1 82 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



ton give slaty eminences in Pond, Pine, Sugar, Eustis, and portions of 

 Mann's hills. The gneissic eminences are Bronson and Ore hiUs, Green 

 mountain, Iron Ore hill, and Moody ledge in Landaff, and numerous 

 unnamed summits in the western part of Bethlehem. 



The Connecticut has excavated a passage through the Gardner moun- 

 tain range, in what is known as Fifteen-miles falls, from Barnet to South 

 Lancaster, where the water descends nearly four hundred feet. The 

 valley is narrow, rocky, and mostly devoid of superficial deposits above 

 the drift. In contrast with this is the valley of the Ammonoosuc, between 

 Woodsville and Bethlehem, which is full of deposits of modified drift. 

 These differences have given rise to the inquiry whether the Connecticut 

 may not have flowed formerly through the Ammonoosuc valley, passing 

 over the water-shed at Whitefield. 



The Passumpsic section is located in a fertile calcareous region, and 

 abounds in deposits of sand, gravel, and clay. It lies entirely in Vermont. 

 On the east are the slate hills of Kirby and Waterford, which are pro- 

 longed into the schist eminences of Lunenburg, Victory, and Granby; 

 and there are gneissic and granitic mountains, in the same connection, 

 following around by Willoughby lake to Barton. The notch between Mts. 

 Horr and Pisgah, in Westmore, is the most conspicuous feature in the 

 landscape of all northern Vermont ; and the closer it is approached the 

 more irregular it appears. These two hills rise precipitously i,8oo feet 

 above Willoughby lake, having only the water between them, and are 

 less than a mile apart near the upper end of the lake. 



The country rises from Crystal lake, in Barton, to Sheffield ; and the 

 water-shed between the Passumpsic and Lamoille rivers, through Shef- 

 field, Wheelock, and Walden, coincides with the western border of the 

 Connecticut district. It is nearly all susceptible of cultivation, though 

 abounding in forests; and the rocks are nearly all calcareous. 



II. Cods and Essex District. This lies at the extreme north of the area 

 of our explorations. It is all mountainous, sparsely settled, largely cov- 

 ered with forests, yet containing many tracts of great fertility. It is the 

 most diversified of all the topographical districts. The main water-shed 

 of New Hampshire passes through the middle portion from Randolph to 

 Mt. Carmel ; and, in Essex county, there is a similar ridge from Lunen- 

 burg to the state line. The Grand Trunk Railway passes through the 



