TOPOGRAPHY. 179 



excavation, iron ochre and the "vitrified ore" were obtained in considera- 

 ble amount. The noise probably came from the decomposition of pyrites, 

 while the ores are such as slightly resemble artificial slag, though formed 

 by concretion or segregation from moist clay. 



The high land continues through Chesterfield, Westmoreland, and Wal- 

 pole, cut down to 830 feet in Westmoreland for the passage of the 

 Cheshire Railroad, and to the level of the Connecticut just below Bellows 

 Falls. On the Vermont side the slate range of Guilford has been cut 

 through by West river in Brattleborough and Dummerston. Just to the 

 north there is the conical granitic peak of Black mountain, which is the 

 culmination of the hilly ridge from Bellows Falls. Both the Vermont 

 and New Hampshire ridges close in at Bellows Falls, making Kilburn 

 peak in Walpole. This is about 1 200 feet high, and is more ragged and 

 precipitous than Wantastiquit. It is an outlier of an older formation, 

 upon which the slates were originally deposited, and then elevated so as 

 to stand nearly upon their edges. Three streams have cut around this 

 mountain ; the Connecticut and Saxton's rivers on the west, and Cold 

 river along its south-eastern slope. My father supposed the Bellows 

 Falls gorge was worn out subsequently to the formation of the pot-holes 

 in Orange, along the track of the Northern Railroad. The occurrence of 

 the pot-holes, however, can be explained more simply otherwise. 



The third of the basins is not quite so regular. On the east side 

 there commences a series of mountains of quartz, in Charlestown, 

 Acworth, Unity, Claremont, Croydon, Grantham, Plainfield, East Leba- 

 non, Hanover, Lyme, Orford, and Piermont, into Benton. The basin 

 may terminate in Cornish, opposite Mt. Ascutney. In Charlestown we 

 have Page, Sam's, and Prospect hills. Perry's mountain makes a range 

 between Unity and Charlestown, cut through by Little Sugar river. The 

 land then rises into Fifield hill, Unity, and Bible hill, Claremont. At 

 this point Sugar river valley intervenes, and carries the proper Connecti- 

 cut slope farther east than the district under consideration. On the 

 north the mountains increase their strength, and the long and elevated 

 Croydon and Grantham range pushes on to the Mascomy lake in East 

 Lebanon. Green and Bald mountains in Claremont are the foot hills of 

 this range. Barber's mountain occupies a bend in the river in West 

 Claremont. In Cornish, Parsonage, Smith's, Kenyon, and Dingleton 



