RIVER AND LAKE TERRACES. 661 



RIVER AND LAKE TERRACES. 



TRAVELLERS along the river-valleys of New England, and in 

 other sections of our Northern States, will observe that the 

 banks in many places rise by a series of terraces, which at a distance 

 resemble the steps of au amphitheatre. Carved with singular uni- 

 formity upon the slopes, they are everywhere a striking and beautiful 

 feature of these most picturesque and beautiful landscapes. In the 

 valleys of the Connecticut, Merrimac, St. Lawrence, Kennebec, Hud- 

 son, and innumerable other streams, these levels have been utilized as 

 sites for villages, country-seats, forest, and cultivation. 



Northampton, Brattleboro, and Springfield, are built on ter- 

 races; and part of the charming village of North Conway, at the 

 gate of the White Mountains, stands upon a similar level. Dartmouth 

 College is upon an elevated terrace. 



Terraces occur on both sides of the Niagara River, and on the east 

 side four levels are described, the highest being 38 feet above the top 

 of the American Fall. They occur also on the Hudson Highlands at 

 Cornwall 180 feet, and at Cozzens 130 feet above tide-level. The Cat- 

 skill Mountains are fringed with terraces almost to their summits ; and 

 on the east "side of the Hudson, at Albany, eight distinct levels are 

 passed on the line of the Boston and Albany Railway before reach- 

 ing the summit station. 



On Hoosac Mountain is a terrace 1,813 feet above the level of the 

 sea, and near it an ancient beach 200 feet higher. They occur at Que- 

 bec, 500 feet ; at Montreal, 400 feet ; and, on the Genesee River, 1,410 

 feet above the ocean-level. 



But terraces abound on lake-margins with the same distinctness 

 as on the banks of rivers. Prof. Agassiz counted fifteen on the shore 

 of Lake Superior, and the writer counted six, beautifully defined, at 

 Portage Lake. Visitors at "Watkins Glen may notice terraces sculp- 

 tured on the amphitheatre of hills at the head of Seneca Lake, whose 

 geological history is contemporary with that of the great gorge, the 

 object of their visit. In Northern Utah lake-terraces are found, ac- 

 cording to Hayden, nearly a mile above the ocean, and on islands in 

 Barrow's Straits they occur at 1,000 feet elevation. 



On some of the great Western prairies terraces extend like vast 

 coast-lines bounding the plain. 



Nor are they confined to North America. They have been noticed 

 on the slopes of the Ural and Altai Mountains, around the Dead Sea, 

 on the banks of the river Jordan, on the mountain-sides in the Great 

 Sahara, and on the banks of the Nile above the first cataract. 



The ocean, too, has its terraces. Darwin observed that, around 

 Patagonia, the ocean had eaten deep into the rocky coast " a series of 



