VVoodwoitli.J ,200 [I*"tb.7, 
Prof. X. S. Sh;iler noted the general relations of the eskers of 
this district in a paper "On the origin of .kames,"^ and later 
described an esker near Gloucester on Cape Ann,'^ as crossing a 
valley. He also described as an esker a deposit within the 
morainal highlands of Martha's Vineyard/ but this deposit I am 
informed by him is to be considered as a drift-covered ridge of 
tilted sands and gravels involved in the Gay Head uplift. 
The late Prof. J. H. Cliapin* in 1890 examined the low esker 
southeast of the city of Meriden, Conn., and found it with "the 
gravel and cobble-stones, some of them bearing glacial striae, 
lying flat in the ridge and the whole having a rude stratification." 
Prof. W. M. Davis^ has described the structure and geological 
condition of the esker at Auburndale, Mass., and has demonstrated 
the subglacial origin of this deposit. 
Mr. F. P. Gulliver® has published a description and photograph 
of the eskers associated with sand-plains near Newtonville, Mass. 
There are many scores of eskers in this district which as yet 
have found no mention in the literature and are not represented 
on maps. 
The Slopes of Eskers. 
The key to the interpretation of deposits of water-laid drift 
came with the recognition of the meaning of the steep slopes 
which mark the moraine terrace, the typical eskers, the heads of 
glacial sand-plains, the sides of many kettle-holes, glacial ponds, 
and kames. The disposition of loose material on these slopes at 
the angle of repose argues in each case the removal of support, 
and the sole satisfactory explanation postulates the melting of 
masses of ce against the walls or over the surface of which tiie 
'Proc.Bost. soc. nat. liist., v. 23, p. 36-i4, 1884. In this paper, Professor Shaler 
showed the relation of an esker in tlie Aiiirondacks with a subi^lacial stream depositinj^ 
at its mouth as the ice retreated. 
'^Xinth A.iiiuial report U. S. i^eol. survey, p. 549-551). 
■'Seventh Annual report U. S. geol. survey. 
■•Trans. Meriden scientific assoc, Jan. ,1891. 
6 The sul>glacial origin of certain eskers. I'roc. Bost. soc. nat. hist., v. 25, p. 
477-499, 1893. Abstract: Jour, geol., Chicago, v. 1, y. 95-96. 
« Jour, geol., Chicago, v. 1, p. 803-812, 1893. 
