202 GLACIAL GKAVBLS OF MAINE. 



history. In connection with the investigation of the glacial gravels, I have 

 been able to gather many facts as to the periods in question. The aspect 

 of the coast was then very different from what it is at present. The sea 

 certainly extended up the Kennebec Valley to Madison, and up the Andros- 

 coggin to a point not far north of Lewiston, and in both valleys it may have 

 extended several miles fai'ther. The Sandy River from Farmington Falls 

 eastward was from 1 to 5 miles wide, and this portion of the valley was 

 probably occupied by an estuary. The Sandy River at that time over- 

 flowed southward, as before stated, or arms of the sea extended and joined 

 the Androscoggin in Jay, East Livermore. South of Livermore Falls the 

 alluvial plain of the Androscoggin was between 2 and 3 miles wide for a 

 larg'e part of its course southward to the sea. At the present day the 

 highest stage of these rivers in thne of flood affords far less water than then 

 flowed in them. At about this time there was apparently an extensive 

 overflow of the Androscoggin River southward from Canton through a low 

 pass in the western part of Livermore into Turner, where it joined a broad 

 sheet of water which filled the valley of Twentymile River as far west as 

 Buckfield and overflowed southward from Buckfield Village through Minot 

 into a similar body of water which filled the valley of the Little Andi-os- 

 coggin River to a point west of Mechanic Falls. A line of clays also extends 

 south from Turner to Lake Auburn. This is in part osar border clay, but 

 in a greater part is an ovei-flow of the Twentymile River after the ice had 

 melted. All these were probably arms of the sea. For the greater part the 

 broad sheets which filled these valleys extended from side to side of their 

 valleys. Apparently the ice had then melted in the valleys, or nearly so. 

 At this time a narrow arm of the sea extended from the Fair-ground, 

 Lewiston, eastward along a low valley to Crowleys Junction, where it con- 

 nected with the sea in two directions, one northeastward to Sabatisville, the 

 other southeastward to Lisbon. Tide water extended up the valley of the 

 Little Androscoggin River several miles above Auburn, perhaps as far as 

 South Paris. Below Lewiston the Androscoggiii Bay of that period was 

 from 1 to 3 miles wide, and in Durham a strait extended southward through 

 Pownal and soon opened out into the bay 10 to 20 miles wide which then 

 covered the valley of Royal River. The whole of the coast region of 

 Maine to a breadth of from 10 to 30 miles was then submerged, except the 

 liigher hills, which appeared as a multitude of islands off the coast. The 



