FLOOD DEPOSITS OF THE WESTFIELD RIVER. 



607 



CHARACTER OF THE TERRACED FLOOD DEPOSITS OF THE WESTFIELD 



RIVER. 



From the point where it lea-\-es tlie gates of the niouiitaiu ou the west 

 line of Westfield, the Westfield River is bordered by higli-level, coarse beds 

 along the narrow valley sides, which widen somewhat where lateral valleys 

 come in, as at Russell, Huutiugton, and Chester. The vallej^ uarroAvs above 





A d^ik 



,-^.<^f\r^^^^"- 



Fig. 33. — Section ol terminal moraine covered by bigh level flood gravels ot the Westfield River. The north slope i.s caused 

 by caving from the erosion of the river. Russell, just below station. 



Chester, becomes a canyon between Becket and Washington, Avidens broadly 

 across Hinsdale, and joins the Housatonic Valley in Dalton with increased 

 width. The canyon is a low water-parting. The whole central part of Hins- 

 dale is deepl)' coAered by the stratified beds of a glacial lake which received 

 its waters from the Housatonic Valley while the ice clogged the loAver portion 

 of that valley, and discharged them through the canyon of the Westfield. 

 It thus follows that the 

 Westfield Valley was for 

 a time the recipient of the 

 deflected drainage of the 

 upper Housatonic after 

 the ice had disappeared 

 from its own headwaters, 

 and the many bowlders and | 

 pebbles of Cheshire quartz- 



ite found down the valley Fiq. 34.— Sand bowUlers crushed by the ice while frozen, from just south of 

 n J.1 • 1 1 J.' the teleffraiih pole seen at the left in fig. 33. 



confirm this deduction. 



An extremely interesting section was opened by the Boston and Albany 

 Railroad, in 1895, just east of Russell, which thi-ows light on the way in 

 which the teiraced beds in the A'alley of the Westfield were built up, as 

 shown in fig. 33. 



In the upstream portion of the section the lower half is a complete 



