KAMES. 343 



Only a barrier of two or three hundred feet which causes the 

 present deflection of the river to the east, through Lewiston 

 to Brunswick. The great bend made by the Merrimack 

 River at Lowell, Mass., is also caused by a glacial deposit to 

 the south of only fifty or sixty feet in height. 



It is easy to see that, during the period of most rapid 

 retreat, when the waters of the wasting ice-sheet over New 

 England were seeking their ultimate channels, the lower 

 portion of the ice itself was an important element in deter- 

 mining the minor deflections in these lines of drainage. An 

 ice-barrier of a few hundred feet in the Penobscot, between 

 Passadumkeag and Mattawamkeag, would force the drainage 

 of the Aroostook region into the valley of the Machias, and, 

 in the predominance of the mountains from which the west- 

 ern branches of the Penobscot River descend, we have a 

 cause favoring such an extension of the ice as would produce 

 the results indicated. In the case of the Merrimack River, 

 the fact that, from Lowell to Newburyport, it flows in a 

 northerly direction would also furnish a probable ice-barrier 

 which for a time would drive the drainage of this basin di- 

 rectly southward from Lowell and Lawrence toward Boston. 



It is not necessary to go into all the details concerning 

 the intricate network of kames which mark the lines of 

 drainage over New England, when ice-barriers to so great 

 an extent directed the flow of the glacial torrents. The facts 

 are impressive. Individual kames can be traced for long dis- 

 tances, sometimes a hundred miles or more. The main lines 

 in New England are shown on the accompanying map, be- 

 ginning on the eastern side of Maine.* 



A few points merit particular attention. The Connecti- 

 cut River Valley, from its sources to the Massachusetts line, 

 contains the remnants of what seems to be a pretty continu- 

 ous kame, but which has been largely eroded, and in many 

 cases covered up by subsequent deposits of river-silt. Almost 



* See also " Kames and Moraines of New England " in " Proceedings of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History," vol. xx, p. 211 et seq. 



