Connecticut River Valley. 219 
field, Deerfield, Whately, Hatfield, Northampton, Southampton, 
Westfield and Southwick, Mass., and in Connecticut, into Granby, 
Simsbury, Farmington, Southington, Cheshire, and thence to the 
Sound, near New Haven. Similar rock is seen in frequent ledges 
and quarries, in the beds of tributary streams, and is excavated from 
wells. It rises in Sugar loaf mountain, in Deerfield, and other heights 
in that town and Sunderland, six hundred and seven hundred feet 
above the level of the sea. Connecticut river enters the secondary 
formation at Northfield, runs over its uncovered strata four miles, at . 
Miller’s and Montague falls; an equal distance at Hadley falls, thirty 
miles below,—and five miles at Enfield falls, still twenty miles lower. 
After running eighty miles in the sandstone basin, the river suddenly 
leaves it at Middletown, and passes thirty miles to the sound in a 
southeastwardly direction, ending, as it began, in the primitive for- 
mation. : 
Extent.—The length of the secondary basin, from Northfield to 
New Haven, exceeds one hundred miles. Its breadth expands to 
sixteen miles, through the northern half of Connecticut, and the 
whole superficial contents are about one thousand square miles. The 
depth of this formation must be chiefly conjectural. It has been per- 
forated, at South Hadley, to depths of eighty and one hundred and 
forty feet, in a fruitless search for coal. It rises six hundred feet 
above the surrounding meadows, in Deerfield and Sunderland. Sup- 
posing the secondary to be formed above, and to repose upon the 
primitive, the latter is probably uneven with hills and valleys. In 
passing transversely towards the summits of the primitive mountains 
of the valley, the rate of ascent is diverse, five hundred or one thou- 
sand feet, and sometimes much more, in a distance of six or eight 
miles. If the primitive rises at similar rates under the secondary 
formation, the latter is in some places five hundred and one thousand 
feet deep, and in some it may be much deeper. ‘That the secondary 
was formed in a basin of the primitive, and rests upon it, is appa- 
rent from its manifestly later formation ; from the primitive rising and 
extending above and beyond the borders of the sandstone ; and also 
penetrating it in isolated peaks or ledges, as may be seen a few miles 
west of Hartford. 
The organic remains of this secondary formation consist of several 
varieties of fish, found at Sunderland, imbedded im the rock and fos- 
sillized. At Enfield, Hadley, and Montague falls, and other places, 
are found limbs of trees and fern like plants, also imbedded in the 
