Perry.] 130 [February 28, 
should be looked for as results of the wasting ice-sheet—results 
which might legitimately occur, without assuming a previous eleva- 
tion to account for the former, or a subsequent depression in order to 
the latter. | 
Similar deposits are found at different levels all the way up the 
Connecticut valley. They usually have a slight inclination toward 
the south, and present just the features one might expect to meet 
with, in case they were formed by the waters flowing from the 
wasting ice-sheet. Indeed, beds substantially the same in appear- 
ance and structure may be seen in most of the valleys of New Eng- 
land. These, in the majority of cases, slope with the streams; but 
in some instances, they are horizontal; thus, with other indications, 
affording evidence that there were at certain points obstructions, 
which gave rise to ponds and lakes, and so to a series of regularly 
stratified deposits at various heights. They are occasionally found 
far up among the mountains. One in Eastern Vermont occupies a 
basin on the Deerfield river, and is at least 1,200 feet above the sea; 
there is another on a branch of the Deerfield, in Hartwellville, which 
is 1,700 feet above the ocean. This is the highest river terrace with 
which I am acquainted. But there are other terraces, essentially 
the same in structure, which are still more elevated. Among these 
may be mentioned those of Franconia Notch, and of the White 
Mountain Notch, the highest of the latter being about 2500 feet 
above the existing sea-level. Thus there are terraces, between the 
ocean and the last mentioned height, in large numbers, and at 
sreatly varying elevations. Scarcely two being at the same level, it 
seems surprising that their formation should have been referred to 
marine agency, especially as that of the highest would require so 
oreat, and utterly unproved, submergence of the land. Without 
dwelling, however, upon the points of objection which suggest them- 
selves, let me sum up in a word:—above the typical deposit of the 
Ice-period, which covers New England, there is found in manifold 
forms what is known as Modified Drift, consisting (1) of very coarse 
and slightly arranged material—of drift from which the finely com- 
minuted matter has been washed—(2) of coarse gravel assorted and 
rudely stratified, and (3) of the distinctly stratified clays and sands, 
usually designated as terraces. And all these, with other more or 
less varying kindred deposits, have just the characters one may pre- 
sume they would have had, if formed, as they undoubtedly were, in 
connection with the wasting of the great ice-sheet. 
