BEACH AND COVE GEAVELS. 



51 



much more power than those from the coast side that much more beacli 

 matter was swept northward from hilltops than southward. 



A good instance of this kind of beach is found a few miles south of 

 Machias, at the terminal moraine which extends from a branch of English- 

 mans River northeastward to near the head of Little Kennebec Bay. On 

 the seaward side of the morainal ridge the surface is strewn with bowlders 

 and large stones. If they were once water polished, the polished surface 

 has weathered away. On the northern slope is a deposit of stratified sand 

 and gravel several feet deep, with a few larger stones, as shown in the 

 accompanying cross section. The axis of the ridge is composed of till. 

 Evidently the waves denuded the upper portion of the till on the southern 

 slope and washed the finer matter over the top of the ridge. 



An unusually fine exhibit of the same sort of beach is found on the 

 northwestern slope of a northeast-and-southwest hill situated IJ miles east 

 of Boothbay Harbor. More or less beach matter is found all along the 

 northern crest of the ridg-e. 

 In addition there are several 

 large bars of beach gravel 

 which extend northward, ob- 



liquely down the hill, for 

 about one-eighth of a mile. 

 These ridges are situated directly north of low places in the ridge. Here, 

 evidently, the higher parts of the hill were at one time islands, separated by 

 narrow straits which occupied what are now the lowest parts of the ridge. 

 The waves converged the beach matter and washed it thi-ough the narrow 

 straits — now represented by the low cols — and a ridge was formed opposite 

 each strait. Another fine locality is on the south side of the high hill which 

 borders the Chickawaukie Valley on the west, about 1^ miles west from 

 Rockland. Here a large amount of beach gravel gathered on the north 

 side of a conical hill which lay a short distance south of the main hill. The 

 place is situated just west of the lime quarries. 



In some of the most exposed situations the beach gravels extend con- 

 tinuously from the highest beach down to present sea level, but such places 

 form the exception. As we pass inside of the outer islands the power of the 

 waves rapidly decreases. Everyone who has sailed along the coast knows 

 how much less violent are the waves in lee of even a small island. This 



Fig. 8. — Section across termiual nioraiue near bead of Keuuebec lulet. 



