BANDED CLAYS. 15 
3. BANDED CLAYS IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY AND IN 
RHODE ISLAND 
In New England, the best exposures of banded glacial clays are in the 
Connecticut Valley. Emerson has studied the Massachusetts localities and 
described them in detail. During the summer: of 1916, I examined the clays 
along both sides of the Connecticut River from Hanover, N. H., as far north as 
McelIndoes, Vt., a distance of forty miles. In all the exposures seen, regular 
banding was found. The types of the banding varied. In some cases the 
thickness of the coarse component of the deposit was about equal to the fine 
component. In other cases the coarse was thicker than the fine. In the thin 
deposits of finest material the fine layer was found thicker as a rule than the 
coarse layer, although the opposite of this condition was found. From a com- 
parison of the various deposits seen it is natural to assume that the extremely 
regular alternations of fine and coarse materials, as displayed in the banding, 
mean the differences in the conditions of deposition corresponding to winter 
and summer. Various disturbing factors have at times intruded themselves 
in such a way as to make interruptions or breaks in the regular order. Only in 
deep or quiet water can deposition go on undisturbed. In proof of this it may 
be said that the coarser banded materials invariably show the greatest irregulari- 
ties, and that the finest clays show the most regular intervals in banding, and 
the least evidence of disturbing factors. 
In examining the clays on both sides of the Connecticut River many ex- 
posures were visited. To describe all the exposures would be unnecessary. It 
will be sufficient for the purposes of this inquiry to choose a few of the well- 
exposed localities and give a full account of my field observations, with short 
statements of important findings in a few other localities in the Connecticut 
and Ammonoosuc Valleys. 
Goldthwait gave me verbal directions to a locality on the Vermont side 
of the Connecticut River about two miles north of Hanover, N. H. I spent a 
part of one day at this locality and the following description is based on the 
observations made. About thirty feet above the river it was seen that sand 
rested on the underlying till. No gravel was observed here. The sand was of 
coarse and fine texture with no marked regularity of interval between the layers. 
These irregularly stratified sands continued with gradually increasing fineness 
of grain, up to a level about twenty-five feet above the till, where a layer of clay 
