DAVIS : RIVER TERRACES IN NEW ENGLAND. 337 



appearance ; since then it has only been confirmed by finding that it had 

 already been born to Miller, and by deducing its more minute conse- 

 quences as presented in Part 111. of this essay in order to confront them 

 with numerous examples of actual terrace forms, some of which are 

 described on these pages. 



Eastern Section. The lower stretch of Saxtons river, Figure 41, gives 

 beautiful illustration of terraces produced by a stream that has oscillated 

 between two fixed nodes. At the upper node, the stream is narrowly 

 held by ledges at A and G. A little further up-stream is a rocky gorge 

 with cascades, from which the stream is diverted for water-power. The 

 lower valley becomes somewhat more open as the space widens between 

 the ledges B, C, on the south and J-H, L-K, on the north. The small 

 re-entrants between these ledges nearly everywhere bear the marks of 

 having been energetically swept back as far as possible by the stream 

 at various levels during the erosion of the valley. The stream has 

 swung northward at least nine times on the J-H group of ledges, and 

 southward at least seven times on the B group, where till seems to 

 supplement the restraint of rock. 



On leaving the cascade and the rapids below it, the stream has graded 

 its course with respect to the eastern rock node between M and F-E ; 

 none of the ledges encountered on the way have had other effect than 

 in limiting the breadth to which the successive flood plains have been 

 opened during the degradation of the valley. That the degradation wa£ 

 gradual, giving the stream abundant time for broad swinging and 

 wandering, right and left, is abundantly proved by the terrace remnants 

 of flood plains at various levels. 



Passing the narrows at C, L-K, there is a broad stretch comparatively 

 free from ledges until the heavy ridge of rock, M, F-E, is encountered 

 close to the junction of Saxtons river with the Connecticut. The ridge 

 is now cut through by a narrow gorge, with falls on the down-stream 

 side whei'e the road and railroad bridges cross the stream : whether this 

 gorge is entirely the work of postglacial time, I cannot say. 



An oval plain, known as the Basin farm, has been opened between 

 the upper and lower narrows, its smooth fields uniting with the curving 

 terrace scarps iu a most graceful and pleasing landscape. The Basin 

 plain probably had twice as great an area at the level of its mid-height 

 terraces as it now has at the level of the modern flood plain ; but this 

 reduction of area is not to be wondered at, iu view of the increasing 

 constriction imposed upon the swinging stream by the mutual approach 

 of the ledges C and K as lower and lower levels were reached. 



