IN MASSACHUSETTS AND VERMONT. 135 



higher and get a little beyond the farm house of Ichabod Blakesley, we meet, oil 

 the north side of the road, and close to it, very distinct stria? running almost 

 exactly east and west, on a surface sloping easterly 10° or 12°. On the right the 

 mountain, partly wooded and partly pasture ground, is very steep, and for 150 

 feet at least, the frequently uncovered rocks are striated, and much higher they 

 exhibit evidence of having been abraded and embossed, though most of the strice 

 have disappeared. This evidence of a greater antiquity to the work of erosion as 

 we ascend, is quite manifest. The highest part of the mountain, 314 feet above 

 the stria? first named, is covered with forest, and the rock is rarely visible. Here 

 we find several interesting boulders, of which I shall speak subsequently. But if 

 we return to the striae by the road side, and follow the road upwards no great dis- 

 tance, we shall reach the summit of the ridge, which runs southerly towards the 

 river. Here we see at once, would be the spot where a glacier descending this 

 valley, must have been most crowded, because on the opposite side of the river, 

 South Tekoa rises up in the same manner as middle Tekoa, and the ridge was no 

 doubt continuous across the river. Accordingly, in the road where it crosses this 

 ridge and slopes somewhat towards the west, we find the abrasion to have been 

 powerful, and the stria? numerous. We see, also, that the west side of the ridge is 

 the stoss side, and if we follow the ridge upward above the road, we shall find 

 almost to the summit, that the west or northwest side has been struck and 

 smoothed, while the east is the lea side. 



Returning to the point in the road where it crosses the ridge, and looking up 

 the valley, we see that Little river comes in from the southwest, and a small 

 stream from the northwest ; and if a glacier once descended the former, a smaller 

 one probably came down the latter, both uniting at this place, and of course this 

 would be a point of severe pressure. If we turn easterly and look into the valley 

 of the Connecticut, we shall see that South Tekoa extends easterly but a little 

 way, so that the glacier, after passing this gorge, would find ample room to expand 

 southerly, so that it would no longer crowd and striate Middle Tekoa. Accord- 

 ingly, I have not found much evidence on the face of that mountain of glacier 

 action more than half a mile or so east of the summit of this ridge. 



I ought to mention, that the mountain known in the region as Tekoa, is a pro- 

 minent peak of mica slate, on the north side of Westfield river, in the town of 

 Montgomery. For convenience I call the mountain south of Westfield river, 

 between that and Little river, in Russell, Middle Tekoa, and that south of Little 

 river, in Granville, South Tekoa ; although those names are not used in the vici- 

 nity. South Tekoa, by my barometer, is 1054 feet above the ocean, and Middle 

 Tekoa about the same height. They all originally belonged to a continuous ridge, 

 subsequently cut across by the rivers. 



The north slope of South Tekoa lying directly opposite the striated ridge above 

 described, in Middle Tekoa, is covered with a dense forest which prevents the rock 

 from being seen to much extent. But though I saw no striae, it was obvious that 

 the west was the stoss side, as on the north side of the river. 



"All the facts in the vicinity, therefore, force the conclusion upon the geologist, 

 that a glacier once descended the valley of Little river into the Connecticut valley. 



