CHAPTER XIY. 



KAMES, 



The word " kame " has already been defined as a local 

 term applied to the sharp gravel ridges which abound in 

 various parts of Scotland, and which in Ireland are called 

 "eskers," and in Sweden "osars." As Mr. Geikie's work 

 on " The Great Ice Age " has given currency to the Scotch 

 name, and as the word has been adopted by those who have 

 investigated this class of formations most fully in America, 

 it seems best to continue its use, though either of the other 

 names is more euphonious. This class of ridges was first 

 described in this country in 1842 by President Edward 

 Hitchcock. Speaking of the gravel deposits in Andover, 

 Mass.j known as Indian Ridge, he says they are " a collec- 

 tion of tortuous ridges and rounded and even conical hills 

 with corresponding depressions between. These depressions 

 are not valleys which might have been produced by run- 

 ning water, but mere holes> not unfrequently occupied by a 

 pond." * The fuller description of their composition by Mr. 

 James Geikie is as good for America as for Europe : 



The sands and gravels have a tendency to shape themselves 

 into mounds and winding ridges, which give a hummocky and 

 rapidly undulating outline to the ground. Indeed, so charac- 

 teristic is this appearance, that by it alone we are often able to 

 mark out the boundaries of the deposits with as much precision 

 as we could were all the vegetation and soil stripped away and 



* " Transactions of the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists,' 

 1842. 



