108 



SECTIONS. 



FIG. 61. 



Unknown 



iSanH 



The section represented as Fig. 51, commences at the west bank of the Connecticut Kiver and the south 

 bank of Whetstone Brook, and runs southwesterly to the top of the elevated sandy plain that passes into 



the basin, No. 5, just considered. (See the line of the sec- 

 ' tion on Plate VII, Fig. 2.) The terraces appear to be the 

 joint result of Whetstone Brook and of Connecticut River. 

 They are, therefore, more numerous than is usual on the 

 Connecticut, and less so than on this same Whetstone Brook, 

 as the next section will show. 



The Connecticut Valley was probably occupied originally 

 by terrace materials as high as the uppermost of the above 

 terraces on this section, and when the waters gradually 

 subsided, both the Connecticut and Whetstone Brook formed channels through those materials, and 

 produced the successive terraces. Why terraces, rather than a continuous slope, were formed, will be shown 

 in another place. 



FIG. 52. 



Otoclt 



Section from Braltleboro Bridge (Cl. River) to the southwest. 



Sec. in Brattleboro from the mouth of West R. across the village and Whetstone Brook. 



Fig. 52 shows quite an instructive section, commencing on the south bank of West Eiver at its point 

 of junction with the Connecticut, then extending southwesterly across the village of Brattleboro to the 

 high bank of Whetstone Brook, a little west of the village, opposite Surge's factories ; thence across the 

 brook, and up the opposite bank, so as to cross the successive terraces, ten in number. The upper one was 

 not measured, on account of the rain. Nor was the height of the brook, where the section crosses it, 

 ascertained above Connecticut Eiver. 



It will be seen that No. 5, on the left hand part of this section, consists in part of an insulated hillock, 

 crossed a little north of the village ; and in the main part of a broad terrace, on which stands the upper and 

 northwest portion of the village. This terrace, as was found by levelling, slopes towards Connecticut Eiver, 

 at the rate of twenty feet in fifty rods. Possibly this might have been in part the result of rains for a long 

 period, bringing down from the hill deposits of sand, by which the terrace is bounded. More probably the 

 terrace was formed by the conjoint action of West Eiver and Whetstone Brook as a delta terrace, and that 

 its slope was caused by the rapidity of the currents. 



All these terraces are underlaid by clay slate, which shows itself all along the banks of the streams, and 

 between the seventh and eighth terraces above the mouth of West Eiver, on Fig. 52. It is doubtless this 

 solid rock that has determined the present channels of the tributaries to the Connecticut, and caused them 

 to enter that river at nearly right angles. The mere sand and loam of the terraces would soon be washed 

 away, in time of freshets, were it not for this rocky formation. 



We see here a good exemplification of the statement made on a preceding page, that smaller streams 

 have smaller terraces than the larger streams, while they are much more numerous on the smaller streams. 

 Here we have ten on Whetstone Brook, and nine on West Eiver, yet they do not rise as high as the fourth 

 on the Connecticut, in Vernon. It is just to add, however, that this larger number on the tributaries is 

 shown best within a short distance, sometimes two or three miles from their junction with the larger stream, 

 as in this case ; for if we follow up Whetstone Brook the terraces grow less numerous. Passing west of 

 the highest terrace of the Connecticut, at an axe factory, three-fourths of a mile west of the village, we find 

 five terraces on the south side, instead of the ten at Burge's, and Nos. 1 and 5 upon the north side. 



