Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-09-28
NO. $50.
MOUNT BATTLE, CAMDEN.
From the Rockland Free Press.

In the orology or structure of the mountains
OF the United States. Its situation 10 less
than mile nearly north Camden village, and
immediately south of Magunticook, the high
est OF the group Of Camden mountains. In
fact, Battle is part of Magunticook, its
foundation understanding the latter.
Its composition is correctly designated in
the Geological Report of the State for 1862,
as quartzose congfomerate, that is, the upper
part OF the mass of the mountain is made up
OF flint boulders of different sizes, from the
bigness of boys marble to that of two feet
in diameter, some of which are we'll rounded
and smoothed, while others have sharp cor
ners, and the whole mass is cemented into
solid structure by silicious sand The east
ern, southern and western sides, near the
southern part OF the hill are steep, the hrst
side mentioned, too steep to be ascended by
the visitor. The south side is very abrupt al
so, falling off at an angle Of sixty degrees or
more; yet from its broken, unpolished front,
1t affords the meaus of ascent, though some
what difficult one.
AS we pass along over the top of the noun
tain towards the north, we see around us, one
thousand feet above the sea, the most conclu-
sive evidence that this hill has been subjected
to immense glacial action. 1t is as naked as
! the hide of Il rhnoceros. The glacial polish
and scratch are everywhere seen over the top
where the thin deposit of mold has been re-
moved. The form of the hill, seen from the
top, reminded me somewhat of bakers loaf
of white-breah. There is the glazed top, the
precipitnus sides, and the abrupt end present
ed to the south, while the other end towards
the north, seems To have been oycrlain by a
large loaf (Magunticook) to carry out the
comparison. There is no doubt that Mount
Battle was entirely masked by cap Of sand
/ stone, or in other words, was part of Ma
gunticook ere the glacial age set in.
Hitchcock estimates the conglomerates of
Battle at five hundred feet from the top down.
wards. | should think it safe to say that
thickness of two hundred feet has been re-
moved from the top of Battle, and over that,
an indefinite thickness of micaceous sand
stone, of which the southern part is composed.
The entire surface of the State of Maine has
been denuded to very considerable extent
by glacial actiOn-not less than five hundred
feet. Ramsey, the director of the Geological
Survey of Great Britain, estimates the glacial
denundation of that country to be greater than
all the land-mass now above the level Of the
sea. But in New England, undoubtedly, the
degradation of the land-surface was much
greater per square mile.
On approaching the northern end Of Mount
Battle, we find ourselves in deep valley be-
tween the mountains. the southern wall of
Maguntcook rising perpendicularly to the
height OF two hundred and fifty, or three hun
dred feet, wall of sandstone. Here is an
endless profusion of rocks, but not erratic
boulders, torn from the vertical wall of Ma.
gunticOok, many of which have been separat-
ed through the agency of rain and frost aided
by their own weight; but this is not the case
with all of them. The most distant from the
base of the walls, are mostly glacer-removed
boulders. But hundreds of thousands of tons
OF rock from this south end of Magunticook,
have beer utterly removed-borne away over
The back of Mount Battle; and some have
been thoroughly ground to atoms thereon.
On the southern brow Of Battle, found
here and there a few patches of glacial scratch
ing, between the top and the base of the hill
They were on small horizontal benches, jnt-
ting out towards the south. These scratches
do net all preserve the usual direction else
where seen. In one case they were detected
towards the west. Nor should we look for
regularity of direction in such cases At
every forward movement OF the glacier as it
passed over the southern part of a hill, there
was settling down Of the mass crowding it.
self into all the inequalities OF the bed over
which it was travelling. There was tre-
mendous-and as far as we can comprehend
tan indefinite force embodied in the glacier,
ever pushing it on, though only few feet per
year. When the angle of descent was not
vertical, the weight OF the glacier would per-
NIT of no unoccupied space about the base of
the hills. Ice would be as rigidly impacted
at the southern walls of the hills as elsewhere
during the passage of the great glacier over
the surface of New England.
AT the southern side of Mount Battle lie
huge boulders, torn from the hill overlooking
them. They are identical in composition with
the formation of the mountain. One of these
is about forty feet long, and must weigh up
wards of six hundred tons. 1t would require
force of about twenty tons to the square
inch surface, to quarry such a burden. Dix
Island granite has sustained a pressure in the
Navy Yard at Washington of fifteen tons to
the cubic inch, without fracture. But the
glacier had an unlimited amount of force, and
has quarried out from the hills of New Eng
land rocks of five thousand tons weight, as
instanced the great conglomerate boulder near
Fall River city, which probably came from
Roxbury, forty miles towards the north.
1t might be considered too conjectural to
speculate upon the origin of this mountain.
But there is no doubt that it is infinitely older
than Magunticook. Its infancy was in the
unnumbered eternities of the past, when s'dry
land" first began to appear; when the oceans
were one-one broad expanse of water cover
ed nearly all the globe. take the quartzoid
rocks of Camden and that region to be much
older than Hchcock's supposed Taconic for
nation, lying at the base of the Silurian, or
age of the Potsdam sandstones. l should
place the deposit as low down as the base of
the Huronian system, at least. The lower
part Of Mount Battle not much broken up
bears a close resemblance to some of the
rocks about the northern part of Lake Huron.
The Camden quartzoid formation runs away
south to the Tilson hills in Rockland, and
possibly underlies the limestones and meta
morphosed clay-slates of the city, and posi-
bly, it appears about Tenants Harbor. The
northeast extremity dies out with Mount
Battle, apparently; but the formation may
underlie other rocks in this direction.
As we look out along the dim receding ages
!, which have swept over the earth since the ''be-
y y ginning" we see the material Of which Mount
6 Battle is composed of sand or clay, the ruins
'e of older rocks, probably swept along by the
y equatorial or polar current. In process Of
time, a time which can only be estimated BY
millions Of years, this material underwent
/. great change--it became converted into rock
: of fiinty nature. 1t came .here.itef near