2l6 SURFACE GEOLOGY. 



Connecticut just above Brattleborough ; Saxton's river; Black river in 

 Ludlow and Cavendish ; Otta Quechee river ; White river. Those far- 

 ther north have not been particularly explored. On the east side, the 

 branches of this glacier are not well marked. This may be explained 

 partly from lack of attention directed to their discovery, but chiefly be- 

 cause the east side of the basin is very narrow. There is not sufficient 

 room for the glaciers to form, and to make much sign of their existence. 

 In Massachusetts, Miller's and the tributaries of the Chicopee river might 

 furnish some indications of the former presence of the ice. In New 

 Hampshire, the Ashuelot is the first valley where we could search for 

 these relics. They may be expected in Winchester, where the river 

 changes its course to pass between hills, and in the towns of Surry and 

 Gilsum. It will be singular if these localities do not afford striae or other 

 indications of the tributary ice-sheets. We have no observations for Cold 

 river; and all that has been noted in the Sugar River valley indicates 

 the passage of the ice up instead of down the stream. The marks of 

 the older south-east current were so pronounced that any action of a 

 force in the opposite direction might be unnoticed. The Mascomy val- 

 ley is rather short ; and ledges between Enfield and Hartford, Vt., are 

 rare. There is a moraine-like accumulation of till about a quarter of a 

 mile below the outlet of the lake, whose origin may be explained either 

 by supposing it to be the frontal rubbish of a local glacier, or the filling 

 up of the valley by the south-east current from Hayes hill. The exist- 

 ence of the projecting hill is very marked ; and it is spoken of by the resi- 

 dents of East Lebanon as a former barrier to the progress of the water, so 

 that the lake must once have had a much greater extension, leaving its 

 shore marks forty or fifty feet above the present level of the water in 

 beaches of sand. Excavations in this barrier show both the lower and 

 upper till with great distinctness. Next come Mink brook, Hanover; 

 Great brook, Lyme; Jacob's brook, Orford ; Bean's and Eastman's brooks, 

 Piermont, — none of which afford marked glacial features, that is, we have 

 not noted any. On the north branch of Jacob's brook, between S. H. 

 Sargent's and the water, are many large blocks of Bethlehem gneiss, the 

 rock which is in place a mile higher up, and not at the place of crossing. 

 I did not [(jllow down the stream to search further for these boulders. 

 But the evidence is clear of the transportation of rocks down the stream 



