In Mount Toby, in Sunderland, is a cave nearly 150 feet above the
bed of Connecticut river. It opens to the north and west, forming
a quarter of a circle, is 130 feet in extent, 60 feet deep, and
from 3 to 20 wide. A little to the south of it, is a fissure in
the puddingstone, formed by a separation of the rock, ten feet
wide, and as deep as the cave. So perfect is this division, that it
appears as if cloven down by the sword of some Titan. Perhaps this
cave and fissure were formed by the washing of the waters of the
lake we have mentioned on the sandstone and conglomerate beneath;
thus causing the superincumbent rock to fall and separate. There
is no appearance of any other convulsion. Imperfect, calcareous
stalactites are found in this cave.
The falls in Connecticut river, at E, are not unworthy of notice.
The river here is about 40 rods wide, and the height of the main
cataract, raised considerably by an artificial dam, is 30 feet. The
fall continues two miles. On the north bank you view the cataract
from elevated ground, and can see the river nearly a mile above
and below--above, perfectly smooth and calm, below, forming a
quarter of a circle, and tumbling among the broken rocks. On the
opposite side of the river are a few buildings, the commencement
of a canal, and, behind these, moderately elevated hills, covered
with woods. Two rocky islands near the middle of the descending
sheet, and another thirty rods below, add much to the beauty of the
view. Looking from the southeast shore, you have a partial prospect
of the falls, and a view of an amphitheatre of greenstone hills,
through which a small river empties. The pleasure derived from the
view proceeds more from its wildness than its sublimity.
The position of the hills, boundaries, and rivers, on the
accompanying map, may not, in all cases, be precisely correct. The
general outlines were enlarged by a pentegraph from Carleton's
map of Massachusetts, and the intermediate objects were placed
chiefly by the eye; their relative situations being determined
by travelling over the ground, and viewing them from different
elevations. The boundaries of the several formations have not been
so carefully noticed near the angles of the map as in the central
parts. Of their correctness generally, however, I am confident. The
latitude and longitude of Deerfield, from which those on the map
were marked, were obtained by taking a mean of the observations
given by Gen. E. Hoyt, in the Transactions of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and of twelve lunar observations since made.
The result is, Lat. 42° 32' 32". Long. 72° 39' from Greenwich.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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