. New England; a human interest geographical reader. enty inches long, and many othercurious animals large and small that have vanishedfrom the earth. No bones of these ancient swamp andjungle dwellers have been found, and but for the foot-prints turned to stone we would not know that suchcreatures had lived in the Connecticut Valley of thatfar-off time. Where the rivers bordering lowlands are sufficientlybroad and unobstructed by hills and rocks it formslong loops, and the channel is always gradually shift-ing. Sometimes the stream shortens its course by cut-ting across the neck of one of the
. New England; a human interest geographical reader. enty inches long, and many othercurious animals large and small that have vanishedfrom the earth. No bones of these ancient swamp andjungle dwellers have been found, and but for the foot-prints turned to stone we would not know that suchcreatures had lived in the Connecticut Valley of thatfar-off time. Where the rivers bordering lowlands are sufficientlybroad and unobstructed by hills and rocks it formslong loops, and the channel is always gradually shift-ing. Sometimes the stream shortens its course by cut-ting across the neck of one of these oxbows. Sucha cut was made in 1840 just below Northampton. Afarmer had ploughed a strip the previous fall frombank to bank on the neck, and in February a jam ofice in the bow set the water back so that it ran acrossthe ploughed field. In a few hours it had torn a newchannel. This caused great rejoicing in the towns New Englands Longest River 15 above, and at Northampton the bells were rung. Thetowns were three miles nearer tidewater, and, as the. A river oxbow viewed from Mount Holyoke in 1840 valley had as yet no railroad, the river was an impor-tant highway for commerce. In the winter, ice bridges the river almost completelyfrom source to mouth, but by the beginning of Aprilthe ice has usually been much weakened by the sunsincreasing warmth. At the same time the snow on thenorthern mountains melts, and every little streambecomes a torrent and rushes down to the river toswell its current. Hea\^ rains often add to the volumeof water, and the ice crumbles and is swept down thestream. The channel is likely to fill to the brim, thelow ground that borders it is flooded, and the brown i6 New England meadows that lie higher have long lagoons in theirhollows. Sometimes the water rises so high that it invadesvillages and scattered dwellings, and it may carry offbuildings, fences, and bridges. The greatest flood onrecord was that of 1862. It was caused entirely bymelting snow in a sp
Size: 2023px × 1236px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorjohnsonc, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, mountholyoke
