The Republican journal., 1892-01-14
Travels About Home.
Written for the Republican Journal
JOURNEY NO. /.

In my youth the few good books read
were books of travel Thus my mind be-
came filled with pictures of the wonderful
lands beyond the home horizon. Too late
in life I learned that creative forces had
wrought no less wonderfully in the neigh
borhoods l knew than in the countries of
which 1 had read. Waldo county contains
many interesting features, but at this time I
shall speak only of that section which we
may call the Poors Mills Basin. AS seen
from any of the hills which stand on its mar
gin, it appears to be somewhat circular, and
to have an average diameter of six or eight
miles.
There is abundant evidence that very long
ago this basin was filled to the brim with
water. believe that then, as now, the over
flow emptied into Penobscot Bay. About
an eighth of a mile above the Upper
Bridge in the city of Belfast, is place
generally known at the present time as the
Railroad Cut, where a way has been blasted
out for the track, above which the undisturb-
ed wall rises almost perpendicularly for sew
era feet to the carriage road. Above the
road the surface continues to rise, sometimes
abruptly, but generally by moderate grades,
until point is reached at least two hundred
feet above the river. Across the river is d
bluff as high higher We find by eNam-
nation of the ledge, its composition, the
strike of the rock and the dip of the strata,
that the two bluffs are of the same character
and We're doubtless thrown up by the same
upheaval. We conclude, therefore, that when
| ~.
was no worn down water gap, but that the
ridge was continuous across the bed of the
present river and that this was the barrier
which made the Poor's Mills basin lake.
Here then in e-glacia days was cataract
some two hundred feet high over which the
waters plunged and numbered. This bar
rier was, as shown by the present shores,
a thin ridge, composed for the most part OF
sheets of rock from few inches to a foot or
more in thickness, standing almost perpen-
dicuarly, and more or less broken by trans
verse fractures. Masses OF these sheets We're
| continually being broken from the top by the
force of the cataract, aided perhaps by frost.
These masses fell into basin at the foot Of
the fall and We're worn out by turmoil and
grinding. But as they whirled and tlmbled
about in a slowly widening circle they
lermined other sheets, which in turn gave
way to pressure at the top. Thus, at length,
the top of the ridge was broken through and
the level of the waters in the lake suffered IL
sudden and permanent subsistence of a few
feet. Well marked terraces in the face of
the steep hill ON the east side where the
ledge shows through the scanty SOIL mark
the stairs down which the cataract passed to
its final destination. When the cataract had
thus lost its magnificent proportions, and
slowly wearing itself out over water
fall no longer precipitous, there appeared to
| the eastward of the main channel a small
island which continued to grow as the fall
| was Worn away, until the eastern branch of
the river, forsook its bed joined the main
river and the island became part of the main
land, where to-day is pretty hamlet con-
tanning the residences of Capt. G. F. Ryan,
Capt. Geo. I. Osborn, Prof j. G. Written
and several other we'll known citizens of
Belfast. A few rods from the carriage road
may be seen the pebbles and river mud of
this old stream If we follow the summit
Oh Une southern RIM OF IHe DaSln from Jlle
railroad cut, shall find the lodges crop
ping out quite frequently, and the surface
rising, till we reach the residence of Mr..
Wales l.. Miller, Here is considerable
hill, the top of which is generally covered
with earth, but the ledge gives it its size and
forms its substance, we find it, at the sur
face in many places. From this hill we get
I
Mr.. Miller's the road takes us along near the
summit of a somewhat lower ridge for about
mile to the eastern base of Parks Hill.
Here is Il water gap, cut down into the
ledge, which is somewhat peculiar for the
snoe thness and regular form of its very
soping sides. 1t is neither deep nor wide
but III It may be found d genuine watershed
between the Poor's Mills and the Little Riv-
CT Basins. From here to Mr.. Harrison Hay
ford's there is u continually rising ground
and the height Of the river is pretty well
maintained to near North Searsmont village,
where it is quite low, and jlist beyond the
village is the first stream of any Importance
to be found flowing southwark out Of the
basin, Standing on a hill just west of this
SbitdHl pdSlll gives lllt frSl utHnlJe lued
as to how it was formed On one hand are
Hoghack, Pierces Hill, and Fryes Mt, the
prominent members of the chief range of
hills in Waldo county. On the other hand
are Millers Hill, Parks Hill, and Belmont
Hill, the prominent members of Il lesser
range. Tie basin is therefore, a valley be-
tween these two ranges, closed at its north
eastern end by the highlands of Swanvilie,
Waldo and North Belfast. At tie north
eastern end stands Higgins Ridge and Az
er's Ridge. The present valley between the
last two mentioned hills is almost directly
i'll the track of the continental glacier and
no doubt was cut down by it after the lake
had disappeared. There is another south
ward flowing stream at the western base of
Ayers Ridge. Thus the gradual dcstruc-
ton of the cataract and the sweep of the
glacier, cleared out three water courses, and
one step taken towards making the ba-
sin habitable.
There are few streams to be found to-day
flowing into the basin, and those are small.
The question, therefore, rises as to how the
ancient lake was fed. At East Knox there
is a small stream, the source of which | have
ned w 7 tri1 uf