Geology^ <^'C. of the Connecticut. . 1| 



West River Mountain.^ 



This is one of those precipitous and partially insulated 

 peaks of mica slate that occur along the Connecticut, and 

 which at a little distance, are often mistaken by the geolo- 

 gist for greenstone hillocks. It is nine hundred and forty 

 feet above the Connecticut, and stands on its eastern bank, 

 directly opposite to the east village of Brattleborough. That 

 village and the intervening river are the most interesting ob- 

 jects in the landscape that is seen from this mountain. One 

 fancies himself almost able, by a single leap from the sum- 

 mit, to throw himself into the village. Almost every other 

 part of the landscape exhibits a tumultuous sea of moun- 



*■ Tradition has made this mountain volcanic in former days : but obser- 

 vation discovers no traces of eruption. The experienced eye of Col. Gibbs 

 (a gentleman who will always be reckoned among; the fathers of American 

 mineralogy and geology, first detected t')ie error. (See Bruce's Min. 

 Jour. No. 1. p. 19.) While I agree with him that the notion of flames said 

 to have been seen issuing from this mountain arose " from a popular super- 

 stition through the country, that the presence of the precious metals is fre- 

 quently indicated by a flame which ariaes fi'om the ground at night," I am 

 disposed to adopt the explanation of the accompanying " thunder," given bj 

 Dr. Allen ; fJour. Sci. Vol. 3. p. 73) who accounts (or this " by the falling 

 of immense masses of rock." That immense masses of rock have fallen, 

 not only from the cliff* (o which Dr. A. refers, but also from the western 

 face of the mountain, no one will deny who has visited the spot : and that 

 the falling of these would produce a "noise like thunder," which would be 

 heard two or three miles, no one will doubt who has chanced to be in New- 

 Haven when the quarrymen had undermined one of the huge columns of 

 East Rock and it was precipitated upon the base below. Although two 

 miles distant, the report in the city is often as loud as a six pounder. 



In passing over West River iVlountain a few years since, near the top a 

 rattle snake was announced ; or rather he announced himself by the thrill- 

 ing shake of his rattles. Doct. — — , (who had been a companion of Wil- 

 son the ornithologist in one of his pedestrian tours through the western wil- 

 derness,) immediately despatched the enake and found him to measure a- 

 bove four feet in length. I mention this fact because it is uncommon in. 

 these days in this section of the country to meet with these reptiles. Indeed, 

 I have never met with another one alive along the Connecticut, with per- 

 haps one exception. I recollect how -ver, meeting some years ago a man in 

 Leverett, who was barefoot with several rattle snakes dangling over his 

 shoulders, who told me he had been hunting them at their den.+ 



* On the fragments of rock at the foot of this cliff", among other interesting 

 lichens grows the Slereocaulon pascliale. Ach. 



+ Rattlesnakes are occasionally killed on all the greenstone ranges of Ne-W 

 England, from which they will probably never be entirely extirpated ; .a 

 dried one is now tjefore me measuring three feet six inches in length which 

 was killed last summer on the Woodbridge greenstone ridge ne^r Ne^r- 

 Haven.— £rfi7or, March 6, 1823. 



