154 SEA BOTTOMS. 



beaches may be reckoned on the east side of the valley in Salem and Brownington, at the heights of 27G 

 and 579 feet above the lake, or 971 and 1274 feet above the ocean. We have no doubt that others might 

 be found in this part of the State; nor are we sure but that some of the "highest terraces" may come 

 under this head. Craftsbury Common 1158 feet above the ocean, we have not seen, but from its represen- 

 tation we should judge it to be an interesting terrace or beach. 



Upon the hill east of Sudbury Post Office there are two beautiful sea beaches, closely resembling ter- 

 races. They are about an eighth of a mile long. The upper one is about twenty-five feet higher than 

 the lower one, and (approximately) is 570 feet above the ocean. It is probable that marine shells may be 

 found in them, as they are so near the level o'f the Champlain clays. 



Between Milton Falls and Colchester, there is a beach upon the east side of the Vermont and Canada 

 Kailroad, quite high up the side of the valley. 



Commencing at the village of Starksboro, and extending north for a mile upon the east side of the 

 valley, there is a very clear case of an ancient sea beach. The small water-worn pebbles are exceedingly 

 numerous. Two miles south of the village of Starksboro, there is a beach, probably at the same level as 

 the previous one. Both are nearly 1000 feet above the ocean. 



VI. ANCIENT SEA BOTTOMS. 



If we find evidence of the existence of shores of ancient seas, we should expect to 

 discover the remains of their bottoms; and it seems to us -that in Vermont, as well as in 

 other parts of New England, especially in the more elevated portions, the many gravelly 

 and sandy plains and low ridges can be explained only by the former presence of the 

 ocean above them, with its Avaves, tides and currents. In the vicinity of Connecticut River 

 they are less obvious, because in the lower parts of the valley, drainage has, in a measure, 

 obliterated the marks of oceanic action, and the materials have been converted into terra- 

 ces. The sides of the valley also rise too rapidly to expect many such accumulations 

 of detritus as form sea bottoms. In the neighborhood of the present bed of the ocean in 

 other parts of the country, and in those parts of Vermont that are nearest the ocean, by 

 their small elevation above it, we find the surface covered with such materials, and in such 

 forms as the ocean must have produced. In Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode 

 Island, we see this statement exemplified in the comparatively low region, within twenty, 

 or thirty miles of the coast. In Vermont it is shown in those extensive deposits of clay 

 in the Champlain valley, which are not generally found above 500 feet above the present 

 ocean level. The proof in the latter case is made much more satisfactory by the great 

 abundance of fossil marine shells, strewed over the valley. 



In those parts of the State where Sea Beaches, Sea Bottoms, Moraine Terraces and 

 Terraces are found, the same valley may sometimes contain all these phenomena. If the 

 ocean has stood at several successive levels, as our researches have led us to suppose, 

 what may have been the bottom of the ocean when it stood at its greatest altitude, 

 may have become the level of the shore at a subsequent period, and still later, the place 

 where Moraine Terraces and Terraces have been formed. Hence we should expect to find 

 the oldest and highest forms the least perfect, as is the case. 



We will describe the localities of these Ancient Sea Bottoms, mentioning first the oldest 

 and highest. If the ocean once covered the tops of Jay Peak and Mansfield mountain, as 

 is shoAvn by the striae upon them, surely the whole of Vermont might justly be called the 

 bottom of a former ocean. Yet it would collect detritus only in certain places, and it is 



