368 GLACIAL GEAVELS OF MAINE. 



The formation of reticulated ridges as a part of hillside eskers will be 

 considered later. 



These short kames or eskers are not so impressive as the long osars, 

 but they are equally strong testimony to the existence of glacier ice, and 

 they possess the essential parts of the longest osar — a ridge and often a 

 terminal delta. 



ISOI^TED K:A]VIES or short eskers EISTDIISTG IK MARHSTE DELTAS. 



These are confined to the country lying beloAv the former level of the 

 sea. Litchfield Plain is a type of this sort of deposit. On the north and 

 northwest are a series of broad ridges somewhat reticulated and inclosing 

 a lakelet and some shallower kettleholes. The material of this part of the 

 plain consists of gravel, cobbles, and bowlderets, all well rounded and 

 jDolished by water. The slopes of the ridges are not very steep. Passing 

 south and southeast, we find the- ridges becoming confluent and merging 

 into a rather level terrace or plain. The material at the same time becomes 

 finer, and soon passes by horizontal gradations into sand, some of which 

 may have been blown. The plain is situated in the midst of a rather level 

 region at an elevation of about 150 feet. The Kennebec Bay of that 

 time sent out an arm westward and covered the Cobbosseecontee Valley to 

 Readfield. The salt water over Litchfield Plain would then be 75 or more 

 feet deep. The country lying south and east of the plain is deeply covered 

 by a silty marine clay. I was unable to determine whether the sand of 

 the plain passes into this clay by horizontal transition. In places this 

 appeared to be the case; in other places the junction was quite abrupt and 

 there was reason to suspect blown sand. The plain is about a half mile in 

 diameter. 



At Litchfield Plain streams capable of transporting bowlderets 15 to 

 18 inches in diameter were so checked within the distance of half a mile 

 that they could no longer carry even their fine sand. This gradual check- 

 ing of a swift stream can be wrought only by its flowing into a body of 

 comparatively still water. Two low passes lead from the plain, one north- 

 ward the other northwestward, and two glacial rivers may have converged 

 to this spot. If at a point so far north of the present coast these streams 

 had flowed into a glacial lake, there would probably have been a series of 

 similar deposits extending- southward toward the sea. I have been able to 



