406 Eggleston — Glacial Remains near Woodstock, Conn. 



mate shore-line. Another flight of the imagination and the 

 shore-line stands at three-hundred-twenty feet. Still another 

 would bring one to the time when the high three-hundred- 

 forty foot level was maintained. 



Evidences of a flooded lake. — As witness to the truth of the 

 hypothesis of a flooded lake with successive stages of draining, 

 there is the evidence of the series of levels indicated by the 

 flat-topped banks already noted. These surfaces are exactly 

 what might be expected to arise as the lake-waters receded and 

 exposed the bottom. The meadows, even now partly flooded 

 in seasons of heavy rain, are quite level till near their border, 

 where they rise gradually to the three-hundred foot contour in 

 a manner exactly similar to a gently sloping lake-shore. The 

 three-hundred-twenty foot level is only partially marked. 

 There is a slight development of a flat-topped, narrow bank or 

 terrace on either side of the lake to mark a possible halt at that 

 stage. The three-hundred-forty foot level is much better 

 marked. The great bank to the southeast is a terrace plainly 

 marking a former shallow in the lake, when its waters stood 

 just at that level. The basins on its surface are kettle-holes, 

 hollows left by masses of stranded ice about which the waters 

 heaped the gravel. The southern half of this bank may be a 

 lower terrace at the three-hundred-twenty foot level, or pos- 

 sibly it has been worn down by later action, from an originally 

 higher level. Both portions consist of stratified sand and gravel 

 brought from the hills by streams, the course of which may be 

 indicated by the small surviving stream. This stream has 

 worn a considerable valley down the hillside, though most of 

 its coarse is at present lost beneath drifted bowlders. Both 

 parts of the terrace are apparently matched by developments 

 of equal height across the lake. 



Besides these terraces as evidences of higher level, there are 

 the drift-banks well back from the middle eastern portion (the 

 " arm " or " bend ") of the lake-shore. These without doubt 

 mark the rise to high shore-level. Whether another level 

 existed above them is not certain, but, judging from the abrupt 

 rise in the land beyond, it seems probable that there did not 

 and that they mark the high-level of the expanded lake. This 

 is about fifty feet above the present level. If such were indeed 

 the high-level of the glacial Woodstock Lake, its extent must 

 have been much greater than the present. It probably included 

 the southern lake, possibly several smaller northern ponds, and 

 much of Muddy Brook. Its outlet was located near Harris- 

 ville, where there is much probability of a deep obstruction of 

 drift forming a dam between the hills. A length of four miles 

 and a maximum breadth of a mile is a' reasonable approxima- 

 tion to the dimensions of the former lake. 



