The flow of time in the Connecticut valley : $b geological imprintsBain, George W. (George William)
Science
The flow of time in the Connecticut valley : $b geological imprints
Bain, George W. (George William)
Geology -- Connecticut River Valley
The gently undulating New England upland stretches off to the north and
east for miles. The innumerable hills which compose it integrate to form
a horizontal skyline, which suggests a flat erosional plane, originally
formed at, or near, the level of the sea. To the northeast Mount
Monadnock in New Hampshire rises prominently above the general level,
for its extremely resistant rock withstood reduction by weather and
water more effectively than the weaker bedrock on every side.
The valley lowland begins but three miles to the southwest. The range of
hills stretching away like beads on a string is the Holyoke Range. Mount
Toby, Mount Sugarloaf, and the Pocumtuck Hills are the prominences in
the lowland to the northwest. The lowland was eroded out of the New
England upland after the land was elevated far back in Tertiary time,
and the disintegrating rock was carried to the sea by the rivers. The
hills in the lowland were left where the rocks resisted destruction more
successfully than elsewhere, but they only approximate the level of the
upland of which they were once a part.
Mount Lincoln and the surrounding hills are strewn with boulders. Every
slope is dotted with large irregularly shaped rocks, many of which have
smoothed facets marred by minute scratches. The boulders were left by
the Great Ice Sheet when it melted off New England, and the scratches
were made when the ice dragged the boulders over hard rock surfaces.
These stones came down from the north, and among them you may recognize
types which you have seen in the ledges around Orange and Northfield.
Early Pelham settlers found the boulders as much in their way as the
trees; so they burned or used the trees, and they piled the stones in
long rows to fence their fields. Stone fences characterize all glaciated
regions, and here they follow the roadsides for miles, reaching to the
edge of the deposits in glacial Lake Hadley.
_Mount Toby_
“Let’s go to Mount Toby” usually means to go to the camp ground along
Roaring Brook at the east base of the mountain, or to one of the sugar
camps on the west slope, or to the Sunderland Caves at the north end.
All of these places are worth knowing, but the view from the mountain
top deserves at least one trip, and the wood road from Roaring Brook is
replete with interesting sights.
[Illustration: Pl. 6. _View of the Holyoke Range from Mt. Lincoln._]
[Illustration: Fig. 21. _Map showing location of interesting
places._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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