USA > Connecticut > The Connecticut River and the valley of the Connecticut, three hundred and fifty miles from mountain to sea; historical and descriptive > Part 26
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From its mountain fastnesses the River "loiters down like a great lord," as Dr. Holmes has imaged, " swallowing up the small proprietary rivulets very quietly as it goes,
Fountains of the River. The Upper Connecticut Lake.
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"The Beautiful River"
until it gets proud and swollen, and wantons in huge lux- urious oxbows ... and at last overflows the oldest inhabi- tants, running in profligate freshets . .. all along the lower shores." In its downward course it flows between New Hampshire and Vermont to their southern bounds ; crosses the length of Massachusetts between the "heart of the Commonwealth " and the beautiful Berkshire region ; and passes on the eastern side of Connecticut state to the finish.
The Valley's bounding summits on the east are the mountain area of the Appalachian system which extends through New Hampshire, embracing the White Mountain range, and passes in the spurs and ridges of that range through Massachusetts and Connecticut toward Long Island Sound; and on the west, the extension of the Appalachian system through Vermont in the Green Moun- tains - their eastern chain continuing in the Berkshire Hills and the lesser highlands of Massachusetts and Con- necticut. Between these primary ranges on either side the Valley expands and contracts, varying greatly in breadth in its sweep from north to south from less than twenty miles to upward of fifty.
In its passage between the upper states the River drains about three-tenths of the area of New Hampshire, and four-tenths of Vermont, or a total of sixty-eight hundred square miles in both states. Twenty or more tributaries come to it from the bounding summits in New Hampshire, and a dozen from the Vermont side. On the outer sides of these summits rise other rivers of historic interest from their use in connection with the Connecticut as waterways and trails between Canada and New England during the French and Indian wars. At the north, on the Canadian side of the highland where our River rises, is the source of
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the St. Francis River, which crosses to the St. Lawrence. On the northwest, in upper Vermont, the Clyde rises in the Green Mountains and meets the St. Francis through Lake Memphremagog. Two miles from the Clyde is the head of the Nulhegan, which flows to the Connecticut. Joined by a carrying place these two streams formed the connecting link of an early canoe-way for predatory incur- sions from Canada through this River upon the New England frontier then far below. South of Lake Mem- phremagog rises the Barton River, which, with a carry to the Passumpsic, that empties into the Connecticut thirty miles below, constituted a link in another trail by way of that lake. Farther down on the west slopes of the Green Mountains heads the romantic Winooski, - so named by the Indians from the growth of wild onions on its banks, - more commonly the Indian River in colony times, which formed a trail between Lake Champlain and our River, through the White River, most frequented in the French and Indian wars. Farther south rises Otter Creek, also flowing to Lake Champlain, the longest stream in Vermont, which constituted the early "Indian Road " connecting with the Connecticut by way of Black River at the present town of Springfield, Vermont, or by the West River, lower down, at Brattleborough.
The fountain-head of " The Beautiful River" is hidden in the primeval forest, in a remote and solitary region, at the extreme northern point of New Hampshire, near the top of the mountain ridge that marks the Canadian line. It is a mountain pond, or miniature lake, of only a few square acres, lying less than eighty feet below the summit of the elevation known as Mount Prospect, and twenty-five hundred and fifty-one feet above the sea. Surrounded by
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"The Beautiful River "
lense growths of evergreen, the region is rarely penetrated. ' Almost the only sound that relieves the monotony of the place," says Joshua H. Huntington in the Geology of New Hampshire, " is the croaking of the frogs; and this must be their paradise." This pool is the uppermost of four basins which constitute the River's headwaters, and bears the prosaic name of Fourth Lake. Its outlet is a silvery rill, tumbling along the mountain-side, and flowing down to a second lake half a mile directly south of the Canadian bound. This lake lies at a height of twenty hundred and thirty-eight feet. In prosaic fashion also it is denominated Third Lake -or sometimes Sophy Lake. It is a lake in fact, with an area of three-quarters of a square mile, set in the heart of the mountain forest. On all sides except the south, where is its greatest width, the hills rise almost from its shore. Beside the growth of spruce, firs, and cedar of immense size about it, Professor Huntington remarks its subalpine vegetation. From its outlet, at the southeast corner, the highland stream, now of somewhat larger growth, flows southward to the next basin, Second Lake, six and a half miles below. On its way, five miles or so from Third Lake, the growing stream receives a tribu- tary from the east, also rising near the Canadian boundary, nearly as large as itself. Second Lake, a romantic piece of water, two and three-quarters miles in length, and at its widest a little more than a mile, with shores of graceful contour, deserves a happier name. Its height above the sea is eighteen hundred and eighty-two feet. Near its northern border it receives, besides our highland stream, two tributaries, coming one from the northeast, the other from the northwest. Its forest-framed outlet is on the southwest side. Thence our stream proceeds southwesterly four miles to the fourth basin, First or Connecticut Lake, increasing
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in beauty as it goes. Twenty rods down from Second Lake the young River drops in a little fall of eighteen feet. Then it descends gradually for a while with here and there deep eddies. Then it grows more rapid, and then for half a mile it dashes between precipitous rocky walls in a series of wild cascades. Then it moves on with gentler flow. Then again with swifter current, and with added volume from two tributary brooks coming down from north and west, it enters the basin.
Connecticut Lake, chief of the River's headwaters, lies sixteen hundred and eighteen feet above sea-level. Pic- turesquely irregular in outline, its shores in large part with forest fringes broken by green intervals, it is a handsome lake of fine proportions, as becomes a progenitor of so fair a stream. It extends four miles in length, has a breadth at its widest of two and three-quarters miles, and contains nearly three square miles. The neighboring hills are thick with deciduous trees, particularly the maple mingled with the spruce and fir. In the autumn, while the trees are aglow with their rich tints, the heights are often white from the frozen mist that clings to the spears of the evergreen foliage ; and so a rare picture is presented, embracing, as Professor Huntington limns it, the blue waters of the lake, the belt of deciduous forests with their gorgeous colors, the dark bands of the evergreens, and the snow-white summits. From the shape of Connecticut Lake Timothy Dwight called it "Heart Lake." But his name did not hold. More poetical and yet more fitting were it called " Metallak," so perpetuating the name of the last of the Abenaquis, " the final hunter of the Coo-ash-ankes over the territory of his fathers," in which it lies.
Now full formed the River emerges from the rocky outlet of this limpid basin, falling abruptly about thirty-
Fountains of the River. First, or Connecticut, Lake-Mount Magalloway at the Left.
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seven feet. For the first two and a half miles of its course it is almost a continual rapid, averaging perhaps ten rods in breadth. Then it drops into a more tranquil mood and glides gently along for some four miles, winding west and southwest. Then, and with a sweeping bend in the upper part of the township of Stewartstown (the Stuart of Timo- thy Dwight's writing), receiving along the way two fair- sized tributaries and lesser streams, it flows again more rapidly to the meeting of the bounds of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Canada. Here, joined by another tributary, Hall's Stream, which comes down from the north and makes the west bound of New Hampshire and Canada, it swings into its long serpentine course, separating New Hampshire and Vermont, southward, through romantic country.
From Connecticut Lake to the meeting of the bounds, or, more exactly, to the mouth of Hall's Stream, at Canaan, Vermont, a distance of about eighteen miles, its descent is set down as five hundred and eighty-three feet. Accord- ingly at this point its height above the sea is ten hundred and thirty-five feet. Thence the drop becomes very gradual for fifty miles, to the point where the upper section of the Upper Valley ends- at the head of the Fifteen Miles Falls, in Dalton, New Hampshire side, - the descent being only two hundred and five feet in all.
Following the River's downward course from source to mouth the terrace system distinguishing its banks is of first interest. These formations of modified drift, shaped during the formative geological period by action or con- traction of the River and incoming tributaries, occur in spaces or "basins " separated by ridges, through which the River has cut or deepened gorges, or connected by the
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highest terraces. The terraces rise from the River in suc- cessive magnificent steps, three, four, five, and sometimes more in number : the lower consisting of the rich alluvial meadows or intervals ; the highest being, as the geologists define, remnants of ancient flood-plains annually overflowed by the glacial river at the end of the Champlain period, as are the alluvial meadows now, and varying in height to two hundred feet above the River's present surface.
Dr. Edward Hitchcock, the third president of Amherst College, and first of all geologists to explore the River scientifically, enumerated twenty-two of these terrace- basins from the headwaters to the Sound.
We cannot do better than follow his lines in a rapid survey through their course of the features of the River and the Valley.
Five " basins " are defined in the upper section of the Upper Valley. Along this entire reach, below West Stew- artstown and Canaan, the fertile intervals extend on both sides, varying from a half-mile to a mile or more in width. The terraces in the first basin are most developed at the end, in West Stewartstown, and opposite in Canaan. In the narrower second basin, extending only about five miles (to Leamington, Vermont side, and Colebrook, New Hampshire side) some terraces appear of unusual height. At Leamington, Vermont's Monadnock, extending to the River, uplifts its green crown. In the third basin, also short (from Colebrook to Columbia, or Bloomfield, Ver- mont side), two tributaries, the Mohawk River and Sims's Stream, enter the River from New Hampshire. The fourth basin (from Bloomfield to Guildhall, Vermont, and North- umberland, New Hampshire), with a length of eighteen miles, exhibits a beautiful succession of terraces, particu- larly fine at Guildhall. Near the northern bound of this
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basin, the Nulhegan River, part of the uppermost Indian route to Canada, comes in from Vermont at a point below the town of Brunswick ; and at the south end of the basin, the Upper Ammonoosuc, from the New Hampshire side, at Northumberland. The fifth basin, another short one (Guildhall to Lunenburg, Vermont, and Lancaster, New Hampshire), advances into the old Coos country, so called by the Indians from the crookedness of the River passing through : the " Garden of New England," as characterized by Major Robert Rogers, with a soldier's eye for beauty, when he penetrated the then primitive region with his Rangers in the French and Indian war times. Lunenburg and Lancaster on their terraced banks are approached through broad meadows, the channel at length widening and gliding with a placid surface. In its meanderings by Lancaster the River's drop is said to be less than two feet in a flow of some ten miles. As illustrative of its twist- ings in this lovely reach, the local historian tells how in hunting days a sportsman might, at one point, " stand in New Hampshire, fire across Vermont, and lodge his ball in New Hampshire again." On the Lancaster line, Israel's River, rising in cataracts in the White Mountains, empties into the stream; and at Dalton, just below Lancaster, is Israel's companion, John's River, having started from the mountain town of Jefferson, through which Israel's also flows : both named for old-time hunters, Israel and John Glines, brothers, each of whom had a hunting-camp on them.
South of Lancaster the base of the White Mountains pushes the channel twenty miles westward. The Gardner Mountains range, crossing the Valley, and occupying the angle of the bend at Dalton, makes the Fifteen-Miles Falls, over twenty miles in length. These rapids, beginning at
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Dalton in a great eddy, continue through the long romantic passage excavated by the River, to Monroe, New Hamp- shire side, and Barnet, Vermont, finishing at Barnet in a pitch of a few feet, known as McIndoe's Falls, from a Scotch lumberman established here among the earliest settlers in the region. From the head of the rapids, or from the mouth of John's River, the descent is rapid, three hundred and seventy feet in twenty miles. The altitude of the foot of McIndoe's Falls above the sea is four hund- red and thirty-two feet.
The Fifteen-Miles Falls, heading the lower section of the Upper Valley in New Hampshire and Vermont, occupy the sixth and seventh of Dr. Hitchcock's basins. From their foot this section of the Valley is comparatively level, and again with a southerly course. About a mile below McIndoe's Falls the Passumpsic River empties into the stream from its picturesque run down the Vermont hills. From the mouth of the Passumpsic to the Massachusetts line, a direct distance of one hundred and eighteen miles, our River's flow is one hundred and thirty-seven miles, with an average descent of two feet to the mile. The Fifteen-Miles Falls separate the old Coos country into the Upper and Lower Coös.
Below McIndoe's Falls the hills recede and the broad alluvial meadows again intervene and form the particular features of the eighth basin, which extends from McIndoe's Falls to South Ryegate, Vermont side. In the succeeding five basins (Ryegate to Norwich, Vermont, and Hanover, New Hampshire) a succession of intervals, rising terraces, and mountain views delight the eye. These basins com- prise a distance of about thirty miles. The terraces are especially marked in the upper part, at Newbury and Bradford, Vermont, and Haverhill, New Hampshire; and
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at the lower end in Hanover, providing Dartmouth College with a beautiful seat. The most extensive intervals are between Newbury, Vermont, and Haverhill, New Hamp- shire side, and between Bradford, Vermont, and Piermont, New Hampshire, - the region of the Lower Coos. Within this reach they are at greater breadth than at any other point in the Valley. At Newbury Wells River enters the stream ; at Bradford, Wait's River ; and just above Haver- hill (from Bath), the Lower Ammonoosuc: all important tributaries. Between the mouths of Wells and Wait's Rivers the intervals spread from half a mile to a mile in width, the River twisting through them in Haverhill and Newbury in little and great oxbows. East of Haverhill, Moosilauk, the southwest extension of the White Mountains, towers four thousand seven hundred and ninety feet above the River. The hills back of Haverhill rising in procession to this rugged peak appear in full view from the opposite banks of Newbury. Midway between Haverhill and Han- over, Mount Cuba, in Orford, trending toward the River, with an altitude of two thousand nine hundred and twenty- seven feet above the sea, enriches the landscape.
Features more varied characterize the fourteenth basin, which extends from Norwich to Mount Ascutney, in Weth- ersfield, Vermont, the highest elevation lying wholly in the Valley. Between Hanover and the railroad centre of White River Junction are the Upper White-River Falls, at " Wilder's," splendid as a spectacle and practical as the motive-power for great paper-mills, transforming wood pulp into newspaper stock. At White River Junction the White River, the largest stream in Vermont on the east side of the mountains, produces as it enters some inter- esting terraces. At Lebanon, on the New Hampshire side, the Mascomy River comes in; and below, from the
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Vermont side, the Quechee, or Otto Quechee, at North Hartland : both contributing to the Quechee or Sumner Falls, two miles down from its mouth. Terraces beautify the banks of Lebanon and North Hartland, and of Cornish and Windsor on either side below. The triple-crowned Ascutney finishing this basin, sweeps close to the River, a graceful cone, independent of any range, and rising three thousand one hundred and sixty-eight feet above the sea. From near its top down quite to its base three deep valleys course, in size resembling one another, whence comes its Indian name, which signifies " three brothers." The next two basins, extending between Ascutney and Bellows Falls, about twenty-five miles, show terraces in fullest form at the upper part, most notably in Wethersfield, the little village south of Ascutney's base, North Charlestown, New Hampshire side, and Springfield, Vermont. Four tribu- taries enter in these reaches; Sugar River, at Claremont, and Little Sugar, at North Charlestown, from New Hamp- shire ; and Black River at Springfield and Williams River at Rockingham, from Vermont, -the latter the historic junction where, three miles above Bellows Falls, the "Deer- field captives " of 1703-4 held their first Sunday service ; in commemoration of which the river was afterward named for John Williams, the minister.
At Bellows Falls the aspect changes and the loitering stream becomes a foaming torrent in a narrow strait. Here Kilburn Peak, rising abruptly twelve hundred feet and pressing close on the east side, and steep hills crowding in on the west side, bound this gorge, through which the River, not more than forty rods in width, hurries in whirl- ing rapids with spirit and dash. Entering with a plunge at the brink over a ledge of gneiss which cuts the current into two channels, it rushes and leaps in zigzags to a grand
McIndoe's-Below the Fifteen-Miles Falls.
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finish in a great eddy nearly fifty feet below. It is an animated spectacle indeed, but scarcely meeting the exu- berant description of Samuel Peters, the romancing histo- rian of Connecticut, a hundred and more years ago, who told of the tops of the bounding hills " intercepting the clouds," and of the water consolidated by pressure and swiftness " between the pinching rocks to such a degree of induration that an iron bar cannot be forced into it " ! The village of Bellows Falls perched on "the island " and the steep west banks, its terraces among the highest in the Valley, adds to the charm of the surrounding landscape. The blemishes in the picture, from an æsthetic point of view, are the factories crowding on the River's edge below the gorge. These, however, are endurable blemishes, for they bring employment, comfort, and wealth to this favored town. The first bridge that ever spanned the River was built here. This great feat was accomplished in 1785, and gave added distinction to the place.
In the next basin, extending to Brattleborough, seven- teen miles, the River resumes its tranquil flow. In this reach terraces are beautifully developed along the first five miles of Westminster, adjoining Bellows Falls. From the Westminster side Saxton's River enters the winding stream; and at Walpole, opposite, Cold River, after flowing around Kilburn Peak. The intervals here broadening on both sides give these rural towns a lovely river fringe. As Brattleborough is approached the Valley again narrows till it becomes almost a defile, and at this elevated terraced town the River passes through another gorge. This strait is made by the closing in of the precipitous Wantastiquet Mountain, thirteen hundred and sixty feet high, on the New Hampshire side, and of the west-side hills culminat- ing in the crest of the Green Mountains. Toward either
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end of the village, north and south, two tributaries join the River but a mile apart, thus producing some remark- able and complicated terraces. These tributaries are West River, of considerable size, and Whetstone Brook, a brawl- ing stream, both in picturesque setting. Attractive ter- races also appear north of Wantastiquet, on the New Hampshire side, in Chesterfield opposite Brattleborough and Dummerston. Far across the Valley, twenty miles off on the eastern bound, grand Monadnock, in the charm- ing hill town of Dublin, is discerned rising in majestic isolation to its altitude of more than three thousand feet.
The eighteenth basin, beginning at Brattleborough, extends past the remainder of New Hampshire and Ver- mont and penetrates Massachusetts for twenty miles or so. Terraces reappear numerously in the northern part of Vernon, the lowest Vermont town ; and along Hinsdale, the New Hampshire town opposite Vernon. At Hinsdale the Ashuelot, the last New Hampshire tributary, enters the River with a royal sweep, having cut its narrow chan- nel through mountain ranges. To the mouth of the Ash- uelot, within four miles of the Massachusetts line, our River has coursed from its source two hundred and eight miles, with a descent from Connecticut Lake of fourteen hundred and twelve feet. At this point the River lies two hundred and six feet above the ocean level. Its whole length in New Hampshire, following its principal bends, is in round figures two hundred and thirty-six miles, the distance in the direct course being two hundred and one miles.
At the Massachusetts line the primary mountains crowd down, again narrowing the Valley. Across this state the Valley's stretch from north to south is nearly fifty miles, with a varying but averaging width of about twenty miles.
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Bellows Falls Dam.
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It broadens toward the south and narrows at the southern end as at the north, between close-pressing hills.
The River enters Massachusetts meandering in long graceful curves through the border town of Northfield, the east-side village rising from the meadows in broad terraces, a picture of quiet beauty as seen in the summer sunshine from the car windows of a railroad train on the opposite bank. The eighteenth basin continues a few miles farther down, ending at the mouth of Miller's River, the first Massachusetts tributary, which flows into the stream in the southeast corner of the west-side town of Gill. West- ward of this basin, rising in high ridges between Gill and the adjoining town of Greenfield, a range of greenstone appears, which, trending southward, enters the Valley and extends along its central parts through Massachusetts, twice crossing the River; and thence continuing in the chain that, lower down, cuts across the State of Connecti- cut and terminates in West Rock, at New Haven. This interior mountain range, with the River's magnificent curves and superb ox-bows and frequent meanders between deep meadows and terraced banks, diversifies the scenery and gives to much of the Valley in Massachusetts a charm of its own distinct from the beauties of other parts.
Through this region, extending from Northfield across the two states to New Haven, where the River had its earlier outlet in the Sound, lie the "new red sandstone " formations in which were found, some sixty years ago, between the strata of the bed, those marvellous fossil foot- prints of ancient bipeds, the discussion of which by savants of that time gave a great new zest to geological research in the Valley. Ages back, they say, before the globe was fit for man, these strange creatures roamed the shores of the estuary which then was here, and left their impress in
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the mud clay, the rock in its plastic state, on the slopes and shallow bottom when the tide was out. So Dr. Hitch- cock, first to examine scientifically and describe these triassic tracks, recorded. Huge birds were they, as he portrayed, four times as large as the African ostrich. They reached in height twelve feet and more, in weight four hundred to eight hundred pounds, and had a stride of from thirty to sixty inches. With them were other gigantic races, for the high temperature which then prevailed was seemingly favorable to a giant-like development of every form of life. The footprints, thousands of which Dr. Hitchcock examined, were found in the bottom of the Valley in places scattered between Gill, in Massachu- setts, and Middletown, in Connecticut, a linear distance of about eighty miles. Dr. Hitchcock's theory was that the colossal birds passed over the surface in flocks, as indicated by rows of tracks found in certain localities, among them the southeast part of Northampton. Farther research dis- closed traces of quadrupeds, frogs, and salamanders. From all these footprints Dr. Hitchcock constructed this animated spectacle of the menagerie of the primeval Valley :
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