THE HIGH TERRACE IN AMUEUST. 645 



where a few feet of digging exposes the till below. This plain sinks away 

 to the next lower level on the west, that on which the Agricultural College 

 buildings are placed, because the old surface of the till had this configura- 

 tion and was not filled up, the outer (western) portion of this latter plain 

 being, however, made up of thick sands through which the brook has cut 

 between the college buildings. This sand is the southern tongue of the 

 delta of Cushmans Brook, carried along the western flank of the IMount 

 Pleasant hill after this delta had grown across so as to abut against the 

 north end of this hill, and had thus built out the great sand plain which 

 stretches north therefrom, and the main current of the brook, rounding the 

 hill itself, carried the sand south along its western flank, at a level much 

 below that of the high-water stand of the lake. 



Farther south, Mount Pleasant breaks down suddenly, and a short dis- 

 tance to the west a rocky projection at the head of North Prospect street 

 rises 30 to 40 feet above the old high-water stand. This mass of rock, 

 which has now been mostly covered up, used to be called Pikes Peak, and 

 for convenience I will continue to employ that name. Between Mount 

 Pleasant and Pikes Peak the water had free communication with the East 

 Street basin across the village of Amherst. The water line followed the 300- 

 foot contour around the south spur of Mount Pleasant, extended as a rounded 

 bay up its eastern side, skirted on the south the hill on which Professor Tyler's 

 house stands, and so swung around northeast to join the broader teiTace 

 above the railroad. (See p. 642.) From Pikes Peak the water line extended 

 south just west of and at the next level below Prospect street for the whole 

 length of this street, turned southeast through the grounds of the president's 

 house, crossed South Pleasant street and ran at the foot of the sharp slope 

 south of the Octagon, skirted the College Hill on the south and east, and 

 on the north ran just north of the Lucius Boltwood house, now Hitchcock 

 Hall, and along the south border of the common, and bending north and 

 crossing Pleasant street it ran north just west of this main street of the 

 village, past the hotel front, to the point of beginning at Pikes Peak. Thus 

 an L-shaped island, with the College Hill as its horizontal and the Prospect 

 street ridge as its vertical portion, rose above the level of the flood waters, 

 which came up almost exactly to the level of the post-oftice steps. It must 

 be remembered that the level of the college chapel was once continuous 

 under the Octagon, the library, and the XW house, and that the deep notches 



