MODIFIED DKIFT. 93 



PHENOMENA OF MODIFIED DRIFT. 



TEKRACES AND BEACHES. 



BY C. H. HITCHCOCK. 



Terraces are objects of common observation. The inhabitants of- the Green Mountain 

 valleys, and the travelers who visit the different parts of the State for business or pleas- 

 ure, are equally struck with admiration of their number, form and symmetry. And it is 

 with peculiar pleasure that we discuss their relations and origin, because we shall not 

 speak of what is unseen or unknown. We are not obliged to dig into the earth to find 

 them, nor will our reasonings upon their formation be so abstruse that they cannot be 

 understood. Whoever will observe their order in nature will not fail to appreciate reason- 

 able theories respecting their origin. 



Though valleys are so very common, people are not apt to inquire how they were formed, 

 nor why their sides are lined with terraces ; but they make a practical use of these beau- 

 tiful situations furnished by nature as sites for their pleasure grounds, dwellings, villages, 

 and cemeteries. Very few persons have thought how much indebted to terraces for their 

 beauty are the towns of Brattleboro, Newbury, and Waterbury. Among the many villages 

 in the State besides these, whose natural attraction is in a great measure caused by these 

 terraces, are Vernon, Westminster, Bellows Falls, Weathersfield, Windsor, North Hart- 

 land, White River Junction, Bradford, Wells River, Guildhall, and Canaan, upon Con- 

 necticut River ; Fayetteville, upon West River ; Proctorsville, Cavendish, and Ludlow, 

 upon Black River; Quechee Village and Woodstock, upon the Otta Quechee River; 

 White River Village, Bethel and Randolph, upon White River ; St. Johnsbury Plain 

 and Lyndon, upon Passumpsic River; East Bennington, upon the Waloomsac River; 

 Pawlet, upon Pawlet River ; Poultney, upon Poultney River ; Brandon and Pittsford, 

 upon Otter Creek; Burlington and Richmond, upon Winooski River; Milton Falls, 

 Johnson and Hyde Park, upon the La Moille ; besides others perhaps upon the Missis- 

 co River, Avhich we have not had sufficient opportunity to examine. Of cemeteries 

 built upon terraces, we remember to have noticed those at Windsor and St. Johnsbury as 

 particularly attractive. To mention particular dwellings or pleasure grounds, whose 

 attractiveness arises substantially from their terraced site, would exceed our limits, suffice 

 it to say that along the principal rivers they are very numerous and attractive. 



Though terraces are so numerous and striking, yet geologists have not devoted much 

 attention to them. In their endeavors to discover the relations and contents of the lower 

 and more hidden formations, they have neglected the superficial layers. Hence there is 

 some diversity of opinion among geologists respecting both the facts and theories relating 

 to surface phenomena. The fullest works on terraces and old sea beaches, are Charles 

 Darwin's Geological Observations upon South America, published in 1846 ; Robert Cham- 

 bers' Ancient Sea Margins, published in 1847, and a Memoir in the ninth volume of the 

 Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, published in 1857, entitled Illustrations of Surface 

 Geology* by Edward Hitchcock. The views presented in this last work, arrived at, as 



* In I860, J. S. & C. Adams, of Arnherst, Mass., published a second edition of this work, which contains a few descriptions not found 

 in the first edition. 



