216 POT-HOLES. 



feet deeper than the gorge, must have been filled so as to cause the water of the river to flow through the 

 gorge. What a vast amount of denudation must have since taken place ! When we think of the antiq- 

 uity of this old ruin, how do those of Egygt and Nineveh seem but the work of yesterday ! 



POT-HOLES. 



The existence of pot-holes in ledges of rock we have always regarded a* proof that a cataract once existed 

 at the spot, for in no other way can their formation be explained. No movement of waves or tides in the 

 ocean can account for them. Hence, wherever they occur, rivers must have existed. Generally, but not 

 always, other proofs are found, with the pot-holes, of ancient rivers ; but these excavations are the best evi- 

 dence. A few examples will be given, and from the ease with which these were found, we infer that longer 

 examination would bring others to light. 



1. At the soapstone quarry in the west part of Newfane, a spot about 2600 feet above the ocean. The 

 soapstone, in connection with huge masses of serpentine, forms the crest of a hill in the extreme westerly 



F I0 . 105. ipart of Newfane, on whose west side 



tlie pot-holes occur, as shown in Fig. 

 ^105. The slope of the hill is as repre- 

 sented on the figure, descending three 

 hundred feet to a brook, on whose west 

 side is a corresponding hill in Dover. 

 The conclusion seems fair, that the stream once ran where the pot-holes now are, and that subsequently it 

 has worn out the valley in which it now runs, to the depth of three hundred feet. Other agencies may have 

 aided in the work, as the great width of the valley perhaps indicates. The ocean may have done some- 

 thing, but we think that probably the stream itself which is of considerable size, and capable, when swollen, 

 of powerful erosion has mostly disposed of the materials. 



2. Pot-holes occur in Wardsboro on the farm of Eliab Scott, one half mile west of his house. Three 

 of them may be seen within an area of four rods, the largest 3 feet across, and 4 feet deep to the gravel 

 lying in the lower part. The rock is talco micaceous schist. The spot (says C. H. Hitchcock who has 

 alone visited it) is just where a current would go from Wardsboro to Newfane Soap Stone. Very prob- 

 ably the pot-holes at these two localities indicate two cataracts in one and the same ancient river. The 

 Wardsboro locality is 1500 feet above the ocean. 



3. Other pot-holes still larger occur in Wardsboro, in a depression in the dividing ridge between Deer- 

 field and West Rivers. This point is 2235 feet above the ocean, and here a branch of West River takes 

 its rise, running northwesterly to a branch of Deerfield River, running southerly. The holes occur a little 

 north of the crest where the surface slopes in that direction ; and thus is it made probable that the stream 

 which produced them must have flowed northerly : and yet it was suspected that pot-holes occur also on 

 the southern slope, though not actually found. If so, a stream must once have flowed southerly over the 

 spot. Nor would it be strange if at different periods of the world's history there might have been currents 

 in different directions. For at this spot, some 40 feet below the pot-holes, drift strire are seen. This fact 

 shows that the holes were excavated a long time before the striae were made. 



This spot has been visited by only one of us (c. H. H.), and he probably had not time to trace out all 

 the relations of this case. He was accompanied to the spot by Mr. H. P. Goodell, Principal of a school 

 in Wardsboro, and several others who united in efforts to clear out the gravel from the largest of those 

 holes. Mr. G-. paid a subsequent visit to the spot, and thus describes it: " Since our visit to the pot-hole the 

 sand and gravel have been removed, and at the bottom, in some coarse sand, two stones, real hard-heads, 

 smooth as polished marble, were found. They are not spherical, but nearly twice as long in one direction as the 

 other. One weighs one and a quarter pounds, the other 46i pounds. The hole is 10 feet 8 inches deep, 

 in diameter 2 feet. Immediately behind the hole the rock rises twenty feet ; some twenty-five or thirty 

 rods further back is an elevation of two hundred feet. The form of the hole is screw like, the thread making 

 three complete turns before reaching the bottom, which is shaped like that of a caldron kettle." 



