116 GLACIAL PHENOMENA IN MAINE. 
terials, pressed forward by the great local 
glacier once filling the Gulf, at the time when 
the ice was circumscribed within the limits 
of the valley itself. To the east and west 
of it there are, however, lateral moraines, rest¬ 
ing on a much higher level, and showing the 
extraordinary thickness of the glacier at a 
still older period. This structure strikingly 
resembles that of the morainic accumulations 
in the trough holding the present glacier of 
the Upper Aar in Switzerland. At its ex¬ 
tremity stands a large, crescent-shaped mo¬ 
raine, corresponding in size and form with 
that of the Katahdin Iron Works. The loose 
materials thrown on either side of the valley, 
to the right and left, extending in advance of 
the front moraine, and resting far above the 
present surface of the ice, may be compared 
to the higher lateral moraines of this ancient 
Maine glacier. In short, were the ice sud¬ 
denly to disappear from the Alpine valley in 
which the Aar glacier lies, the rocky frame¬ 
work of loose fragments it has built around 
itself would be almost identical with that of 
the so-called Gulf at the Katahdin Iron Works. 
In both instances, the lateral moraines on a 
