- Geology, &c. of the Connecticut. 19 
the Connecticut.. A little to the northeast and especially 
one or two miles northwest of the village of Greenfield, the 
old red sandstone rocks are smoothed and fluted in a great 
many instances; indicating a former exposure.to currents 
of water. These various circumstances render it very 
probable that the country was once covered by a lake. 
s the passage of the Connecticut through the moun- 
tains below Middletown was gradually worn deeper and 
deeper, this lake would be lowered also—and in process o 
time, the lofty greenstone ridge, extending from near New- 
aven to Amherst, would preseut another barrier, and at 
length the original lake would be divided into two ; the one 
extending from Northfield, on the west side of this ridge, 
nearly to New-Haven, and the other, on the east side, from 
South-Hadley to Middletown. There is every appearance 
that the Connecticut has worn down a passage through this 
ridge between Holyoke and Tom. | 
As this process of draining continued from century to cen- 
tury, these lakes intly contracted their limits, until at 
length the greater part of the extensive vallies they occu- 
pied were laid bare. In the western lake however, were 
three basins, at Farmington, Westfield and Deerfield, a few 
miles in extent, which would remain filled with water until 
the three rivers of the same name, which supplied them, 
had worn away passages through the greenstone ridge above 
mentioned. ‘That they have done this, will be doubted by 
no one who will examine their course through this mountain. 
Thus after the lapse of years would these lakes all be 
drained, leaving a rich valley for cultivation, And whoev- 
er will examine the alluvium of Farmington, Westfield and 
Deerfield, will be led to suppose that the period when the 
work was finished could not have been many centuries be- 
fore the settlement of this country. ‘ 
Sunderland Cave. 
This is about three miles northeast of the village in the 
rocks of the coal formation. It forms nearly a quarter of a 
circle, is about ten rods through, opens on the north and 
west, is from two to twenty feet wide, and from ten to sixty 
or seventy deep. A few rods to the south is a fissure ten 
feet wide, nearly parallel to the cave, and sixty or seventy 
