RIVER LIFE. 



231 



u the KtiiiiLUtcK. 



At Norridgewock the Kennebeck plunges about ten feet over 

 ledges of hard argilkiceous slate, M^hich constitute another step 

 in the series of pitches over which the river passes, seeking its 

 home and level in the bosom of the Atlantic Ocean. Nau-lau- 

 chu-wak is said to be the original and true Indian orthography, 

 the sense of which is this : these falls, or this place, is the only 

 obstruction to navigation. 



At Caritunk Falls, still further up river, and half a mile from 

 Solon village, " the Kennebeck dashes over hard quartz rock and 

 mica slate ledges, which run northeast, southwest, and dip north- 

 west 60°. Measured barometrically, the fall is sixteen feet per- 

 pendicular, but is said sometimes to be upward of twenty feet. 

 The gorge through which the water passes is fifty feet."* 



The lumbering interests on the Kennebeck still hold a marked 

 prominence. 



There is reported on this river and its tributaries, from Bath 

 * Geological Reports of Maine. 



