JUNGTIOX OF MOXTAGUE AND HADLEY LAKES. 619 



Nearer the obstructing- hill a hrook lias taken advantag'e of the depres- 

 sion and, as happens very often in similar circmnstances — so often, indeed, as 

 to make it the rule — has worn down between the hill and the terrace gravels, 

 sHppiug down, as it were, u})on the northward-sloping side of the sand- 

 covered drumlin and eroding for the most part in the sands of the terrace. 

 The plain is, however, clearly continuous through this pass around the west 

 side of the hill; on the east side it has been removed or terraced down to 

 lower levels by the river. A distinct esker ridg-e, elevated about 20 feet 

 above the level of the plain, and older than it, runs along southeastwardly 

 through the i)ass and near the mountain side, ending- opi)Osite the second 

 crossing. 



South of the village of Gill for a long distance lower terraces abut 

 directly upon the steep rocks, and only traces of the liig-h terrace bench occur 

 where the road comes down from the hill to the Northfield Farms ferry. A 

 section in the latter showed about "20 feet of clay, its surface about 70 feet 

 above the river and 150 above the sea Above this are sands. From this 

 point the vertical rock wall of the canyon bounds the river, and the high 

 terrace disappears, except in traces, until one reaches Turners Falls. 



THE EXTENSION OF THE FLOOD GRAVELS WESTWARD THROUGH THE BERNARDSTON 

 PASS TO JOIN THE HEAD OF THE HAULEY LAKE IN THE NORTH OF GREENFIELD. 



North of M()unt Hermon the mountain side, against Avhich on the west 

 the great bench we are following has rested, swings abruptly westward and 

 continues — maintaining its height — westward to Bernardston. Between this 

 hillside and Mount Hermon the gravels of the Bennetts Brook plain extend 

 westward thi-ougli a narrow pass, 200 rods wide, which I have for conveni- 

 ence called the Bernardston Pass. This is occupied by the highway and 

 the railroad running past Bernardston. The gravels are naturally lowered 

 in the nan-ow portion of the pass, but rapidly regain their high level of 392 

 feet as the pass widens southwestwardly and the sands expand into a broad, 

 very level plain which widens north up the fiord A'alley of Dry Brook. It 

 doubtless owes its abundant sands largely to the great stream which flowed 

 down this valley, and its freedom from kettle-holes is due to the fact that 

 this stream continued to flow after the main current had ceased to flow 

 westward through the pass and the ice had completely melted awav beneath 

 the sands. 



