a dark blue clay, 10 feet thick, plainly stratified, but not finely lami- 

 nated, and containing many fragments of rock up to six inches in diame- 

 ter. Next below, and separated from the former at a definite line, was 

 the compact unstratified lower till, which is here dark and clayey, and 

 contains many glaciated stones up to a foot and a half in diameter. 



South of Squam bridge the steep north slope of a hill which rises from 

 the shore of Little Squam lake has a layer of clay, stratified and free 

 from pebbles, which is overlaid by one to three feet of till. The clay is 

 four or five feet deep, but how much deeper is not known, and it is said 

 to extend from near the lake shore to a height 150 feet above it. 



On the east side of Squam lake the farm of John Wiggin, in Moulton- 

 borough, has frequent deposits of clay similar to that last described. At 

 about fifteen rods south-west from the house and about 100 feet above 

 the lake, this was used for brick-making fifty years ago. The side of Red 

 hill, which rises near at hand on the east, is said to have in many places, 

 to a height 300 feet above the lake, a stratum of clay underlying one to 

 three feet of coarse till. On the north side of this lake the clay on land 

 of the Messrs. George, in the south-west corner of Sandwich, which was 



