THE GEOLOCiY OF WESTFIl^LD. 655 



above the highest modern flood level at that place. The ledge breaks the coutiuuity 

 of the lowest beds of the terrace, aud may have once formed a considerable dam in 

 the gap. Above the ledge the beds are continuous through the gap, and are evidence 

 that there the gap was open. 



If the gaps in the Divide range were not closed daring the Chaniplain period, 

 the height of the water must have been due to some other conditions. There were 

 two conditions on which the height of the water seems to have depended, viz: (1) The 

 narrowness of the gaps through the Divide range, and (2) the difference in slojte of 

 the valleys east aud west of the range. 



Dr. Davis, in his History of Westtield, says that the WestUeld River at Westfield, 

 during floods in 1819 and 1826, rose 14 feet. Mr. L. F. lioot, civil engineer of this 

 place and of the Canal Kailroad, has recorded a rise of 12 feet during the great flood 

 of 18(J9. Mr. Austin Williams made marks upon a tree near the north end of Morley's 

 bridge, showing the height of the water there during an ice flood in ISm, and also 

 during the flood of 1809. In 18.5.') the water rose 27A feet, and in 18C9 it rose 26 feet. 

 It thus appears that when the river rose 12 feet at the village it rose 26 feet in the 

 gap. Some of the excess in height was due to the inflowing water from Little River, 

 but by far the greater part is due to the smalluess of the gap through the range. 



By measuring the gaj) it has been determined that a flood nineteen and one-half 

 times as great as the highest modern flood would flow through the gap at such height 

 as to cover the top of the highest terrace. 



The overflow from the Connecticut and Manhan rivers entered the Westfield 

 Valley by two large streams, neither of which were less than three-fourths of a mile 

 in width, and one having a depth of 40 feet in its most shallow portion. Add to the 

 water poured into the Westfield Valley by these two streams the immense floods of 

 the Westfield rivers and it will be seen that for such floods the gap through the Divide 

 range was a small outlet. The smalluess of the gap evidently had much to do with 

 increasing the height of the water west of the Divide range. 



Suppo«ng the stratified drift were removed from the valleys on both sides of the 

 Divide range, we would see that the northern portion of the valley on the west side 

 has much less slope than the corresponding portion of the Connecticut Valley on the 

 opi>osite side of the ridge. The valley west of the range is crossed by the red sand- 

 stone divides which separate the Westfield River Valley from the Manhan liiver A'alley 

 on the north and the Farmiugton Valley on the south. Such divides are not found in 

 the Connecticut Valley on the opposite side of the ridge. 



The lowest parts of the valley west of the Divide range are those across which 

 the Westfield and Farmiugton rivers flow. These lowest portions are considerably 

 higher than the lowest i>arts of the Connecticut Valley directly opposite, else the 

 Westfield and Farmiugton rivers would not flow into the Connecticut. 



It is evident that at the close of the Glacial period the average slope of the valley 

 west of the Divide range was much less than that of the opposite portion of the Con- 

 necticut Valley. The two valleys filled, during the Champlain period, with water from 

 the Connecticut Valley, in the region of Northampton, acted much like two parallel 



