198 BULLETIN OF THE 



perhaps half a mile before us, but scarcely more than 150 feet higher 

 than the point already reached. As it was covered with forest, and 

 promised neither outlooli nor further revelation of the lithology of the 

 mountain, and as our time was exhausted, we advanced no farther, but 

 returned to the lake. 



From the head of Ambejijis Lake, the route to Ktaadn for the next 

 nine miles follows the Penobscot. For this distance, and in fact all the 

 way from Shad Pond, below, to Chesuncook Lake, the river at short 

 intervals widens into still lakes connected by rapid, rocky, and narrow 

 reaches of running stream. As related to the falls and rapids, each of 

 the numerous lake-like expansions is styled by rivermen a " dead-water." 

 These remaining nine miles of water route include five falls, requiring as 

 many portages of from twenty to ninety rods in length, each fall having 

 below a dead-water bearing the same name as the fall itself. Thus 

 Ambejijis Lake is the dead-water that lies below Ambejijis Falls. 



While the prevailing and excessive drought greatly retarded travel 

 upon the river, it aftbrded an unequalled opportunity to learn the nature 

 of its bed, now bare to an extent unknown before for many years. One's 

 conclusions with regard to the geology of the district south of Ktaadn 

 must be shaped largely by the view he takes of the facts that relate to 

 the nine miles of river bed here referred to. And since the previously 

 recorded examinations of this part of the river were made in haste, and 

 at times when high water in great measure hid the channel from obser- 

 vation, it seems best to state the very simple facts somewhat in detail. 



Ambejijis and Passamagamet Falls, first in order, and a mile and a 

 half apart, are caused by accumulations of large granite bowlders that 

 choke up the narrow channel and give origin to the dead-waters next 

 above them. To remove the bowlders would be to draw off the waters 

 of those pond-like expansions. Not a trace of rock in place could be dis- 

 covered in the river bed at either of these falls, nor upon the adjacent 

 shores, which are elevated but a few feet above the level of the river. 



The first ledge that appears upon the river or its expansions, from the 

 foot of North Twin Lake northward, occurs twenty rods below the third, 

 or Katepskonegan Falls, longest of the series, stretching seventy rods 

 along the course of the river. The ledge, which is of granite, rises on 

 the eastern shore directly from the water in a precipitous head of twenty 

 feet in height. Northward to the falls, the east shore is a steep exten- 

 sion of the head, which inclines downward to the north, till at the falls 

 themselves the ledge is to be seen only on the floor of the river bed. 

 There is no exposure of granite upon the western side to match the high 



