310 h. p. little pleistocene geology of waterville, maine 



Descriptiojst of the Deposits 



distributiok 



Waterville is located on the Kennebec Eiver, 18 miles above Augusta, 

 the capital of the State, and 81 miles above Portland. The distribution 

 of the deposits here is as follows : Above a level of about 160 feet the bed- 

 rock, where exposed, is covered with a deposit of ground moraine. I 

 have not been able to discover any special sequence of events in these 

 deposits. Below this level, in the valleys, a definite sequence is often 

 evident. This consists of an older series of sands and gravels, an older 

 series of sands and clays, an apparently younger series of gravels, and a 

 younger series of sands and clays. Of these, the older sands and clays 

 are clearly estuarine, while the younger ones are probably fluviatile; the 

 older sands and gravels are glacio-fluviatile, while the younger ones are 

 of uncertain origin. 



TBK OLDER SANDS AND GRAVELS 



The main exposure of these sands and gravels in this region is in the 

 form of an esker, extending from north of Fairfield through Waterville, 

 a distance of several miles. Figui'e 1, locality Y, shows it where best 

 developed. At first it is a very well defined, continuous esker, but as 

 Waterville is approached it becomes much broken. In this esker are 

 found many gravel pits, and the only satisfactory exposures are in these. 

 The base of the deposits is nowhere to be seen, but since exposure? of 

 striated slate are found near by and at about the height of the esker, it 

 seems likely that they rest on ledge. They may, of course, rest on drift 

 which the esker stream failed to remove, but evidence of this is lacking; 

 in none of the pits have I found stratified deposits resting on unstratified. 



The more or less definite variation in these deposits may be seen in 

 plate 12, figure 1. At the base here, though not showing in the photo- 

 graph and usually not exposed, are very uniformly grained, decidedly 

 cross-bedded sands. These are buff in color, mostly quartz, and rather 

 sharp, though fine. The true bedding is horizontal. There is a sharp 

 line of differentiation l^etween them and the overlying deposits. Tliis 

 overlying deposit is composed of small gravel or coarse sand and is very 

 clean, resembling the deposits underlying the "gravel rips" of many 

 streams. The color is smoke. The gravel consists very largely of flat 

 fragments of shale, the two longer axes parallel to the stratification. This 

 may be good to poor, depending on the locality of the section. At times 

 it is very evident, as in plate 12, figure 2. Here the gravel is overlain 

 directly by sands of the marine series, but usually tliere is a deposit of 



