124 GLACIAL GRAVELS OF MAINE. 



especially for some miles south of the divide. In an excavation between 

 Medfoi-d and Lagrange, bowlderets and bowlders 2 to 3 feet in diameter, all 

 well rounded and polished, were abundant as far down as the excavation 

 reached — 6 to 8 feet. The osar passes about half a mile east of Lagrange 

 station. A short distance south of this point the Bangor and Aroostook Rail- 

 road comes near the ridge, and for several miles in Lagrange and Alton it is 

 constructed along the base of the osar. A wagon road is laid out on the top 

 of the osar for many miles. In this part of its course it is a broad ridge or 

 narrow plain with gentle lateral slopes and arched cross section, rising 1 to 

 30 feet above a very level plain of marine clay. Both the clay and the ridge 

 ai'e sprinkled with floe bowlders. At Pea Cove, Alton, the ridge becomes 

 narrower, and has steeper lateral slopes from this point southward through 

 Oldtown and Orono, on the west side of the Penobscot. In Veazie the 

 ridge begins to be interrupted by short gaps. These gaps are especially 

 noticeable south of Mount Hope Cemetery, situated not far north of Bangor. 

 Moimt Hope itself is a ^Dart of this gravel system. The next gravel of the 

 series is on the east side of the Penobscot River in Brewer, just above the 

 railroad bridge, Bangor. The next gravel is the ridge at what is known as 

 High Cut, where the Maine Central Railroad cuts through an elongated 

 dome of this series in the southeastern part of Bangor. In like manner, a 

 series of short and broad ridges, separated hj intervals of one-fourth mile 

 to more than 1 mile, extends along the west side of the Penobscot River 

 through Hampden and joins the main system not far west of Ball Hill 

 Cove, near the north line of Winterport. 



A study of the glacial gravel and of the drift of the Penobscot Valley 

 will show the great diff'erence between glacial and river gravels in Maine. 



The course of this osar is Avholly within a gently rolling plain, much 

 of which is as level as the prairies. The base of the ridge is more or less 

 covered with clay containing marine fossils as far north as Alton, and per- 

 haps farther. Sedimentary clay is found in places along the top of the 

 pass in the northern part of Lagrang-e. If this were marine clay we might 

 expect a marine delta in the valley of the Piscataquis a few miles north- 

 ward. There is no such delta, and the history of the Medford-Lagrange 

 pass seems to be this : First, in a rather broad channel within the ice, an 

 osar-plain was deposited. Subsequently the channel, by lateral melting, 

 became still broader, and the supply of water was no longer able to main- 



