FORMER COURSES OF THE ANDROSCOGGIN RIVER 



IRVING B. CROSBY'. 



Boston, Massachusetts 



INTRODUCTION 



The Androscoggin River is one of the most interesting of the 

 many examples of disarranged drainage in New England and 

 merits more attention than it has hitherto received. 



The present study has involved a critical examination of the 

 topographic relations of the Androscoggin and several adjacent 

 rivers, differentiating the topography controlled by underlying 

 bed-rock formations from the topography of surficial deposits. 



Nearly all that part of the problem south and east of Berlin, 

 New Hampshire, is covered by the topographic sheets of the 

 United States Geological Survey; but the region north of Berlin 

 is best shown on Hitchcock's map of New Hampshire;^ and, finally, 

 the hydrography of the entire area included in this investigation is 

 shown in outline on the accompanying drainage map (Fig. i). 



TOPOGRAPHY 



The drainage basin of the Androscoggin River, approximately 

 125 miles long in a northwest-southeast direction and 30 to 40 

 miles in normal breadth, may be divided into five topographic 

 provinces, as follows: headwater, upper, middle, lower, and 

 coastal; and in each province the river has characteristics peculiar 

 to that province. 



The Androscoggin River is formed by the junction of the Magal- 

 loway River and the drainage of the Rangeley, Lakes, near Errol, 

 New Hampshire. The headwater province extends north and east 

 from this point to the ultimate sources of the river and will not be 

 further considered in this paper. 



' The writer wishes especially to express his indebtedness, to President- 



W. W. Atwood, under whose direction this work was done. 



^ C. H. Hitchcock, atlas accompanying the Report on the Geology ofNeiv Hampshire. 



New York, 1878. 



232 



