SOUTH ALBION-CHINA SYSTEM. 167 



which extend nearly east and west from Albion and Palermo to Newburg 

 after it became less than 500 or 800 feet thick. About the same time that 

 the flow was arrested here it would be arrested by another east-and-west 

 line of hills situated about 30 miles farther north (those lying south of 

 the Piscataquis Valley). The broad level valley of the Sebasticook would 

 be filled by a sheet of ice sloping south, and it would for a time send out 

 projecting tongues over the lower cols. One of the lowest of these passes 

 is that which is followed by the South Albion-China system of gravels. 



3. Since at this time the melting waters could escape only by the low 

 passes, they collected near the hills and then flowed east or west till they 

 found an exit. This water, being exposed to the sunlight, would melt the 

 ice rapidly near the base of the hills which lay as a barrier to the south, 

 and thus considerable sized pools or channels might be formed. The glacial 

 streams from the north would flow into these, and at the same time there 

 was a limited flow from the north of the ice. Thus the matter brought 

 down by the glacial streams would be mixed with matter brought to the 

 edge of the pool by the moving ice and subsequently dumped into the pool 

 by the melting of the ice that held it. On this hypothesis the plains which 

 lie along the northern bases of the hills near South Albion are a mixture of 

 water-washed moraine and ordinary kame matter. 



The local conditions at South Albion certainly favor a flow of ice to 

 this point until very nearly all the ice was melted. The valley of Fifteen- 

 mile River narrows toward the southwest so as to converge the movements 

 into the narrow pass. A very small motion of the separate particles of ice 

 over the broad plain stretching 30 miles northward would cause a con- 

 siderable movement in the narrow valley. The ice there, being crowded 

 against the hills, would not form a glacial lake extending from the hills 

 back to a considerable distance northward. But the g'lacial motion could 

 bring forward moraine stuff and throw it down into the broad channels and 

 pools of the glacial river which drained the ice field lying to the north. 



There are several enlargements of the delta-plain in China which are 

 somewhat fan-shaped but not broad. They may indicate a gradual reces- 

 sion of the ice before the sea and the formation of a series of small deltas 

 in the open sea, or perhaps frontal deltas. 



The length of the system is about 15 miles. 



