254 GLACIAL GRAVELS OF MAINE. 



Waterford only as far south as the plain near Papoose Pond, and below 

 there the water flowed as an ordinary surface stream, and only fluviatile 

 drift was deposited in that part of the valley; at least, if this glacial stream 

 flowed in an ice channel south of East Waterford it was so narrow as not 

 to deposit gravels, or else the glacial gravels are now covered by the 

 valley di-ift. 



Where the Albany series reached the Saco River, near East Brownfield, 

 it can no longer be distinguished from the other series which cover a large 

 part of southwestern Maine with a closely connected network of gravel 

 plains. Above this point the drift of the Saco Valley is much finer in com- 

 position than the broad plain of gravel, cobbles, and bowlderets which 

 extends from this point south and east along the valley for many miles. In 

 the middle of the valley the stones of this plain are very much worn and 

 rounded, but near the sides of the plain the material resembles till, which 

 plainly has had the finest detritus washed out of it, but with hardly any 

 attrition. I repeatedly saw stones and bowlders near the outer margin of 

 the upper terrace that retained their till shapes with only very small modi- 

 fication. This appearance was especially aioticeable at an excavation near 

 Brownfield station of the Maine Central Railroad. 



In Hiram, Baldwin, and northern Limington the gravel plain of the 

 Saco is often uneven and ridged like the plains of reticulated kames. As 

 we go southward the plain becomes more level and the material finer. The 

 coarse gravel gives place to fine gravel and this passes by degrees into 

 broad sand plains in Standish, southern Limington, and Hollis, where the 

 sand ends in the marine clays. The plains showing reticulated ridges thus 

 pass by degrees into the marine delta-plains. These deltas were deposited 

 not far above 230 feet in the open sea, and are the largest in Maine. 



While it is not easy, or at present possible, to separate the Albany-East 

 Brownfield series from the other reticulating plains of sand and gravel near 

 the Saco River in Brownfield, Hiram, Cornish, Limington, and Baldwin, 

 yet the great size of the series toward the north makes it certain that this 

 great glacial river contributed a large proportion of these plains. Most of 

 the gravel series of southwestern Maine are remarkable for the height of the 

 hills which they cross, but this series penetrates the high hills that lie east 

 of the White Mountains along a route so level that one may travel from 

 Gorham, New Hampshire, eastward to Bethel, and thence along the course 



