54 SURFACE GEOLOGY. 



escarpments thus formed remain at the mouth of the valley of Cold river, 

 from 100 to 200 feet high. Thence a wide plain is found on the south 

 side of Cold river for one mile, and again one half mile farther east at 

 Drewsville. The west part of this deposit is sand or fine gravel, but in 

 the east portion coarse gravel prevails. 



On the south side of Saxton's river a considerable part of its delta 

 remains, and the upper terrace is increased in height by this cause for 

 two miles south. The excavation of this delta by Saxton's river has 

 formed a most interestingly terraced basin, situated less than a mile south 

 from Bellows Falls junction. On both sides of this river, and crossed 

 by a road, is an interval about one fourth of a mile in diameter. Around 

 this on all sides are ranged terraces, which rise in succession like the 

 seats of an amphitheatre, the highest on the north-west being 220, and on 

 the south 200 feet above the arena below. They do not, however, show 

 a perfect regularity either in correspondence of height or in continuous 

 extent, and no single section would embrace all of the eight distinct and 

 separate terraces which we noted on each side of the river. 



At Walpole village the limits between alluvium and till are not so dis- 

 tinct as usual. The highest terrace of the Connecticut appears to be 

 shown here 395 feet above the sea, and it is nearly continuous south- 

 ward through this town, descending to 360 feet at its south line, where 

 numerous dunes occur 30 to 50 feet higher. Irregular terraces intervene 

 between this highest level and the river. 



In Westminster, opposite Walpole village and for one or two miles 

 north and south, the modified drift is wide, and lies in beautiful, broad 

 terraces. That of the village is 90 feet above the river, or 315 above the 

 sea ; another, 50 feet lower, extends one mile northward to the bridge. 



Through Westmoreland and Chesterfield the upper terrace varies be- 

 tween 400 and 350 feet above the sea, the former height being reached by 

 deltas three fourths of a mile south-west from Westmoreland depot and 

 at and below the mouth of Catsbane brook. The modified drift in these 

 towns is generally very narrow ; but bends in the river give it a width of 

 two thirds of a mile at two places in Westmoreland, one of which is a 

 mile and a half south-west from the depot, and the other the same dis- 

 tance north from the south line of the town. At both these points dunes 

 occur on the hillsides just above the terraces. 



