142 TRACES OF ANCIENT GLACIERS 



I have found accumulations of boulders and detritus, which I venture to denomi- 

 nate moraines. The first is not far from a mile and a half below the Tunnel, and 

 rises on the north side of the river to the height of 60 or 70 feet. A portion of 

 the same materials may be seen south of the river, but less striking. The second 

 case occurs on the north side of the river, just below the soapstone bed, or quarry, 

 for it has scarcely been quarried. The third, of more doubtful character, is a little 

 below Zoar bridge, and is, also, on the north side of the river. They have all 

 received considerable modification from water in the manner already describe!!, but 

 are inexplicable without calling in some other agency, and that agency, if a glacier, 

 affords a reasonable explanation. 



If we take the whole distance from Shelburne falls, about 14 miles, the descent 

 is but small, only as I made it, 445 feet, equal to 30 feet in the mile, and 0° 20' 

 en arc. As far as we find moraines, however, the slope is great enough I judge, 

 for the advance of a modern glacier. But I do find some evidence in the stria3 and 

 rounded rocks, even to the falls, that the glacier extended the whole distance, and 

 if thus far then doubtless through the Ghor, whose slope is greater. At any rate, 

 it seems to me, that as far as the moraines occur we may presume upon the former 

 existence of a glacier, although the direction of the striae does not differ much 

 from that of the drift agency where it swept over Hoosac mountain. But it ought 

 also to be stated, that on the lofty hills of Rowe, Heath, Shelburne, Conway, and 

 Hawley lying north and south of Deerfield river, the course of the drift striae 

 rarely varies more than 10° from the meridian, and this is almost at right angles 

 to the force that striated and embossed the valley of the river. 



Passing now to the vicinity of Shelburne falls, we find a tributary of Deerfield 

 river coming in from the northeast, and called North Branch. The junction lies 

 on the east foot of a lofty ridge, through which Deerfield river has cut its way. I 

 felt a peculiar interest in examining the valley of North Branch, because a glacier 

 might once have descended it, and if so, its course for some distance must have 

 been from the N. E. to the S. W. I found such to be the fact most decidedly, as 

 far as I have explored the valley. The strife on both sides of the stream are very 

 manifest in several places, and to the height on the west side where alone I mea- 

 sured them, of 400 feet at least. The rounded points of the ledges show conclu- 

 sively that the abrading force struck the northeast side. This abrasion may be 

 traced downward to the point of the mountain, where the tributary enters Deer- 

 field river, and on the north side of the same mountain, we find marks of the force 

 that swept down Deerfield river ; the two forces having met at an angle greater 

 than a right angle, as the map will show. 



The high land that rises between these two rivers forms Mount Pocomtuck, 

 which is almost 1800 feet above the ocean. And I find that the striaa, almost to 

 the top of this mountain, run nearly N. E. and S. W., as along the North Branch. 

 Hence, if produced by a glacier, it must have risen very high ; so high in fact, as 

 to have swept over most of the region east of Hoosac mountain. Indeed, I found 

 the striaa on the high regions of Rowe and Heath to run generally from 5° to 20° 

 W. of south. These facts, I confess, excite a doubt whether this force from the 

 northeast was a glacier or an iceberg. But that is a very unusual direction in 



