NUMBER OF TERRACES. 



109 



Near West Brattleboro, two miles west of the principal village, there are four terraces on the south side, 

 and none upon the north. Although these terraces are lateral, we find them at successively higher levels, 

 so that there are at least a dozen different levels by the time we reach the west part of the town, where two 

 streams unite. Here is quite a large oval meadow, surrounded by terraces (five upon the east side), par- 

 ticularly by quite a large one, No. 4, whose distinctness is very conspicuous. It- seems as if it must have 

 been formed by a barrier. If so, the blockade must have been somewhere in the Connecticut, and that at a 

 height of 400 feet above its present level ; for this terrace, which is not the highest, is 401 feet above the 

 Connecticut, as indicated by the Aneroid. For five miles farther west, we still find terraces in ascending 

 this brook and quite high ones which unfortunately are not accurately mapped or measured. At 1133 

 feet above the Connecticut are found loam, sand and water-worn pebbles, which have somewhat the appear- 

 ance of an old sea beach. We should expect to find a beach here, as they very frequently occur above 

 remarkable developments of terraces. 



Passing north from Brattleboro into Dummerston we find little but clay slate, cropping out at intervals, 

 until we reach a brook coming down from Dummerston Center. Here, as we often see, the highest terrace 

 (No. 5) curves and passes up the stream for half a mile, and then curves back upon the north side of the 

 branch until it is on a line with its course south of the stream, when it proceeds on its northerly course 

 parallel with the river. The meadow and other terraces, as at this place, curve with the highest terrace. 

 The next point of interest is in the south part of Putney, where five terraces are formed by a small stream 

 from the northwest, on each of its sides, as it crosses the terrraces belonging to Connecticut River. They 

 pass up the small stream for some distance. Fig. 53 

 exhibits a section, commencing with the highest dis- 

 tinct terrace in Westminster, a little south of the vil- 

 lage (which is located upon the second terrace 

 reckoning upwards), and crosses the Connecticut into 

 Walpole. Only the heights upon the west side 

 are given exactly those in Walpole having been 

 marked as they appeared from the west side. They 

 are very distinct on both sides, and perhaps they cor- 

 respond in height, though usually, in such cases, actual measurement shows considerable difference in 

 elevation, where the eye can detect none. 



At the upper end of the basin under consideration, the terraces are numerous and distinct, just below, ai 

 well as above Bellows Falls in the next basin. The section represented in Fig. 54 crosses Connecticut 



Walpole, N. H. 



FIG. 53. 



Section across Ct. River from N.W. lo S.E. at village of Westminster. 



FIG. 54. 



245 



Section across Conn. River in Westminster and Walpole, N. II., near the mouth 

 of Saxton's and Cold Rivers. 



River near the mouth of Saxton's River on the west side, and near the mouth of Cold River on the east side. 

 Of course the terraces are compounded of the effects of the three rivers. It will be seen that there is no 

 correspondence in their height on opposite sides of Connecticut River, except that the upper terrace very 

 probably once filled the valley ; for the difference in height between the opposite terraces (17 feet) is not 

 greater than we might expect on the supposition that the materials were drifted into a former lake, or estu- 

 ary, by the adjac6nt streams. These materials are, for the most part, coarse sand, sometimes mixed with 

 gravel. On the cast side ledges of rocks appear on the slope of a third terrace. 



