'S94-] 249 [Shaler. 
are disposcMl just as ordinary stonii waves would place them. A 
powerful blow of an earthquake wave would cari-y much of tliis 
material beyond the position in which it lies and distribute it in a 
manner which would be very suggestive to the observer. 
At many points along the New England coast the hard rocks 
have been eroded by the sea in such a fashion that considerable 
pinnacles, in a very instable state, have been left. Such projec- 
tions ai-e particularly cons])icuous in the region north of New 
England along the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In that 
district they afford evidence of immunity from ordinary earth- 
quake shocks, but they cannot be taken as affording proof that 
waves from the sea produced by earthquakes have not swept 
along the Atlantic coast, for the reason that such waves would not 
be likely to effectively penetrate tlirough the narrow passages 
which lead from this basin to the open sea. I therefore make no 
further reference to them in this connection. 
A large part of the New England shore, from Portland to 
New York, exhibits other features derived also from glacial 
action which afford a test of these sudden marine inundations. 
Tl)ese are the well-known kames : those delicately molded 
heaps of drift composed of sand and gravel brought to their 
instable attitudes by the action of currents. Nearly the whole 
coast of Massachusetts and the shore of Long Island, as well as 
tlie southern portion of Connecticut and Rhode Island, are bor- 
dered by this kame belt. At many points, indeed, we may say 
along the greater portion of this shore, the upper level of these 
delicately molded sands lies next the shore at the height of not 
more than from twenty to thh-ty feet above mean tide. On the 
southern coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island there are 
extensive belts of this nature which have their upper surfaces 
within ten or fifteen feet of mid tide line. No one who is 
acquainted with this kame district would for a moment assume 
that a great wave, such as those which have swept the coast of 
South America and other countries, has ever rolled over them. 
Such a catastrophe would lead to the destruction of these frail 
features or at least to a profound modification of their forms. 
The sloj)es of these undulating surfaces are often very steep. 
At many points the declivities have the irregular conical hollows 
at angles of from twenty to twenty-five degrees with the horizon. 
Although these slopes have been somewhat degraded by atmos- 
