THE LOST VOLCANOES OF CONNECTICUT. 223 



o). They give no clew to the source 

 we 2:0 west or east of the ash-bed 



COMt"^ _J.-^^-— --- 



LAUCHADtCHC 



of rubbish that were left there and given their even form when 

 the whole of New England was buried in a deep sheet of moving 

 ice, as Greenland is now (Fig. 

 of the bombs and ashes. If 

 ledge, there are high 

 ridges, six or seven 

 hundred feet above 

 the valley, with gen- 

 tle slopes on the east, 

 and bold, rocky cliffs, 

 descending to a long 

 stony talus on the 

 west. The one next 

 east of us is Mount 

 Lamentation ; it may 

 be well seen eastward 

 from the railroad be- 

 tween Hartford and 

 Meriden while the 

 train is passing a 

 pond. The ash -bed 

 ledge can be seen at 

 the same time under 

 the southern end of 

 Lamentation, but it is 

 not a conspicuous ob- 

 ject a mile away. 

 Lamentation and its 

 fellows are not the 

 least like volcanoes, 



and yet they confirm the belief that volcanoes must have once 

 existed hereabouts ; for these high ridges are of lava, the edges 

 of great tilted lava-flows that were poured out at intervals during 

 the deposition of hundreds and thousands of feet of sandstones. 

 Our ash-bluff is indeed 



only a part of one of 

 these parallel lava- 

 ridges ; when traced 

 north and south lava 

 may be found lying 

 on the ash -bed. Lamentation is higher, because its lava -flow 

 is much thicker than that in the ash-bed ridge, and therefore 

 has not been worn down so low. On the back of these flows, at 

 one point and another, may be seen the slaggy, bubbly surface 

 of the lava, like that poured out of Vesuvius or any other mod- 

 ern volcano ; but these ancient lavas have been deeply buried in 



Fia. 2. 



Fig. 3. 



