MODIFIED DRIFT OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 129 
crossed by the road to Fort point, it is a level, sandy plain, but south- 
ward it is partly occupied by a similar plain and partly by kames, which 
form mounds and ridges, extending from north to south, with the inter- 
vening hollows 20 to 30 feet deep. The material of the kames is water- 
worn gravel, containing pebbles up to one or two feet, and often enclosing 
boulders of all sizes up to six or eight feet in diameter. 
On the west shore of Alton bay, south-west from Gerrish point, we 
find kames and level-topped mounds of interstratified sand and gravel, 
with occasional large boulders enclosed or on the surface. These rise 
about 50 feet above the lake, and border its shore for nearly a half mile, 
extending southward from the mouth of the principal valley or opening 
among the hills on its west side. With these exceptions, till and ledge 
form the shores of this bay till we come to its end at the south extremity 
of the lake. 
From Alton Bay station a continuous area of modified drift, varying 
from one fourth of a mile to nearly two miles in width, extends towards 
the south-east along Merrymeeting river and across the low water-shed 
only 72 feet above the lake, which separates this basin from the head of 
the Cochecho valley. A kame, forming a well defined ridge 40 to 60 feet 
high, extends nearly a mile southward from the lake. It lies for the first 
third of a mile on the west side of the railroad, by which it is then crossed 
twice, thence continuing to the south close upon the west side of the 
river. It is mainly composed of coarse water-worn gravel, which con- 
tains rounded boulders up to two or three feet in diameter. It also con- 
tains occasional angular boulders of larger size, and in some.portions the 
ridge is made up almost wholly of such angular blocks one to four feet in 
diameter. Deposits of fine gravel and sand reach an equal height along 
this distance on the east side of the river. 
Alton village is situated about 60 feet above the lake on a level plain, 
the north part of which is coarse gravel full of pebbles three inches to 
one foot in diameter, while its south portion is finer gravel or sand. To 
the south-east the alluvium is nearly two miles wide, and consists of plains 
of sand or fine gravel, and low, marshy meadows. The former do not ex- 
ceed 60 to 70 feet above the lake, or about 30 to 40 above Merrymeeting 
river. No kames were seen between Alton and New Durham station; 
but a short distance from this station a kame 25 feet in height was seen 
VOL. Il. 17 
