No. 2.—TERRACES OF THE WEST RIVER, BRATTLE- 
BORO, VERMONT. 
library 
BY E. F. FISHER. NEW YORK 
botanical 
Introduction. 
• 
The flights of stepping terraces which border our New England 
rivers are of singular interest and add much to the beauty and charm 
of the river topography. The almost level terrace plains and espe¬ 
cially the low-lying meadows are agriculturally the most fertile in New 
England. They represent river-deposited and carved remnants of 
the clays, sands, and gravels which once occupied in larger volume 
than to-day the rock-floored valleys of still earlier origin. They are 
but transitory waste forms on the way to the sea. The meadows, 
irrigated each year by the floods and hence the richest of these terrace 
plains, are steadily increasing or decreasing in extent as attacked by 
the river, and all the time some of the flood plain is being washed 
down the valley toward the sea. 
The river terraces of New England may be accounted for by the 
behavior of meandering and swinging streams slowly degrading pre¬ 
viously aggraded valleys without necessary change in volume and by 
the control exerted here and there over the lateral swinging of the 
streams through the discovery of rock ledges. The rivers are essen¬ 
tially graded, with reference to sea level, to the main stream or to a 
local rock barrier, though all the while actively swinging, slowly degrad¬ 
ing streams. Prof. W. M. Davis has most ably stated and discussed 
this river-terrace theory and its deduced consequences, defining terraces 
in early, middle, and late stages, and also the various patterns produced 
by free-swinging rivers constrained by rock barriers. 
The purpose of this investigation is to test the above theory by 
applying it to a new locality. As a whole, the theory stands. A few 
modifications of special features are suggested. The West River in 
Vermont, at its junction with the Connecticut at Brattleboro, was 
chosen as offering varied and distinct illustration of numerous terrace 
patterns and as showing the importance of rock barriers. Further¬ 
more, the valley of this West River is narrow and can be studied 
