340 J. DeLaski on Giacial Action about Penobscot Bay. 
the same rock are strewn with wonderful profusion, and num- 
bers of them weigh many tons; they rest on beds of soil several 
feet in depth, just as a glacier might have left them as it slowly 
melted away. 
Upon the northern slopes of the hills the rocks are torn asun- 
der in such a manner as wholly to preclude the idea that the 
work had been done by icebergs. Had bergs halted in such 
places, and through a long age, chafed against the northern walls 
of such high hills, the denudation, after all, would have been an 
insignificant affair; and none but the largest bergs could have 
worn at all the faces of the hills. But the debris of the stoss 
side of the hills has been transported over the hills, rather than 
along their sides; and we frequently find large boulders, evidently 
not far removed from their native beds, resting on the hills, and 
often in such a manner that their transportation and deposition 
could not have been accomplished through the agency of ice 
bergs or oceanic waves. 
As I have already remarked, the hills of the coast have a uni- 
form feature: they are steep on the south, and have a gradual 
descent from their summits toward the north. I know of no 
exceptions to this rule. There must be a meaning in this spe 
eific form of the hills. If the ledges and minor hills of the isl- 
ands of the great fiord of the State have been moulded into this 
peculiar figure by glacial action, or that of icebergs, I conclude 
that the denuding agent must have reached the tops of the Cam- 
den hills, 1400 feet high, and those of the island of Mount Des- 
ert, 2000 feet; for these maintain, when viewed from the east 
or west, the same general contour as the other hills of the coast. 
It is quite impossible that icebergs could ever have broken down 
the tops of those high hills. Moreover, if they had been undet 
water to the depth of a thousand feet or five hundred, the sea 
which covered New England and the continent to the west 
would have had a warming influence on the climate, and would 
therefore probably have been quite clear of icebergs. _ 
sides of the Camden hills are scratched from their base to 
the summits. Megunticook, the highest but one, is broken down 
on its southern brow into a precipice of nearly 300 feet. Here, 
the strie appear on a vein of colored quartz in a most beauti- 
fal manner. They are very delicate, and the rock is polished 
like glass. Toward the north, in the direction whence 
scratching agent eame, the hill continues to rise till it attains the 
height of one or two hundred feet above the brow. On descen@ 
ing the precipice by a circuitous route, and approaching its base, 
we are at once struck with the fact that this hill has been de 
nuded or broken down from top to bottom. The perpendicu! 
wall of Megunticook forms the northern side of a valley and te 
northern extremity of Mount Battie the southern side; into 
