Connecticut River

“ Then we have a day’s drive, perhaps, of unsurpassed beauty, which no wire fence can enclose, as along the Connecticut River valley on the Vermont side with an unbroken view of New Hampshire hills, Moosilauke in full view, and the tip of Lafayette in the distance, the silvery, leisurely Connecticut dividing the two states and the green and yellow fields in the foreground completing the picture. No State Reservation or Park System can compete with it. ”

“ THE Connecticut is justly named “the beautiful river,” and its valley “the garden of New England.” Issuing from the heart of the northern wilderness, it spreads boundless fertility throughout its stately march to the sea. It is not a rapid river, but flows with an even and majestic tide through its long avenue of mountains. Radiant envoy of the skies, its mission is peace on earth and good-will toward men. As it advances the confluent streams flock to it from their mountain homes. On one side the Green Mountains of Vermont send their hundred tributaries to swell its flood ”

“ Natural levees border the Connecticut River south of the Sunderland Bridge.
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The river has moved at will from one side of its alluvial plain to the other, and its threats to change its course are not to be taken lightly. Until 1830 it flowed past Northampton, around the great ox-bow to Easthampton and then back to the watergap between Mount Tom and Mount Holyoke. It served as the main line of communication to the Atlantic seaboard and was a much travelled route. ”

“ To the west lay the superb Connecticut, with its fertile valley reposing in the gloom of night, while to the east, the ocean-bounded prospect, just bursting into the life of light, was faintly relieved by Winnipiseogee and Sebago lakes, and like rockets along the earth, wandered away the Merrimack, the Saco and the Androscoggin, to their ocean home,—the whole forming an epic landscape, such as we seldom behold excepting in our sleep. ”

“ In the vicinity of Springfield the most interesting drives are to be found on the west side of the Connecticut River, for the comparatively flat land east of the river is thickly settled and heavily industrialized, and geological phenomena are effectively masked. The country to the west offers a display of features which may be traced to the activities of the river, to the former presence of glacial Lake Springfield, to the prolonged erosion of the Triassic bedrock, and to the resistance of the pre-Triassic rocks in the western highland. ”

“ In Massachusetts and Connecticut the river flows through a basin of weaker Triassic shales and sandstones, and the valley consequently broadens out, making the finest agricultural region of large extent in New England. Near Holyoke and at other points rugged hills of harder trap rock rise so high above the valley lowland that they are locally called mountains. From their crests there are beautiful views of the fertile Connecticut valley lowland and of the more distant enclosing hills of crystalline rocks. ”

“ The Connecticut, however, glided calmly along, though it too was frozen over above the places where falls in the river obstructed the current. We passed several of these, which had a curious appearance, long and massive icicles hanging along the whole crest of the fall, and curiously intermingling with the water which was pouring over the rocks. The beautiful New England villages were as white as ever, the white snow scarcely detracting from the purity of the whiteness of the buildings. ”

“ Terraced River-Valley—1, 2', 3', 4', and 5, are Terraces,
It is obvious that terrace-formations occur in greatest perfection where the stream is not very rapid. Where it flows as a torrent, a flood-plain or delta may form only at its mouth. Sometimes, however, a swift stream is checked by the accumulations of débris or by rocky gorges, forming lake-like basins around which terrace-formations occur with great uniformity and beauty. The Connecticut River is 1,589 feet higher at its source than at its mouth ”

“ There is very little soil that can be called good, except in the river valleys, and agriculture is as backward as in other parts of New England. The hills through the State furnish excellent pasturage and cheap fuel. The chief cultivated fruits are apples, pears, grapes, and the numerous kinds of berries. The principal crops are hay, oats, rye, corn, potatoes, and tobacco; and in the Connecticut River valley (extending, in this State, 30 miles N. of Middletown, and 20 miles wide) farming is very productive. The tobacco raised in the valley is said to be superior to any other. ”

“ The portages between the Connecticut River and the Canadian waters were of great local importance during the Old French War and the Revolution; they were not as important to the country at large as those of the northeast. ”

“ Waterfalls are not common in rivers flowing through lowlands; they indicate disturbances of normal stream development and sometimes change in course.
The Connecticut Lowland is old, but its ancient drainage lines were buried by the deposits left in glacial Lake Hadley. The river’s present course was established upon these lacustrine sediments, and the inner valley plain is excavated in them. Before entrenchment took place, the south-flowing reach of the river above Millers Falls was deflected westward across the lake plain by the delta of Millers River. ”

“ The Connecticut River comes from the northeast to its confluence with the Passumpsic, a stream of reduced volume, flowing down rapids. There is only sparse population above, and in New Hampshire, some distance east of Colebrook, is the famous Dixville Notch. This is an attractive ravine about ten miles long, cut through the isolated Dixville Range. It is not a mountain pass in the usual sense, but a wonderful gorge among high hills, the cliffs being worn and broken down into strange forms of ruin and desolation. ”

“ Although the regional slope of western Connecticut as a whole is contrary to that of Still River, there is no marked lowering of the hill summits between the source of the river and its mouth. As branches on the south side of the Housatonic are naturally to be expected, there is nothing unusual in the Still flowing in opposition to the regional slope, except that it flows toward the north instead of the northeast. ”

“ Every grain is a piece of the countryside lost to the land and soon to become a part of the ocean floor. Very little of this sand comes from the lowland itself, for the Connecticut may cut the bank below Hadley, but it leaves almost as much sand as it acquires on the opposite shore. The river’s burden is brought to it by swift tributaries—the brook at West Pelham and hundreds more like it. Their sides are cut-banks, but no extensive sand bars are built to balance their erosive work; what they pick up they carry to the lowland, and what they bring to the lowland is soon transported to the sea. ”

“ The valleys of the Connecticut and Housatonic are noted for their beautiful scenery. The coast line is very irregular, being indented by numerous bays, the largest of these being Massachusetts, Cape Cod, and Buzzards, all of these affording excellent harbors. The Connecticut, with its tributaries, the Westfield, Deerfield, Millers, and Chicopee rivers, forms the principal river system of the State. ”

“ Early in the nineteenth century the whole of America still remained to be explored by the geologist. The regions adjacent to the centers of learning were among the first to receive attention and the Triassic basin of Connecticut and Massachusetts yielded information in regard to the nature of igneous intrusion. This basin, of unmetamorphic shales and sandstones, is occupied by the Connecticut River except at its southern end. ”

“ Certain broad depressions through the highlands east of the Connecticut Lowland suggest that this drainage pursued a southeastward course to the Atlantic, and that the river did not establish its modern course until the straths were elevated and notched.
The land level above the strath-margins is a still older surface from which the rock-benches were cut. The higher surface stretches to the horizon at Pelham, but Mount Monadnock and Wachusett stand conspicuously above it. And on the Mohawk Trail one must ascend the tower at the eastern summit before any higher land comes into view. ”

“ Black Boy reef, &c.State of Connecticut.—For rebuilding a light-house on a proper site, on Lynde point, at the mouth of Connecticut river, five thousand dollars; for placing buoys on Black Boy reef, Barney’s reef, Stony Point reef, and Wheeler’s rock in the harbor of Killingworth, three hundred dollars; for a beacon already commenced on Round island, on Saybrook bar, fifteen hundred dollars; nine hundred dollars to meet the expenses of the work as far as executed, the balance to complete and secure the same; for placing buoys on the rocks in the harbor of Greenwich, three hundred dollars ”

“ Connecticut gets more patents proportionately than any other State, one to eight hundred inhabitants being annually granted; it makes clocks for all the world, and leads in india-rubber and elastic goods, in hardware and myriads of "Yankee notions," besides being well in the front for sewing-machines, arms and war material. It is named after the chief New England river, and its rugged surface is diversified by long ridges of hills and deep valleys, running generally from north to south, being the prolongation of mountain ranges and intervales that are beyond the northern border. ”

“ Instead of the scream of a fish-hawk scaring the fishes, is heard the whistle of the steam-engine, arousing a country to its progress.
This river too was at length discovered by the white man, “trending up into the land,” he knew not how far, possibly an inlet to the South Sea. Its valley, as far as the Winnipiseogee, was first surveyed in 1652. The first settlers of Massachusetts supposed that the Connecticut, in one part of its course, ran northwest, “so near the great lake as the Indians do pass their canoes into it over land.” ”

“ The farmers on the banks of the Connecticut river are the richest in the Eastern States. The majestic growth of the timber certified that the soil is generally good, although the crops were off the ground. ”

“ It is only when the vast areas contributing to a single river are considered, that the proof of the forest theory seems clear. Take the Ohio River, for illustration. The area drained by it is 214,000 square miles, or twenty-two times as much as that which in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut is drained by the Connecticut River; an area which includes portions of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky. ”

“ The Connecticut is a river of smaller volume than the streams already discussed, and its banks are thickly populated—circumstances tending to aggravate the difficulties of restocking, the principal obstacle probably being, there as elsewhere, the rapacity and improvidence of the fishermen. ”

“ Upon the top there is a house in which is a good telescope that visitors can use for a small fee, and a very extensive view may thus be obtained. But the most interesting feature of a visit to this hill is to stand upon the brink of the precipice on the eastern side, and look down to the river and green plain five hundred feet below. One feels an almost irresistible desire to take a plunge into the blue waters of the Connecticut. ”

“ Great Britain claimed that the due north line was 40 m. long and ran to Mars Hill in Aroostook county, and that the highlands ran thence westerly 115 m. to the source of the Chaudière; the United States, on the other hand, claimed that the northerly line was 140 m. long, running to highlands dividing the Ristigouche and the tributaries of the Metis; and there was a further disagreement with regard to the side of the highlands on which the boundary should be, and as to what stream was the “north-westernmost head of Connecticut river.” ”

“ When the ice and flood prevail in the great river Connecticut, they frequently carry off large pieces of ground on one side, and carry them over to the other. By this means the river is every year changing its bed, to the advantage of some persons and the disadvantage of others. This has proved the source of perplexing lawsuits, and will most likely continue to produce the same effects so long as the demi-annual assemblies remain in the colony ”

“ Not seeing any signs of game, however, they steered out so as to clear the various little capes or woody points of land inclosing the numerous coves scattered along the indented shore, and struck a line for the great inlet at the head of the lake, which they now soon reached, and commenced rowing against the at first gentle and then rapid current, which here pours down from, the upper lakes, through the rocky and picturesque defiles, in the form of a magnificent river, rivalling in its size the midway portions of the Connecticut or Hudson. ”

“ Long winters result in thick winter deposits, and heavy spring floods cause thick sand layers. If the winter of any year is long at 70 Northampton, it is usually long everywhere in New England; and if the Connecticut has floods, most neighboring drainage systems have them, too. In this way, similar layers, or similar successions of layers, are formed at different places at the same time; and the lake deposits at White River Junction, Deerfield, Hadley, South Hadley Falls, Chicopee and Springfield may be matched and dated with respect to each other. ”

“ To the north lie the Adirondacks and the Berkshire Hills, hedging New England in close to the ocean. Two glittering waterways lie east and west of these heights—the Connecticut and the Hudson. Upon the valleys of these two rivers converged the two deeply worn pathways of the Puritan, the Old Bay Path 16 and the Connecticut Path. By way of Westfield River, that silver tributary which joins the Connecticut at Springfield, Massachusetts, the Bay Path surmounted the Berkshire highlands and united old Massachusetts to the upper Hudson Valley near Fort Orange, now Albany. ”