KAMES. 



341 



sion during a prolonged period, the kames approximately 

 coincide in direction with the lines of glacial striae. A large 

 part of New England is covered with kame deposits, arranged, 

 in general, along the main lines of present drainage, with 

 merely such anomalous exceptions as can readily be ex- 

 plained by the interference which the ice itself offered to 

 the course of the floods which characterized the last stages 

 of the Glacial period. 



NORTH SIDE. 



Fig. 103.— Sections of a kame at Bennington Station, New Hampshire. Scale about forty feet 

 to the inch. The upper figure shows a simple transverse section ; the lower figure is 

 directly transverse on the right side, but longitudinal on the left. Counting from the 

 top the strata are : 1, coarse yellow gravel, with pebbles up to eight inches in diame- 

 ter, thickness, three to five feet ; 2, fine sand, three to five feet ; 3, coarse, dark 

 gravel, containing pebbles up to one foot in diameter, three feet ; 4, fine sand, ob- 

 scured at the bottom by crumbling of the bank, four to eight feet; a. a. downfall 

 of strata with irregular, broken, steep slope, against which lies an accumulation of 

 sand ; b. depression of two feet, similar to the foregoing ; f. fault, seen only on the 

 south side, dislocation of strata, six inches. (Upham.) 



The most satisfactory conclusion with regard to the origin 

 of kames is that they mark, in the glaciated region, lines of 

 drainage during the closing stages of the Ice age. It is evi- 

 dent, from a moment's reflection, that the streams of water 

 resulting from the annual precipitation, combined with that 

 from the wasting of the ice during these closing stages, must 

 have been enormous, and may very likely have flowed in 

 channels quite different from those chosen after the ice had 

 completely melted away. Of course, these glacial streams 

 must, in the main, have followed the great valleys ; but 

 many of the minor valleys were, at that time, so obstructed 

 that the streams might disregard them and take a more di- 

 rect route over the ice through the open channels and long 

 tunnels which must then have existed. Those familiar only 



