TABULATION AND DESCRIPTION OF NEW DATA 211 



than half the State, and the Saint John Valley forms the north bonndary 

 of the State, with elevation far below the summit marine plane. The 

 most obtrusive features of the State are the extensive clay and silt plains 

 laid down in the oceanic waters. There can be no suggestion of glacial 

 waters in the broad south-leading valleys. 



The curving isobases lie northeast and southwest across the State, cut- 

 cing the drainage obliquel}^, thus giving long stretches of the great valleys 

 with low gradient of the marine plane. The main valleys were mostly 

 too low to receive the summit deltas. The Saco Eiver has its high delta 

 at Bartlett, New Hampshire, in excellent form. The Androscoggin ma- 

 rine summit is at Bethel, where it has been carefully studied and dis- 

 criminated from the aggraded and probably glacial filling at Gorham, 

 New Hampshire, and northward. The Kennebec is rather exceptional, in 

 having at the early marine level a narrow, canyon-like valley unsuited to 

 the preservation of delta deposits, but at Bingham and southward the 

 inferior plains are conspicuous. The Penobscot Valley proper is all low 

 and the initial deltas are in tributary valleys in unmapped territory. The 

 Saint Croix heads in a series of lakes and has no summit delta, although 

 the marine gravels occur at Vanceboro and Saint Croix, New Brunswick, 

 at about 400 feet. The only part of the Saint John Valley that was above 

 the ocean is the north-leading section, heading southeast of Quebec City, 

 all in wild country with no known altitudes. 



George H. Stone recognized the deep submergence of Maine (68), and 

 great weight must be given his conclusions, based on long, careful, and 

 discriminating study. From the following quotations (the italics are 

 mine) it will be seen that he was conservative as to the amount of oceanic 

 submergence, probably in deference to the prevailing American opinion, 

 although he had a leaning to more radical views. Concerning the marine 

 beaches on the coast of Maine, he writes : 



"I then went nearly around the island (Isle au Haut) at this elevation (225 

 feet) and at every valley found rounded gravel and boulders up to 225 feet, 

 at which elevation the rolled gravel began to thin out, and the contour of 250 

 feet was plainly above the water-washed drift" (page 48). 



Of the hills three miles north and northeast of Machias, he says : 



"At 220 feet the top of a terrace of rolled gravel and cobbles was observed. 

 . . . This terrace is from 10 to 30 feet wide and is a prominent feature of 

 the hillside. The gravel becomes thinner above the terrace — a sort of sheet 

 overlying the till. Rolled stones could be found here and there at 240 feet. 

 At 250 feet only ordinary till stones could be found, and from this point upward 

 the hillside was searched for almost a mile, only, till being found'" (page 4})). 



". . . The average of these and many similar measurements, with a good 



