822 II. p. LTTTT.E PLEI8T()(!I<:>vM0 GEOLOGY OF WATERVILLE, MAINE 



of the Kennebec. The cirque forming the South Basin of Mount Ka- 

 tahdin is an evidence of sucli conditions in the headwaters of Penobscot 

 Elver. 



After some time — for the clays are 70 feet thiclv in places — the land 

 began to rise^ resulting in the deposition of sand over the clay. The 

 gj-avel ridges appcaj'od first and were subjected to erosion ; the gravel of 

 their crests was worn off and spread over the sands on their slopes. Then 

 came a period of quiet, and the terrace on which Waterville rests was cut 

 out of tlie soft clays. The river meandered back and forth across its plain, 

 Hooding it nt times. As the water receded the siJt dried and sun-cracked. 

 hiVeniuaily elevation set in agaiji; consequently, when tlie river overflowed 

 its banks it now left the sands which overlie the sun-cracked clays. In 

 time it cut its diannel so deep that it ceased to flood the adjoining plain, 

 and it is still at work actively downcutting. Thei-e may have been a 

 temporary pause while a narrow plain now about 80 feet above sealevel 

 was being formed. Tlie water powers of the Kennebec at Waterville are 

 to be considered as due to the fact that a drowned stream, on rejuvenation, 

 failed to relocate its old channel, and not, it seems to the writer, directly 

 due to glaciation. 



