142 MILTON SAND BAR. 



TEERACES ON LAMOILLE RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 



La Moille Eiver is not as large as the Winooski, nor quite as long. It rises in Greensboro, from the union 

 of several streams (formerly from Runaway Pond), runs southwest to Hardwick, when it turns northwes- 

 terly, passes through the middle of La Moille County, the south part of Franklin County, and finally joins 

 Lake Champlain in the northwest corner of Chittenden County, in the town of Milton. Its current above 

 Cambridge is in general slow and gentle, but below Cambridge it is interrupted by falls, and is more rocky. 

 There are five basins of terraces upon it. And in general we may say, respecting the terraces on this river, 

 that they are larger and higher than upon any other river in the State. 



The delta of the La Moille River is quite interesting. It is not so extensive as that of the Winooski, 

 but its general features are the same, so far as the delta is completed. On the Winooski, we stated that 

 the whole country west of the Winooski limestone range had been brought there by the Winooski River, 

 and that the delta had reached a ledge of Utica slate, formerly an island. We find the same conditions at 

 the mouth of the La Moille, but the process is not yet completed. The river has cut through the Winooski 

 limestone range, which is much higher in Milton than in Colchester, and has deposited a delta of one or two 

 miles in extent beyond it, mostly made up of very low land, it being the first terrace. There are, however, 

 three terraces at its eastern border. This delta is triangular in shape ; and upon the County Map there may 

 be seen an arm of the lake from the north side of the sand bar, approaching almost to the La Moille, about a 

 mile from the lake. There can be no doubt that the river formerly entered the lake by this channel, in 

 addition to the present one, and that the famous sand bar between Milton and South Hero was formed by 

 their joint action. This bar is nearly one and a half miles long ; its width we have no means of ascertaining, 

 as the bottom of Lake Champlain has never been surveyed. Formerly this bar was fordable at low water, 

 but now there is a bridge, or road built upon it, by forming an embankment of the common decomposing 

 (Utica) slate rock of South Hero. When this road was constructed, it was thought that as the river 

 entered the lake below the bridge, its detritus, when brought down into the lake, would be washed by the 

 waves upon the road, and thus protect the embankment from the action of the water. This principle is 

 doubtless correct, but it is a question of time. Already there has been quite a large quantity of sand 

 accumulated at the east end for several rods ; but the prevalent winds from the south have dashed up waves 

 against the embankment, so that it has been badly injured in the middle and west parts. As the slate 

 decomposes easily, disintegration has gone on more rapidly during the ten years since it was erected, than 

 the proprietors have desired. It is now in a poor condition, and we see no better way in which it is 

 to be repaired, than by bringing upon it more pieces of rock, perhaps of a harder kind than the slate. 

 Fortunately there is a ledge of tough limestone near by, than which no better article could be procured. 

 The hill just east of the flat in Milton, is entirely composed of this rock, and if fragments of it could be 

 placed upon this embankment to fill up the holes, and form a macadamized road, great benefits would 

 ensue. A road would be secured, not easily worn away, and the ridge thus formed would gradually collect 

 the sand about it, until the delta of the La Moille shall have reached South Hero ; in other words, have 

 reached the island of slate rock, which its sister stream at Colchester Point has already done. 



At this bridge-road the sand has accumulated on the north side, although there is no stream of any 

 account below to transport it. We account for its transportation in this way : the former mouth of the 

 La Moille,"in conjunction with the present, formed the sand bar, and consequently at the north the bar is 

 quite wide. We believe that for some distance north of the road the water is very shallow. If so, the 

 waves would naturally wash up sand from the shallow bottom against the embankment, and as the sand is 

 heavier than the water it would be left there, forming a beach, just as the ocean forms beaches at the 

 present day. We know of no other way in which it could have collected, unless in the times of freshets 

 and high storms, the water should flow over the road from the south to the north, and then carry over the 

 sand. We think, however, that this is not often the case we were not informed in regard to it, learning 

 only from our informant that the water on the south side was frequently two or three feet higher than 

 upon the north side. We adjoin a few words from Prof. Thompson's manuscript, relating to this bar, and 

 to the filling up of Lake Champlain with detritus : 



