DAVIS: RIVER TERRACES IN NEW ENGLAND. oon 
appearance ; since then it has only been confirmed by finding that it had 
already been born to Miller, and by deducing its more minute conse- — 
quences as presented in Part III. of this essay in order to confront them 
with numerous examples of actual terrace forms, some of which are 
described on these pages. 
Eastern Section. The lower stretch of Saxtons river, Figure 41, gives 
beautiful illustration of terraces produced by a stream that has oscillated 
between two fixed nodes. At the upper node, the stream is narrowly 
held by ledges at Aand G. A little further up-stream is a rocky gorge 
with cascades, from which the stream is diverted for water-power. The 
lower valley becomes somewhat more open as the space widens between 
the ledges B, C, on the south and J-H, L-K, on the north. The small 
re-entrants between these ledges nearly everywhere bear the marks of 
having been energetically swept back as far as possible by the stream 
at various levels during the erosion of the valley. The stream has 
swung northward at least nine times on the J-H group of ledges, and 
southward at least seven times on the B group, where till seems to 
supplement the restraint of rock. 
On leaving the cascade and the rapids below it, the stream has graded 
its course with respect to the eastern rock node between M and F-E; 
none of the ledges encountered on the way have had other effect than 
in limiting the breadth to which the successive flood plains have been 
opened during the degradation of the valley. That the degradation was 
gradual, giving the stream abundant time for broad swinging and 
wandering, right and left, is abundantly proved by the terrace remnants 
of flood plains at various levels. 
Passing the narrows at C, L-K, there is a broad stretch comparatively 
free from ledges until the heavy ridge of rock, M, F-E, is encountered 
close to the junction of Saxtons river with the Connecticut. The ridge 
is now cut through by a narrow gorge, with falls on the down-stream 
side where the road and railroad bridges cross the stream: whether this 
gorge is entirely the work of postglacial time, I cannot say. 
An oval plain, known as the Basin farm, has been opened between 
the upper and lower narrows, its smooth fields uniting with the curving 
terrace scarps in a most graceful and pleasing landscape. The Basin 
plain probably had twice as great an area at the level of its mid-height 
terraces as it now has at the level of the modern flood plain; but this 
reduction of area is not to be wondered at, in view of the increasing 
constriction imposed upon the swinging stream by the mutual approach 
of the ledges C and K as lower and lower levels were reached. 
