I So PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



hills make a series of elevations crossing over towards Ascutney, the 

 highest peak in the Connecticut district, and crowding the river. 



On the Vermont side the range of hills is not high below Ascutney, 

 and notches have been excavated for the passage of William's and Black 

 rivers. Mt. Ascutney is a conical mountain, mostly of eruptive granite, 

 protruded through the calcareous range, and rises to about 3,168 feet 

 above the sea. It is as much isolated in position as it is elevated above 

 the ridge of which it is the culmination. 



Perhaps a fourth basin may be said to commence with Ascutney, and 

 terminate in the narrows above Fairlee and Orford. 



There is a gap at East Lebanon for the passage of Mascomy river, 

 above which the Mascomy lake basin expands as extensively as the Sun- 

 apee lake country at the head of Sugar river. The quartzite range of 

 Moose mountain is broken at the south line of Lyme, and then rises 

 gradually to form Mt. Cuba in Orford, 2,273 feet above the sea. On the 

 west slope of Cuba, Lime and Bass hills, with Sunday and Soapstone 

 mountains, constitute a ridge extending close on to the Connecticut. 



On the Vermont side there are no prominent hiUs adjacent to the river. 

 The valley of White river is the deepest and most extensive yet traversed, 

 as it is the main valley threading north-westerly towards Montpeher and 

 Burlington, and, consequently, the route of the Central Vermont Rail- 

 road. Our limits are here much broadened to take in the hilly calcareous 

 country of all the eastern townships of upper Windsor and Orange coun- 

 ties. The proper ridge would extend from Beaver hill in Norwich, and 

 Copperas hill in Strafford, towards Washington, Orange, and the elevated 

 gores of land west of Peacham, into Cabot. Thetford hill is on the sub- 

 range next to the river, which is cut entirely through farther north for 

 the outlet of Fairlee pond, and crowds the Connecticut in Sawyer's 

 mountain next the Soapstone hill. Opposite Orford village this makes a 

 precipitous ledge. A view of the closing in of Sawyer's and Soapstone 

 mountains is given in Fig. 20, in which the steep escarpment of the 

 former and the more undulating outline of the latter mountain on the 

 right hand side may be distinctly discerned. In the foreground are 

 alluvial terraces, the view being that seen from Bissell's hill, a little north 

 of Orford village. 



The Haverhill section of the valley next commands attention. The 



