~ 
from the melting of the Quaternary Glacier. 195 
of Springfield were 50 feet and more below their maximum 
height, is far from certain. The Springfield, Willimansett and 
Amherst deposits are situated close by the present river chan- 
nel, and hence seem to be safe evidence as to the very small 
velocity of the river, which they might not be if they were 
more distant flood-ground deposits. 
Jlay-beds exist just below the Middletown dam, on the east- 
ern or Portland side, to a height of 75 feet above modern low 
water, in a very steep and short valley. The place would seem 
to be very unfavorable for such fine depositions if the dam 
were then formed, and especially if at its final height. But it 
is possible that the ice had made a barrier to the little stream, 
so that the evidence from these clay-beds is not conclusive 
against the existence of the dam during their formation. 
But, further, extensive clay-beds exist in the high and broad 
terrace of Montague City, east of Greenfield, 300 feet above 
tide level. Again, on the terrace-plain, between Windsor and 
Hartland, 500 feet above the sea-level, or 190 feet above the 
river, clay comes to the surface in a field so as to be turned up 
(as I observed) by a plough, the material along the plain else- 
where being fine sandy loam. South of this, in Windsor, the 
deposits are fine loam and sandy loam to a height of 500 feet, 
with clay nearly to this height. North of White River Junc- 
tion clay was exposed near the river ata height of 460 feet 
above mean tide, or nearly 130 feet above the river at low 
water. In Hanover, N. H., the clay-beds extend along for 3 
or 4 miles or more; and in the village they reach a height of 
523 feet above mean tide, or 150 feet above the river—clay 
having been taken out at this level in excavating for the cellar 
of Professor Hubbard’s house (as he informs me), opposite the 
northwest corner of the College Square; and on the opposite 
side of the Connecticut, in Norwich, there are clay beds at cor- 
responding heights up to 500 feet. Just north of the village of 
arnet a clay-bed comes to the surface in the terrace-plain 
near the river at.a height of 610 feet above mean tide an 8 
above the river. These few examples will no doubt be multi- 
plied greatly by careful exploration. 
For making the clay-beds north of Amherst, the Middletown 
dam would have been of no avail; and besides this dam there 
1S no satisfactory evidence of any other. This is shown by the 
regularity in the pitch of the terraces along the valley. The 
valley is comparatively narrow between Mt. Holyoke and 
Mt. Tom; but the heights of the terraces give no evidence 
of adam, and the clay-deposits are at nearly the same high 
level above and below. Another narrow way for the modern 
river is between Mt. Toby and Sugar-Loaf, a dozen miles 
north of Mt. Holyoke; but here the waters of the flooded river 
