Housatonic River

“ In early summer, after the flood season, the Yosemite streams are in their prime, running crystal clear, deep and full but not overflowing their banks—about as deep through the night as the day, the difference in volume so marked in spring being now too slight to be noticed. Nearly all the weather is cloudless and everything is at its brightest—lake, river, garden and forest with all their life. Most of the plants are in full flower. ”

“ Housatonuc, in N. Y. Land Papers Owassitanuc, stands for A-wass-adene-uc, Abn.; in Delaware, Awossi, "Over, over there, beyond," -actenne, "hill or mountain," with locative -uk, "place," "land"; literally, "A place beyond the hill." (Trumbull.) It is not the name of either the hill or the river, to which it was extended, but a verbal direction. An Indian village called Potatik by the Moravian missionaries, was also on the Housatonuc, and is written in one form, Pateook. ”

“ The latter stream was later reversed by a glacial dam at the southern end, or by glacial scouring at the northern end of its valley which removed the divide between its headwaters and the Housatonic.
III. The Housatonic has always held its present southeasterly course, and the Still initially flowed southward, as stated above. Reversal in this case, however, occurred in a very early stage in the development of the drainage, as the result of the capture [031] of the headwaters of the Still by a small tributary of the Housatonic. ”

“ Twice the size of the Hudson at Poughkeepsie, confined between high banks, 119it rushes its milky-looking flood onwards to the ocean. Indeed, this is a terrible stream.
The banks of the Hvitá, for several miles, are from 100 to 150 feet high, and perpendicular. What an explosion there must have been when that crack burst in the lava, and formed the chasm where the river flows! The stream, too, has undoubtedly worn it much deeper than it was at first. And how swift the river runs! Where will streams be swift, if not on mountainous islands? ”

“ It forms two horseshoes and an ox-bow connected, as we see it from our windows; and when the tide is out diminishes to a rivulet about two feet in width. At flood it is more than twice the width of the Wissahickon, and when the high tides of August come its magnitude is surprising.
Then we understand why the hay-ricks (which we wickedly tell our friends from the "Hub" resemble gigantic loaves of Boston brown bread) are on stilts, for, regardless of dikes or boundaries, this tortuous creek spreads over its whole valley, as if in emulation of the greater river of which it is a tributary. ”

“ Shasta is a loftier mountain than any that frown above the Peace River Pass. Yosemite can boast its half-dozen waterfalls, trickling down their thousand feet of rock; but for wild beauty, for the singular spectacle of a great river flowing tranquilly through a stupendous mountain range,—these mountains presenting at every reach a hundred varied aspects,—not the dizzy glory of Shasta nor the rampart precipices of Yosemite can vie with that lonely gorge far away on the great Unchagah. ”

“ Thus, as Dawson has well pointed out, in coming up the stream the valley of the Big Salmon appears to be more nearly the continuation of the main valley below than that which still (and properly) continues to be designated the Lewes (Yukon) above; and this is still more markedly the case with the Hootalinqua (Teslin-too or Newberry River) at the confluence with the Thirty Mile. Even the valley of the Pelly at its junction with the Yukon, near Fort Selkirk, would perhapS to most persons suggest itself as the main channel of erosion. ”

“ The scene becomes peculiarly desolate and mournful, often giving one the impression of being far removed from civilization, threading the course of some hitherto unexplored stream. Penetrate the deep fringe of forest and morass on foot, however, and smiling prairies are found beyond, stretching to the horizon and cut up into prosperous farms. The river is here from a half to three-quarters of a mile broad, but the shallows and snags are as numerous as ever and navigation is continually attended with some danger of being either grounded or capsized. ”

“ At last, down the stream came an immense mass of ice, and, striking the barrier about at its centre, it gave way, and the whole was swept onward together, leaving the river entirely free, with only here and there a cake of ice floating quietly along. The great accumulation, in its downward course, hit against a tree that stood in mid-current, and caused it to quiver like a reed; and it swept quite over the shrubbery that bordered what, in summer-time, is the river's bank, but which is now nearly the centre of the stream. ”

“ Standing on the brink of the chasm the heavy roaring of the imprisoned river comes to the ear in a sort of hollow, hungry growl, scarcely audible from the depths, and strongly suggestive of demons in torment below. Lofty pines on the bank of the stream ‘dwindle to shrubs in dizziness of distance.’ Everything beneath has a weird and deceptive appearance. The water does not look like water, but like oil. ”

“ Unless by a sudden precipitation of the road you find yourself plunging into some gorge, you pass on, and on, and on, upon the crests or slopes of pastoral mountains, while far below, mapped out in its beauty, the valley of the Housatonie lies endlessly along at your feet. ”

“ It descends nearly five hundred feet in cataracts and rapids, the finest cascades in the Berkshires, and then flows out westward to the Hudson. The Housatonic, going southward 263 through Salisbury, plunges down its Great Falls over rocky ledges for sixty feet descent, making a tremendous noise and a fine display. To the eastward of the Housatonic Valley, at an elevation of eleven hundred feet, on a broad plateau, is Litchfield, consisting chiefly of two broad, tree-shaded streets crossing at right angles, the chief buildings fronting on the central village Green. ”

“ When the earth's crust is thrown up in mountain folds, and between them valleys are formed, the level of rivers is sometimes lowered and the rapidity of their flow is checked. A stream which has torn down its walls at a rapid rate becomes a sluggish water-course, its current clogged with sediment, which it has no power to carry farther. When such a river begins to build and obstruct its own waters it bars its progress and may form a lake as the outlet of its tributary streams. Many ancient rivers have been utterly changed and some obliterated by general movements of the earth's crust. ”

“ The river has to be crossed and recrossed so many times, by jumping from bowlder to bowlder, where the water goes whirling and dashing between—that if the rocks be moss-grown or slimy, as they may be outside of continuous current—one’s life is endangered. During our survey through this cañon, in the month of November, 1855, we failed to get through in one day on our preliminary survey, and were compelled to camp without food or blankets, only sheltered from a storm—half snow, half rain—by an overhanging rock. ”

“ The natives say there is a deeper channel to be found by keeping close in to the northern shore, but it has not yet been completely surveyed. A fresh breeze was blowing, which curled the waves and dashed them in breakers on the sandbank; so that our passage was made in a sea of foam. This obstruction renders the river comparatively useless, and is greatly to be regretted, as immediately the bar is passed the water deepens to four and five fathoms; occasionally we found no bottom with a ten-fathom line. ”

“ Where streams entered the lake tongues of deltaic deposits, sands or mudstones wedge into the Green River Lake sediments.
The reason for the red color of the Wasatch Formation is not fully known. According to Van Houten (1948) , the red is most likely the result of tropical, red lateritic soils forming in the uplands and being deposited on flood plains. The oxidation of organic material in a humid, subtropical environment causes the red color. The bands of purple, gray, orange, and other colors are due to various stages in the reduction of the iron oxides in the rocks. ”

“ Because of this spreading habit of the stream, the few villages along the way are planted on the higher land at the base of the bluffs, or on an occasional sandy pocket-plateau 245 which the river, as in ages past it has worn its bed to lower levels, has left high and dry above present overflows. Some of these towns, in their fear of floods, are situated two or three miles back from the water highway; others, where the channel chances to closely hug a line of bluffs, are directly abutting the river, which is crossed at such points by either a ferry or a toll-bridge. ”

“ River ecosystems are best defined as permanent flowing water, that is sufficiently deep to discourage swamp forest development and sufficiently swift to discourage lake type vegetation. By this definition, river boundaries shift according to the seasons and a river may be said to have marginal seasonal ecotones on either side. A river may spill over into a lake during flooding, or take on the characteristics of a lake when water is at its lowest and barely moving. ”

“ In mountainous districts landslips sometimes occur and block the valley of a stream which then forms a lake. The water gradually rises and eventually flows over the dam and sweeps it away causing a flood, which is of great suddenness and height but decreases very quickly in height as it travels down the valley. In a case which occurred in the Himalayas in 1888 the inhabitants of the valleys, from the dam to the point where the river debouches from the hills, were compelled by Government to vacate all habitations below the probable level of the flood, and no loss of life occurred. ”

“ The materials being prepared in the manner I have previously described, the animals make ready to establish their dyke. They intermix their materials — driftwood, green willows, birch, poplars, etc. — in the bed of the river, with mud and stones, so making a solid bank, capable of resisting a great force of water; sometimes the trees will shoot up forming a hedge. The dam has a thickness of from three to four metres at the base, and about sixty centimetres at the upper part. The wall facing up-stream is sloping, that directed down-stream is vertical ”

“ By degrees some portions of the bottom come in this way to be filled up to the surface of the river, and wide flat marshy spaces are formed on either side of the main stream. During floods these spaces are overflowed with muddy water, in the same way as in the case of the valley plains just described, and a coating of mud or sand is laid down on them until they slowly rise above the ordinary level of the river, which winds about among them in endless branching streams. Vegetation springs up on these flat swampy lands; animals, too, find food and shelter there ”

“ These barges are laden chiefly with lumber, but some have coal, grain, and ore.
We enter the narrow mouth of the Sault Ste. Marie River, commonly called by the Americans the "Soo." This river is the outlet between the waters of Lake Huron and Lake Superior. There is a fall of forty-two feet. It is a broad and muddy river, and on the right hand we have American soil, and on the left Canadian. Perched on the bridge in the crisp morning air, the views are very pretty. The mountains, as always, are covered with the dark blue-green of the familiar pines. ”

“ There are also large spots and streaks of evergreens, chiefly hemlock and spruce." Though, with a single exception, entered in English records by the name of "Hoosick or Schaahkook's Creek," it was, from the feature which especially attracted Dr. Dwight's attention, known to the Iroquois as the Ti-oneenda-howe, or "The river at the hemlocks." [FN]
[FN] See Saratoga. Ti-oneenda-howe was applied by the Mohawks to the Hoosick, and Ti-ononda-howe to the Batten Kill as positive boundmarks, the former from its hemlock-clad hills (onenda) , and the latter from its conical hills (ononda) . ”

“ On the 22nd we reached the mouth of the Notuany, a river that rises in the Transvaal, in the western Marico district; it flows only after very heavy rain, and even then not over the whole of its course, which is 150 miles long; it is deep, and lies, as it were, in a trench; ever and again pools occur along its shores, which always contain fish, and sometimes crocodiles. From the west, the Notuany takes up a considerable number of sand-rivers. ”

“ Our road now ascends Long Gulch, passes over a low divide, and in 4.2 miles crosses the Middle Fork of the Tuolumne River. This is an attractive auto camp but horse feed is scarce. The stream is well stocked with rainbow and eastern brook trout. We now follow along the well-wooded banks of the Middle Fork and in about three and a half miles, where the road makes a big bend toward the southeast, we find the beginning of the trail to Harden Lake, Hetch Hetchy, and the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne.
The beautiful little Harden Lake (Alt. 7575) is only one mile distant by trail. ”

“ As a river advances toward maturity the initial depressions, the lake basins of its area, are gradually effaced. By the furrowing action of the rain wash and the head ward lengthening, of tributaries a branchwork of drainage channels grows until it covers the entire area, and not an acre is left on which the fallen raindrop does not find already cut for it an uninterrupted downward path which leads it on by way of gully, brook, and river to the sea. The initial surface of the land, by whatever agency it was modeled, is now wholly destroyed; the region is all reduced to valley slopes. ”