398 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



the high summits of Mendon, Killington and Shrewsbury extend- 

 ing east and west shut off the view in this direction. The lowest 

 part of this amphitheatre is just northwest of Cuttingsville where 

 Mill Creek has cut down to an elevation of looo feet above the 

 sea. Killington Peak marks the highest point to the north, 4241 

 feet. The Central Vermont Railroad finds the lowest pass in the 

 southern part of the range through this amphitheatre at Summit 

 Station, 1500 feet above the sea. 



Standing on the summit of Killington a wilderness of moun- 

 tains meets one's view ; the Taconic Mountains on the west and 

 southwest ; the Adirondacks to the northwest ; far away north- 

 east the White Mountains are plainly visible and the sharp out- 

 lying peaks, Monadnock, Kearsarge and Wachusett are seen to 

 the southeast. The summits of all these mountains, with the 

 multitude of peaks in Vermont, have the appearance of a remark- 

 ably uniform height about which numerous narrow valleys are 

 seen ; their relatively uniform height can safely be referred to 

 an ancient base-level plain, in which upon elevation the north 

 and south gently-flowing streams were quickly cut along the 

 linear limestone belts, hastening and causing the development of 

 the torrential lateral streams that flow east and west from the 

 Green Mountain divide. It is to this torrential character of the 

 streams and the schistose nature of the rocks that the sharp, 

 angular topography in large part seems to be due. Rutland and 

 Plymouth valleys, some twelve miles apart on either side of the 

 range, are deeply cut in limestone — the former at Rutland to a 

 depth of 500 feet above the sea. The great cutting power of the 

 streams flowing into this valley from the east is thus seen to be 

 due to a fall of over 3000 feet in a distance of six miles. The 

 Green Mountain divide is about midway between these two val- 

 leys. Relatively less pronounced topographical features charac- 

 terize the amphitheatre ; sharp, high elevations occur, which 

 are capped by more resistant rocks than those making up 

 the main central area. It is between the lower rocks of this cen- 

 tral depression and the formation along the east and west bor- 

 ders and to the north that an unconformity separating the rocks 



