Two of the boldest mountain groups upon the Island bring 

 the park within easy walking distance from the town. The 

 eastern of these is that of Newport and Picket Mountains; 

 the western, that of Dry Mountain and the Kebos. Against 

 them both, facing abruptly to the north and east, the thrust 

 of the arrested Ice Sheet in the Glacial period, as its huge mass 

 moved slowly seaward past them, must have been tremendous. 



Evidence of it is not only visible in their rugged cliffs and 

 precipices but in two deep basins ground out from the ancient 

 Cambrian rock adjoining them. 



One of these, Beaverdam Pool, lies at the foot of Newport 

 mountain; the other, the Spring Heath — once a considerable 

 lake but now completely filled with glacial clays and gravel 

 peat and granite sands — reaches broadly out towards Bar 

 Harbor from the eastern foot of Dry Mountain, forming a 

 splendid exhibit of one of the most characteristic features of 

 the north. 



Portions of primeval forest, with massive trunks of ancient 

 yellow birch and hemlock, border still these basins on their 

 side towards the mountain; both make superb approaches to 

 the Monument ; and both are rich naturally in soil and water, 

 in bird life and in plant life. 



The one under Newport Mountain, with its brook valley 

 reaching to the public road, has been already deeded to The Wild 

 Gardens of Acadia for a plant and bird sanctuary; the one 

 beneath Dry Mountain, acquired by the Sieur de Monts 

 Spring Company for protection of its waters and for its scenic 

 beauty, has been placed beneath the same control, and offered 

 freely to the Government to use as though its own in its ap- 

 proaches and as a water source. 



The Heath basin especially is remarkable for a succession 

 of deep-seated springs that rise apparently from a line of 

 fracture between the granite and the more ancient sea-laid 

 rock it shattered as it rose. Singularly pure, unvarying in tem- 

 perature or volume, and brought down probably from far away 

 by seaward tilting of an ancient coastal plain they make, with 

 their free gift of water to the passer-by, a unique, delightful fea- 



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