HOULTON-DBNlSrYSVILLE SYSTEM. 79 



140 to 150 feet. The elevation of the sea was certainly as much as this, and 

 it may have stood higher, possibly up to its highest level, about 225 feet. 



The local history was probably about as follows: The original narrow 

 osar channel in the ice became broadened, and in this broad channel the 

 gravel-and-sand delta was deposited. The channel broadened recessively 

 northward, and thus the time came when the coarser sediments brought from 

 the north were deposited at points considerably north of Meddybemps Vil- 

 lage, perhaps as far as the north end of the lake or in the lake. The finer 

 sediments were at this time brought down farther, and formed the clays 

 bordering the sand plain opposite the village and southward. The time 

 must have come when the ice all melted over the valley where the lake now 

 is, but by this time the sea had advanced up the valleys of the St. Croix, 

 the Schoodic, and the Tomah, so that this great glacial river jjoured into 

 the sea near Codyville, many miles northwai-d. The supply of sediment 

 was thus cut off from the north, so that when the open sea at last jDrevailed 

 over all the upper valley of I»ennys River and Meddybemps Lake, but 

 very little clay was deposited, except where the old river channel had been. 



If, during any of the time the delta west of the village was being 

 formed, the sea stood above the level of about 140 to 150 feet, the channel 

 of the glacial river was in fact a bay within the ice, where the sea met the 

 fresh water. During the time of the summer flood of the glacial river the 

 muddy fresh water would fill all this broad channel or bay, but in winter, 

 when the glacial waters were scanty, it Avould be a sort of estuarv inclosed 

 between walls of ice. As the high tides of that region prevailed, the salt 

 water would naturally extend for some distance up the glacial channel, just 

 as it does up the rivers of to-day. (This and all other descriptions should 

 be read with the map in hand.) 



Southward from Meddybemps the series extends along the west side 

 of Dennys River, through Dennysville, and for a short distance into 

 Edmunds. It is discontinuous all the way, and becomes more so toward the 

 south, until in Edmunds the ridges are only one-third of a mile or less 

 in length and not more than one-eig'hth of a mile in breadth. 



In the southern -psivt of Edmunds and in Trescott are numerous gravel 

 beds, which are found on the slopes of hills having a southward or eastward 

 exposure. I formerly supposed them to be connections of this gravel 



