184 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 



and the Hoosac Valleys, the Taconic Range, the mountain-mass of 

 which Mt. Greylock is the highest peak, and the Hoosac Range. 



The Housatonic Valley extends from Lanesboro to Sheffield, a dis- 

 tance of 32 miles, about two-thirds of the length of the County. The 

 elevation of Pontoosuc Lake on the southern boundary of Lanesboro 

 is 1120 feet. At the southern boundary of the Coimty, the river has 

 fallen to less than 700 feet. The floor of the valley varies consider- 

 ably. It is broad in Pittsfield, occupying about seven miles, and in 

 Sheffield six miles, and is narrowest at Glendale, where steep hills rise 

 abruptly from each bank. Several long valleys extend eastward from 

 the main valley of the Housatonic : that occupied by Muddy Brook in 

 Great Barrington, that of Hop Brook in Tyringham and that of the 

 west branch of the Housatonic in Hinsdale and Dalton. Lake Gar- 

 field (Brewer Pond) and Lake Buel in Monterey are drained by the 

 Konkapot River, a tributary of the Housatonic which flows south, 

 through New Marlboro. Several long narrow valleys bring streams 

 from the northwest to the western bank of the Housatonic, notably 

 the Williams River through West Stockbridge and Great Barrington 

 and the Seekonk River, with its tributary, the Green River, through 

 Alford and Egremont. 



The Hoosac River rises in Lanesboro and flows north through 

 Cheshire, Adams, North Adams, and Williamstown, falling into the 

 Hudson in Rensselaer County, New York. Its course is rapid through- 

 out and it has a narrower valley than the Housatonic. In Williams- 

 town it receives from the west the Green River which rises in Hancock 

 and flows north in a long, narrow valley. 



The Deerfield River, a tributary of the Connecticut River, borders 

 the town of Florida for about seven miles. 



The Farmington, another tributary of the Connecticut River, head- 

 ing in the southern part of Becket, drains the greater portions of Otis 

 and Sandisfield. 



The western part of Mt. Washington in the extreme southwestern 

 corner of the County lies almost entirely in the Hudson River drainage 

 system. 



The Taconic Range forms the chief feature of the western border of 

 the County. It is formed of a succession of ranges, many of them ris- 

 ing in isolated peaks to over two thousand feet in height, separated 

 by the valleys above described or by passes such as that above Leba- 

 non, which has an altitude of 1500 feet. . In the southwestern corner 



