\^ 



in Massachusetts. 



73 



powerful rains. This is the origin of those extensive 

 slopes of fragments of rocks, or debris, which arrest the 

 attention on the mural faces of the greenstone ridges in 

 the valley of the Connecticut. Generally these fragments 

 rise only about one half or two thirds the height of the 

 ridge ; though sometimes they extend to the very summit.. 

 Instances of this kind are sometimes regarded by geolo- 

 gists as a sort of natural chronometer, demonstralino- the 

 recent origin of the present state of the globe. It is 

 difficult, however, if not impossible, to compare this 

 levelling process with historical records. 



When the three causes of degradation above men- 

 tioned, — frost, gravity and rains, — combine their maxi- 

 mum energy on the sides of steep and lofty mountains, 

 they sometimes produce the well known and often terrific 

 phenomenon of land slips, or mountain slides. The '^ 

 only place worthy of notice, where these have occurred 

 in Massachusetts, is on Saddle Mountain. Let a person 

 follow out that spur of this mountain called Bald Moun- 

 tain, and from its barren summit he can look directly 

 down into that vast gulf called the Hopper, whose steep 

 sides afe covered with trees of various species, with occa- 

 sional patches of evergreen. On the northeast slope he 

 will perceive several traces of these slides, whereby the 

 trees and loose soil, of considerable weight, have been 

 swept down, sometimes from the height of sixteen hun- 

 dred feet above the bottom of the valley. It is not more 

 than six or eight years since one or two of these slides 

 took place ; and the paths which they made are still 

 almost destitute of vegetation ; while, in other instances, 

 we see traces of an earlier avalanche in the stinted^ 

 growth, or peculiar character, of th.e trees that have 

 sprung up. It is said that one of the most remarkable of 



