during the melting of the Glacier. 437 
Or, supposing the rate of increase of depression northward 
over Southern New England only one foot per mile, or less than 
farther north, the pitch would have been approximately : 
8°5 feet per mile below Birmingham. 
oc “ “cc 
5 Middletown. 
5 "5 “ce “ “ce N orwie 
16“ std - Providence. 
crease of depression northward were oot per mile, the 
height of the flood waters above high tide would have been 
At Birmingham, 85 feet. 
At Middletown, 135 “ 
At Hartford, 135 “ 
At Springfield, 164 “ 
At Norwich, 82; ° 
At Providence, 27 
_ It hence appears that, with 1 foot a mile as the northward 
increase of depression of the land, the waters would have been 
at Hartford on the same level as at Middletown; and at Spring- 
field, but 29 feet above the level at Hartford, instead of 384 
eet, the present difference; and the pitch from Springfield to 
Hartford would have been about a foot a mile. With 1} feet 
a mile of increase of depression northward, the flood at Spring- 
field would have been only 10 feet higher than at Middletown. 
7. Glacial conditions.—Whatever the rate of increase north- 
ward in the depression, and whatever the amount of actual de- 
pression along the Sound, only a small part of the marvellous in 
the glacial flood is removed. The rivers in the lower parts of 
the Housatonic, Connecticut and Thames valleys were cata- 
Tracts on a scale beyond all modern knowledge. The waters 
from the melting glacier must have been poured down the 
Streams in vast volume to have piled to so great heights before 
outlets so wide and so deep. And such facts are but examples 
: condition that prevailed generally over the glacier-covered 
8. 
6. The Champlain a Fluvial period.—It is to be remembered 
that the glacier consisted of the precipitated waters of many 
thousands of winters, each winter, too, a year in length. 
ence, when the melting reached its height, some centuries of 
Precipitated moisture were let loose at once. results from 
the action of the great rivers of the era are registered in the 
height and width of the valley formations. The Champlain 
Was eminently the Fluvial period of the earth’s history, while 
uvially, or as it respects rain, it may not have exceeded the 
present time, 
