622 H. L. FAIRCHILD POST-GLACIAL UPLIFT OF NEW ENGLAND 



the same as those found in Xew York and A^ermont under similar 

 conditions. 



The rock and drift hills exhibit denuded slopes and softened or 

 smoothed surfaces, silted hollows, and horizontal lines of the water de- 

 posits against steep and irregular slopes. Massive kames will usually 

 show evident effects of wave-work. 



The territory southwest of Boston plainly shows the effects of stand- 

 ing water as the latest occupant of the region. From sealevel up to 

 200 feet detrital plains are common. They have been referred to glacial 

 lakes (57, 66, 67, 68, 73). As all the region lies open to the sea, it is 

 only by violent assumptions that effective barriers can be erected. The 

 plains occur at all levels, which is quite unlikely for waters held up by 

 ice barriers, as such waters are too ephemeral and local to produce series 

 of declining levels. This is well illustrated by Clapp^s figures for the 

 sandplains in the supposed glacial Lake Charles (68, page 202). His 

 list includes 30 plains, ranging from 60 feet in altitude up to 270 feet, 

 the greater number being 150 and 170 feet, with some at 200 feet. The 

 several difficulties which he admits — the presence of boulders of such 

 large size as to be inconsistent with work of rivers and shallow waters 

 (page 208), the wide distribution of plains with the same level in both 

 the Sudbury and Concord valleys (page 210), and the high plains at 

 270 feet (page 212) — all disappear with contiuental uplift out of waters 

 confluent with the sea. 



The villages of Wellesley, J^atick, Cochituate, South Framingham, 

 and Ashland are on plains higher than the lowest pass to southward flow. 

 This pass lies two miles south of N"atick and one-half mile west of Morse- 

 ville, with altitude 140 feet. This rules out ice barriers on the nortb., 

 and the direction of glacier flow over the region makes ice barriers on 

 the seaward side quite impossible. 



The hills of the district which are high enough to register the summit 

 marine waters are mostly isolated, steep, and in forest; but some weak 

 evidence of the summit wave action should be found. Examination of 

 the Nobscot Hill mass, five miles north by west of South Framingham, 

 will probably find deltas on the streams from higher ground at about 

 330 feet. 



DELTA OF BLACKSrONE RIVER 



The two larger rivers with southward flow from unsubmerged ground 

 are the Blackstone and the Quinebaug. The delta of the latter is in 

 Connecticut and will l)e mentioned later. The delta of the Blackstone 

 is found in good form at Saundersville, combined with the deposits of 



