426 J. D. Dana—Depression of Southern New England 
At Springfield, within a mile or less from the river, there 
commences the great terrace of the region—a plain several miles 
wide—having a height, as I am informed by Mr. G. A. Ellis, city 
engineer, in general between 140 and 145 feet above flood-leve 
in the river (the higher floods raising the river about 22 feet), or 
about 200 feet above high tide. But this wide terrace shows, by 
the fact that the material of it is mostly fine sand and clay, that 
it was made in comparatively quiet waters before the flood was 
at its height, and that it is probably not the highest. Beyond 
three miles southeast, east, and northeast of Springfield there are 
hills of stratified sand and gravel, rising to a height of 180 feet 
above flood-level, which belong to the upper terrace, and mar 
more nearly the flood’s height. I learn from Mr. Ellis, to whom 
I am indebted for a map of Springfield and its vicinity for ten 
miles around giving the amount of elevation for a large part of 
the surface, that this 180-foot level (or 170 to 190) occurs in 
hills made of hardpan near the Boston and Albany Railroad, 
8 miles from the Springfield depot; and south of this, near the 
“Old Bay Road.” A level of 180 feet occurs along the same 
railroad between 6 and 9 miles from the depot, or for 3 miles 
east of Jenksville. Traversing the region with Mr. Ellis, he has 
shown me that the 180-foot level extends from Jenksville north- 
ward, with little variation, toward the Granby line, over four 
miles, if not beyond, and westward five to six miles to the 
and is properly the terrace of the Chicopee river, which is but 
three-fourths of a mile distant. From Mr. Ellis I learn further 
that in Westfield, 10 or 11 miles west of the Connecticut, the 
land rises into a plain of great extent, being two miles broad, 
ae But this Westfield plain is in the Westfield valley, and 18 
___ properly a Westfield river terrace. Yet if these higher flood- 
grounds, extending to a distance of 10 miles on the east and 
_ west, were outside of the limits of the Connecticut flood, they 
