UNIT-EB STATES 



Connecticut River 



The river Connecticut rises in a pond in the higk 

 lands which divide the waters falling southward into 

 the Atlantic, from those which fall into the St. 

 Lawrence. Another eastern principal branch rises 

 in New Hampshire, and runs in a serpentine course 

 to Hartford, and thence south-easterly to Saybrook, 

 tvhere it empties into the sound. Its length, from its 

 source to the sea is nearly four hundred miles, and 

 crosses four parallels of latitude. It receives 14 ri- 

 Ters from the east. 



At its mouth is a bar of sand, which considerably 

 obstructs the navigation. Ten feet water, at full 

 tides, is found on this bar, and the same depth to 

 Middletown. The distance of the bar from this 

 place, as the river runs, is 36 miles. Above Middle- 

 town are several shoals which stretch quite across 

 the river. Only six feet water is found on the shoal 

 at high tide, and here the tide ebbs and flows but 

 about eight inches. About three miles below Mid- 

 dletown the river is contracted to about 40 rods in 

 breadth, by two high mountains : almost every where 

 else the banks are low, and spread into fine extensive 

 meadows. In the spring floods, which generally 

 happen in May, these meadows are covered with 

 water. At Hartford the water sometimes rises 20 

 feet above the common surface of the river, and 

 having all to pass through the above-mentioned 

 strait or narrows^ it is sometimes two or three 

 weeks before it returns to its usual bed. These 

 Soods add nothing to the depth of water on the ba.r 



