DR. HOLMES' REPORT. To the Hon. Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Maine: GENTLEMEN:-In accordance with the requirements of the resolves authorizing and commencing a Scientific Survey of Maine, I herewith submit the following brief report of observations made during the summer past in the department of said survey committed to my charge, viz: Physical Geography of the State, Natural History, and Agriculture. It must be evident to all, that this report must be merely preliminary to a final report which will be due at some future period, when the survey of the whole territory to be explored shall have been completed. The careful exploration and critical and scientific examination of a tract of country covering more than thirty-one thousand square miles and a great part of those miles still covered with a dense forest which can be traversed advantageously only through its water channels by canoe or batteau, cannot be the work of a single summer nor a single year, however propitious may be the weather, or however favorable all other attendant circumstances and requirements may be. This "Report of Progress" must therefore be made up of apparently isolated facts and observations, which are to be more fully elaborated and collated when the whole ground shall be gone over, and the work done. Being directed and empowered by the appointing power (His Excellency the Governor and the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture) to appoint such assistants as might be deemed requisite to the judicious prosecution of the work, I accordingly, with the concurrence and approval of my colleague in the survey, (Prof. C. H. Hitchcock,) selected the following named gentlemen for that purpose, viz:-George L. Goodale of Saco, Botanist; Alpheus S. Packard, Jr., of Brunswick, Entomologist, and C. B. Fuller of Port land, Marine Zoology; and I have great pleasure in saying that these gentlemen have, so far as the means and the time allotted us would allow, performed their respective duties with commendable and zealous fidelity. Their several reports, embodying the general results of their labors in the field, are herewith submitted. NOTES ON THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF MAINE. It will not do, in considering and examining the Physical Geography of Maine, or in other words, in 'giving an account and description of the location and structure and peculiar characteristics of its bays, shores or coast line, rivers, plains, mountains and valleys, to be wholly circumscribed and hedged in by conventional or territorial lines. Nature has neither made nor observed any such lines, and in tracing in a geographical point of view, her operations and the connections of the several formations, of the country which exist in conformity with those operations, we must occasionally ignore territorial and political boundaries, and look upon the whole structure in all its parts and bearings. Thus viewed, you will see that Maine constitutes no small part of an immense peninsula, formed by the waters of Lake Champlain the river and gulf of St. Lawrence on the north and northeast, the waters of the Atlantic from the southern shores of said gulf to the mouth of Hudson river, on the southerly side, and the Hudson river on the westerly side. Of this peninsula, Maine occupies a large part of the central southern side, embracing the principal shore of the vast bay enclosed between Cape Sable on the north, and Cape Cod on the south. The natural grand divisions of this section of the peninsula in question-its sea-coast, rivers, mountains and plains, are remarkable for their broad developments, striking distinctive characteristics, and their influences on the climate, products and business facilities of their respective regions. SEA-COAST. The shore line, though in straight course, contained within a little more than four degrees of longitude, extends nevertheless in all its undulations and ramifications into the lesser bays, coves, creeks and river estuaries, keeping on the verge of high tide waters, over a stretch of more than three thousand miles. No State of the Union, and perhaps no single nation, can exhibit the same extent of sea-coast so well adapted to commercial purposes, or so magnificent, viewed either in regard to its shore and island scenery, or as to its valuable bays and safe moorings for shipping. This coast trends, in a general direction, north-easterly and south-westerly. In this, it conforms to the "strike" or direction of the rock strata found throughout the State, and which are peculiarly well marked and distinct on the seaboard, making a firm and enduring barrier to the encroachments of the ocean, practically saying to every dash of its waves, "thus far shalt thou come but no farther." The various species of rock formation, that line our coast, and form such a solid indestructible sea-wall, will be enumerated and more particularly described in Prof. Hitchcock's Report on the Geology of Maine. Suffice it here to say that in the more westerly portions they are made up of the several varieties of the slates, more particularly the micaceous and talcose schists, running sometimes into gneiss, granite and sienite. In the more easterly sections limestones and sandstones occur. It has been a prevailing popular opinion that the "strike," or direction of our rock formations in a northeasterly and southwesterly course was, in some mysterious manner, brought about by the waters of our coast, inasmuch as the main course of our sea line is, as we before stated, the same. The reverse must be the case. The direction of our rock strata governs the direction of our seaboard, and not the course of the sea line govern that. The ocean, without doubt, once rolled deeply over them, and they then formed the bottom or foundation of it, and not its border. By their rising from these lower depths to their present elevation, the sea retired to its present bed and its outline conformed to the direction of the rocks which they probably had when created. Disintegrations, abrasions and breakings down of these rocks, have, in many instances taken place; forming thereby, coves and channels between the main land, and the reefs and the islands adjacent. In some places they are narrow and shoal, and in others wide and deep enough for whole navies to ride in with safety. But these disintegrations and abrasions, though they have given |