264 J. & Diller— WeslfieU during the Champlain Period. 



toward the south. The northern part of the Hampton Plain 

 is made of very coarse material, which gradually becomes finer 

 toward the south. In the gravel of this plain, pebbles of trap 



Poverty Plain is highest just south of Westfield Little 

 River, where the stratified deposits are 254 feet above sea-level 

 (109 above flood-level at Westfield), and slopes toward the south 

 three and a third feet per mile. The material of the Poverty 

 Plain is finer than that of 'the Hampton Plain. Poverty 

 Plain is separated from Hampton Plain by the valley of the 

 two rivers, and extends south into Farmington valley. The 

 slope of these plains toward the south, and the grade in the 

 material of the Hampton Plain in the same direction, are un- 

 te evidences that during the period of their deposition, 

 the Champlain period, the water must have flowed over these 

 plains from north to south.* 



The appearance of trap pebbles in the Hampton Plain points 

 to the same conclusion. Not any trap rock is found in the 

 basin of the Westfield River west of the Divide Range. Hamp- 

 ton Plain is separated all along its eastern boundary from the 

 Divide Range (trap) by a ridge of sandstone rising far above 

 fted drift of the plain. From these conditions it is 

 evident that the trap could not have been washed into the 

 plain from either the east or west. Following the Divide 

 Range to Mt. Tom, it will be seen that this mountain owes its 

 height to the westward advance of the trap and underlying 

 shale, making it to rest directly upon the hard conglomerate 

 which forms a separate ridge south of Mt. Tom. The talus of trap 

 on the western side of Mt. Tom would be carried, by a stream 

 flowing south, along the western base of the mountain, directly 

 into the Hampton Plain. There seems to be no doubt that 

 the pebbles of trap are from Mt Tom, and were carried into 

 their present position by a stream from the Connecticut River 

 v? W1 m g SOUth ( as Professor Dana has already shown), west of 

 Mt. Tom, over the Hampton and Poverty Plains into the 

 Farmington valley. 



The highest stratified deposits in the vicinity of Westfield 

 are near Mt. Tekoa, 289 feet above the sea, and 112 feet above 

 the flood-level of the Westfield River where it issues from the 

 mountains. Hampton Plain, as already stated, rises 286 feet 

 a ?^ e . t i e . 1 f *• Accordin g to Professor Dana, there is a terrace 

 at lanffville, Conn., fourteen miles south of Westfield, in the 

 same valley, having a height 275 feet above sea-level. He has 

 taken this asproof that the height of the flood over the middle 

 part of the Westfield basin was at least 275 feet. The heights 



