196 GLACIAL GRAVELS OF MAINE. 



CHESTERVILLE-LEEDS SYSTEM. 



This important system appears to begin abont 1^ miles north of Ches- 

 terville Village as an osar-plain or terrace, which soon becomes a narrower 

 ridge. It passes a little to the east of Chesterville Village, and thence takes 

 a nearly straight course southward to the Twelve Corners in Fayette. For 

 several miles south of Chesterville Mills it takes the form of a high, broad 

 ridge, with outlying plains and ridges inclosing kettleholes and some small 

 lakes. It is here called Chesterville Ridge, and as it rises 50 or more feet 

 above a very level plain, it forms a remarkable feature of the landscape. 

 In the southern part of Chesterville the main ridge becomes lower and 

 broader, and passes into an osar-plain, whicli continues south through a 

 very low pass at Twelve Corners and thence past the Camp Grround in 

 East Livermore. Then there appears to be a short gap in the system, but 

 it soon begins again as a two-sided ridge of arched stratification. This low 

 and broad osar crosses to the west of the Maine Central Railroad not far 

 north of North Leeds, and for the rest of its course lies near that railroad. 

 Near North Leeds outlying ridges appear inclosing kettleholes. South- 

 ward these reticulated ridges become lower and broader, and not far north 

 of Curtis Corner, in Leeds, they coalesce into a rather level plain about 

 one-fourth of a mile wide, which toward the south expands in fan shape to 

 the breadth of 1 mile, and the material becomes finer and finallj' passes 

 into sand overlying clay. The sand ends about 2 miles south of Curtis 

 Corner, at an elevation of about 300 feet, and from this point a plain cov- 

 ered by clay extends to SalDatis Pond, and so on, to the sea. The fan- 

 shaped plain at Curtis Corner is plainly a delta. 



The problem as to the extension of this system north of Chesterville 

 is complex. For years before I had worked out the diagnosis of the osar- 

 plain I suspected that the plain of well-rounded graA^el exteiiding along the 

 valley of the Sandy River from Farmington Falls to Phillips was, in part 

 at least, of glacial origin. It is but justice to add that I passed through 

 this valley in 1879, before it was possible for me to distinguish the osar- 

 plain from fluviatile drift. There was a glacial overflow from West New 

 Portland, througli New Vineyard, down a small stream that joins the Sandy 

 River a mile above Farmington Village, and there was another from King- 

 field to Strong, but in these cases the only recognizable glacial gi-avels were 



