THE QUEEN'S RIVER MORAINE 699 



southern side have we seen this phenomenon exactly reproduced. 

 Evidently this mural face indicates the exact front of the ice- 

 sheet at this locality. This wall is then the equivalent of the ice- 

 contact slope at the head or northern side of glacial sand plains 

 and esker-fans. North of this wall lies the intraglacial field, south 

 of it the extraglacial field of that stage of the ice-sheet. It is a 

 line supplying a base of reference from which to work out the rela- 

 tions to the ice-sheet of all associated deposits of the same stage. 



North of the bozvldcr belt, bowlders arc scattered as in ordinary 

 ground-moraines. — The bedrock immediately back of the mural 

 inner edge of the moraine is covered by till, the surface of which 

 is pierced by a few scattered bowlders, usually smaller than 

 those in the moraine. Fine materials are in excess. All the 

 indications for hundreds of yards northward indicate a gradual 

 melting down of the ice- sheet or a uniform retreat of the front 

 so as to spread an even coating of till. As to whether the ice 

 disappeared from this particular field by actual retreat of the 

 front or by a general melting down of the whole mass, we have 

 at present no criteria on which to base a decision. There are no 

 indications of distinct submarginal accumulations of the nature 

 of morainal mounds or kame-moraines interior to the frontal 

 bowlder belt. But for the presence of the bowlder belt, one 

 would not, we think, be able to demonstrate the halt of the ice 

 front along this line. 



The extraglacial field of the morahie. — South of the belt, there 

 is a gentle slope to the valley of Queen's River, a small stream 

 entering the Pawcatuck. This slope is till-covered to the upper 

 limit of the stratified gravels and sands in the valley. Here and 

 there patches of bowlders occur south of the main belt, in a few 

 places running out like tongues from the moraine, as if along 

 lines of maximum load in the retreating ice. 



The outwashed gravels and sands of this stage were not in 

 most of the area built up to the level of the base of the ice on 

 the hillside, so that none of these deposits exhibit sand plains 

 with ice-contact or kame-like slopes on their northern or ice- 

 ward aspect. 



