high mountains ; and, in its upper course, to occupy all the 

 room which was left for its passage. It presents to the eye 

 from some of the eminences, for miles in length, the appearance 

 of a silver ribband lying in a crooked line, and gleaming in the 

 sun between precipitous hills, which are fringed and covered 

 with a thick deep foliage of ever-greens from the base to the 

 summit. In other situations in the county, the mountains are 

 in a single pile like Mount Tobey, between Montague and Lev- 

 erett, which is seen like a huge animal reposing, with her cubs 

 lying in every direction around her. 



There cannot be pointed out a single town in the county 

 without its fair proportion of hills. The northern, however, 

 are much more mountainous than the southern portions of the 

 county. The mountains are in general covered with a thick 

 growth of wood, but the hills, in most cases, though rising al- 

 most to mountains, are cleared. In some instances, the farm- 

 ers have planted their houses on the very summits, and have 

 around them cultivated and productive fields ; but usually these 

 high lands are devoted to pasturage. The rocks in the county 

 are principally granite, though green-stone and red sand-stone 

 abound ; and in two places at least, there are considerable de- 

 posits of lime-stone of an excellent quality. 



III. Soils. — The soils are various in kind and quality. On^ 

 the eastern side of Connecticut river, sand is the predominant 

 element in the soils near the river. On the hills, however, 

 abounding with rocks, the soil is not of a very definite charac- 

 ter, but seems chiefly composed of yellow loam, with a fair 

 amount of vegetable mould. On the alluvial lands, of which 

 there is a large extent at Northfield and Sunderland on the 

 Connecticut river, and at Deerfield, on the Deerfield river, the 

 land abounds with fine sand intermingled with much vegetable 

 matter, being the washings from the neighboring hills, and de- 

 posits from the occasional over-flowings of the banks, mixed 

 with a considerable portion of adhesive and argillaceous matter, 

 which gives it a strong consistency. The lands on the Deer- 



