356 GLACIAL GRAVELS OF MAINE. 



glacier approaches the character of a local ice-sheet, and more nearly illus- 

 trates the conditions of the ice-sheet in Maine than of ordinary Alpine or 

 valley glaciers. Over large areas it is nearly stagnant. During the decay 

 of the ice-sheet in Maine there must have been many places where the ice 

 was in nearly the same condition, the forward flow being arrested by high 

 transverse hills in front, while often the supply from the ndve was also 

 obstructed by still higher hills 10 to 30 miles farther north. 



Some of the formations illustrated by the observations of Professor 

 Russell are the following: 



OVEBWASH APRONS. 



AloHg the southern margin of the Malaspina glacier, between the YaMse and 

 Point Manby, there are hundreds of streams which pour out of the escarpment formed 

 by the border of the glacier or rise like great fountains from the gravel and bowlders 

 at its base. All of these streams are brown and heavy with sediment and overloaded 

 with bowlders and stones. * * * The most interesting of these is Fountain Stream. 

 This comes to the surface in one great spring fully 100 feet across. The water rises 

 under such pressure that it is thrown 12 or 15 feet into the air, and sends ny) jets of 

 spray 6 or 8 feet higher. It then rolls seaward, forming a broad, swift river which 

 divides and spreads out in many channels both to the right and left and has inundated 

 several hundred acres of forest land with gravel and sand.' 



This admirably illustrates the formation of the large sheets of over- 

 wash gravels that extend outward from the terminal moraines of the upper 

 Arkansas Valle}^ and many other valleys in the mountain region. In 

 Maine we have a nearly correlative deposit in the plain of coarse gravel 

 that extends across the Carrabassett Valley near East New Portland and 

 North New Portland, and in several other valleys, as elsewhere described, 

 especially in the valley of the Androscoggin River in Bethel and Grilead, 

 Maine, and extending into Shelburne and Grorham, New Hampshire. 



OSAR STREAMS AND OSARS. 



The principal streams on the eastern margin in 1891 were the Osar, Kame, and 

 Kwik. Each of these issues from a tunnel and then flows for some distance between 

 walls of ice. Of the three streams mentioned the most interesting is the Kame. 

 This issues from the mouth of a tunnel in the ice about 3 miles back from the 

 actual border of the glacier, and flows for half a mile in a nari'ow canyon with walls 

 of dirty ice 50 feet or more high. The canyon then expands and forms a valley 

 bordered by moraine-covered hills of ice, which gradually widens toward the east 

 until it merges with a low marshy tract bordering the shore of the bay. Well-rounded 



' Am. Jour. Sci., Sd series, vol. 43, p. 179, March, 1892. 



