184 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
and the Hoosac Valleys, the Taconic Range, the mountain-mass of 
which Mt. Greylock is the highest peak, and the Hoosac Range. 
The Housatonic Valley extends from Laneshoro to Sheffield, a flis- 
tance of 32 miles, about two-thirds of the length of the rount;^'. The 
elevation of Pontoosuc Lake on the southern boundary of Lanesboro 
is 1 120 feet. At the southern boundary of the County, the river has 
fallen to less than 700 feet. The floor of the valley varies consider- 
ably. It is broad in Pittsfield, occupying about seven miles, and in 
Sheffield six miles, and is narrowest at Glendale, where steep hills rise 
abruptly from each bank. Several long valleys extend eastward from 
the main valley of the Housatonic: that occupied l)y Muddy Brook in 
Great Barrington, that of Hop Brook in Tyringham and that of the 
west branch of the Housatonic in Hinsdale and Dalton. Lake Gar- 
field (Brewer Pond) and Lake Buel in Monterey are drained by the 
Konkapot River, a tributary of the Housatonic which flows south, 
through New Marlboro. Several long narrow valleys bring streams 
from the northwest to the western bank of the Housatonic, notably 
the Williams River through West Stockbridge and Great Barrington 
and the Seekonk River, with its tributary, the Green River, through 
Alford and Egremont. 
The Hoosac River rises in Lanesboro and flows north through 
Cheshire, Adams, North Adams, and W illiamstown, falling into the 
Hudson in Rensselaer County, New York. Its course is rapid through- 
out and it has a narrower valley than the Housatonic. In Williams- 
town it receives from the west the Green River which rises in Hancock, 
and flows north in a long, narrow valley. 
The Deerfield River, a tributary of the Connecticut River, borders 
the town of Florida for about seven miles. 
The Farmington, another tributary of the Connecticut River, head- 
ing in the southern part of Becket, drains the greater portions of Otis 
and Sandisfield. 
The western part of Mt. Washington in the extreme southwestern 
corner of the County lies almost entirely in the Hudson River drainage 
system. 
The Taconic Range forms the chief feature of the western border of 
the County. It is formed of a succession of ranges, many of them ris- 
ing in isolated peaks to over two thousand feet in height, separated 
by the valleys above described or by passes such as that above Leba- 
non, which has an altitude of 1500 feet. In the southwestern corner 
