THE face of the county is generally uneven, though not to such an extent as would be naturally supposable in a territory traversed by two mountain chains. The eastern portion lies upon the Green Mountains, that range which is the most striking feature in the scenery of Vermont, and from which the State derives its name. [note 1] The principal peaks of the county in this range, though few attain an altitude of much over 2,000 feet, are Lincoln Mountain, in Lincoln; Hogback and South Mountain, mainly in Bristol; Bread Loaf, in Ripton; and Mount Moosalamo, in Goshen. They are not generally precipitous, and are mostly covered with timber to their summits. From this highland the county has a general slope to the lake front, though it is broken into a succession of fertile valleys, and into elevations of a peculiar formation, none of which properly attains the dignity of a mountain. These latter are the foothills of the fourth of the State's mountain systems, the Red Sand Rock Range, which extends through Addison, Chittenden and Franklin counties. The peculiarity in the formation of this range and its surroundings invites scientific speculation.

They have a character decidedly unique, the peculiarities being a gradual slope upon the eastern side and a bold and rugged escarpment upon the western. The rock of the series is usually a limestone, or calcareous slate, dipping to the east, capped with a siliceous rock known as the "Red Sand Rock." Snake Mountain in Addison, and Buck Mountain in Waltham, are the most elevated peaks of the division, though Florona in Monkton, Shell House Mountain and Mars Hill in Ferrisburgh, are prominent elevations. A person standing upon Snake Mountain and looking to the north can count ten uplifts, each of which presents essentially the same outline as the one upon which he stands. While viewing this scene, the contemplative mind at once is led to reflect upon the agencies which have been at work to produce a series of hills so uniform in their structure and so similar in their outline.

From many peaks among either of the mountain ranges we have described grand and extensive views of the surrounding country may be obtained. It is

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from some one of the points of observation thus presented, also, that the scenic beauty of Addison county is best impressed upon the senses. Its mountains, clothed in their native forests of green; its gentle swells and steep declivities; its hills, with their browsing herds and flocks, or highly cultivated sides; its level intervales and fertile valleys; its network of brooks and streams and the blue waters of the Champlain beyond, with over all the generous life of cottage, church and hall, unite in forming a picture of which the eye never tires.

Lakes and Streams.--Lake Champlain is the first, and, in fact, the only body of water of importance to be mentioned under this head, if we except Lake Dunmore, 1iving in Salisbury and Leicester. Still only a small portion of Champlain belongs to the county, viz: "All that part lying east of the center of its deepest channel, and between the northern line of Ferrisburgh and the southern line of Orwell." But its waters and their environs that lie opposite the county have been the scene of many stirring historic events. From the southern line of the county to the celebrated site of old Fort Ticonderoga, the lake averages about a mile in width, its greatest width being two miles, and its narrowest point, about a mile south of Mount Independence, which lies in the northern part of Orwell, is but about forty rods; while between, Mount Independence and Ticonderoga, which are separated by a distance of two miles, the lake is only eighty rods wide. From Ticonderoga to Crown Point, a distance of from twelve to fourteen miles, the width continues from one to two miles; but at that point it abruptly widens, and from there to the northern line of the county averages about three and a half miles. The fortress of Ticonderoga, on the New York side, is now a heap of ruins. It was built by the French in 1756, on a point of land formed by the junction of Lake George Creek with Lake Champlain, and opposite the northwest corner of Orwell. It is a place of great strength, both by nature and by art. On three sides it was surrounded by water, and about half the other was occupied by a deep swamp, while the line was completed by the erection of a breastwork nine feet high on the only assailable ground In 1758 General Abercrombie, with a British army, was defeated in an attempt upon this fortress with a loss of 1,941 men; but it was the next year surrendered to General Amherst. It was surprised by Colonel Ethan Allen, May 10, 1775, at the commencement of the Revolution, and was retained by the American army until 1777, when it was evacuated on the approach of Burgoyne.

The interesting ruins of the Crown Point fortress lie opposite the southern part of the town of Addison. The original fortress was built by the French, in 1731, upon a point of land between West Bay and the lake, and was called Fort St. Frederic In 1759 it was surrendered to the British troops under General Amherst, and England built another fortress, the predecessor of the present ruins, near its site at a cost of $10,000,000. This was held by the British until May 10, 1775, though sadly dismantled by an accidental fire two years previ-

page 18 HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY

ous, when it was taken by Colonel Seth Warner, on the same day that Ticonderoga surrendered to Allen. It again fell into the hands of the British in 1776, who kept possession of it till after the capture of Burgoyne in 1777. It was nearly a regular pentagon, the longest curtain being ninety, and the shortest about seventy-five yards in length. The ramparts, about twenty-five feet in thickness, were revetted with masonry throughout. The ditch was blasted out of the solid rock. There were two demilunes and some small detached outworks. An arched passage led to the lake, and a well about ninety feet in depth was sunk in one of the bastions. The whole peninsula being of solid rock, covered with a thin layer of earth, the works could not be assailed by regular approaches, and both in construction and position the fortress was among the strongest in North America. It is now quite dilapidated, but its form and dimensions are still easily traced and measured.

A small fortress or outpost was built on Chimney Point, in the town of Addison, by Jacobus d'Narm, with a party from Albany, N. Y., as early as 1690. It was short-lived, however, though it was taken up by the French and a small fort and windmill built by them in 1730, the year previous to their building the fortress on Crown Point, just opposite.

Mount Independence rises about 160 feet from the lake shore in the northwestern part of Orwell. It is often visited on account of its historic associations. Its commanding position early led the commander of Ticonderoga to plant a battery upon its summit. Subsequently a garrison was established here, a stockade fort built, with fortifications and a stone fort, connecting by, a floating bridge with the fortifications opposite at Ticonderoga. After the capture of Ticonderoga by Allen in 1775, it became the headquarters of the Army of the North. At two o'clock on the morning of July 6, 1777, at the evacuation of Ticonderoga, the mountain sides were illuminated by the blaze of a French officer's house, to which he had imprudently set fire, disclosing to Burgoyne the retreat of the Americans and causing an immediate pursuit and the subsequent battle of Hubbardton, in Rutland county. The mount was again the scene of active operations on the 17th of the following October, when the old fort was again captured by the Americans. A terrible scourge of camp fever visited the garrison in 1776, and traces of the graves of many of its victims are still to be seen. The floating bridge built across the lake was twelve feet wide and more than a thousand feet long. It had twenty-two sunken piers to give it strength and durability, remains of which are still occasionally found at low water.

Lake Dumnore lies in the southern part of the County, in the towns of Salisbury and Leicester. It covers an area of about 1,400 acres, its extreme length being about five miles, its greatest width a little more than a mile, and its average depth about sixty feet. It is noted for its romantic loveliness. Its waters, limpid and pure as crystal, lie at the base of towering hills, which present a

page 19

rough contour, peculiar to hills composed of the unyielding quartz rock. Moosalamo is the highest of the surrounding peaks, though Rattlesnake Point, which more immediately overlooks the lake, is not less interesting and affords some commanding views. The former has a height of 1,959 feet, and the latter of 1,319 feet. On the slope of the former is "Warner's Cave," a place rendered celebrated by the imagination of Thompson, in his Green Mountain Boys. The name of the lake is derived from John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, who was made governor of the colony of New York in 1770. He was a needy Scottish peer, passionate and unscrupulous in rapacity, who had come to this country to amass a fortune. During his administration he adopted dishonest measures to grant to himself large areas of land, among which was a tract of some twelve or thirteen miles in length from north to south, by six or seven in width, lying principally on the east side of Otter Creek, in the townships of Leicester, Salisbury and Middlebury, and including the lake which bears his name. The earl fell into disrepute for his unlawful practices, however, and he ended his achievements by the burning of Norfolk, Va, under cover of zeal for the British cause, whence he retired with his plunder to St. Augustine, Fla. He is said to have died in England in 1809. Large hotels have been built upon the shores of the lake, and many people from a distance spend their summers here.

Silver Lake is the name given to a little lakelet just east of Lake Dunmore. Its name is suggested by the silver-white sand which covers its bottom and the clearness of its waters, which cover an area about a mile in diameter. It lies at an altitude of 1,400 feet above tide water and 1,ooo feet above Lake Dummore.

Little Pond, another handsome sheet of water of about the same area as Silver Lake, lies just south of Lake Dunmore.

Mud Pond is a small and unimportant body of water lying west of Lake Dummore.

Dutton Pond is a small body of water located in school district No. 4, in the town of Goshen.

Mount Vernon Pond, about half a mile in diameter, is located in the western part of Hancock. It is somewhat noted as a curiosity from the fact of its being at the top of a mountain and accessible only by steps.

Smith's Pond and Mud Pond are two small bodies of water in the southern part of Orwell. Sunset Pond, a larger body, extends just over the line into this town from Rutland county.

Bristol Pond, about a mile and a half in length by three-quarters of a mile in width, lies at the foot of Hogback Mountain, in the northern part of Bristol. It has a muddy bottom and is surrounded by extensive marshes Its waters were well stocked with pickerel in 1824.

Gilmore Pond, in the southern part of Bristol, covers an area of ten or twelve acres. It has a muddy bottom and is quite shallow.

page 20 HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.

Monkton Pond, in the northern part of Monkton, is about a mile in length by a half mile in width. There are also several other small ponds scattered over the surface of the county, which are described in connection with the history of the towns wherein they are respectively located.

Otter Creek forms the river system and receives nearly the entire drainage of the County. It is the longest stream in the State, extending ninety-one miles and watering nine hundred square miles of territory. It originates in Mount Tabor, Peru and Dorset, within a few rods of the head of the Battenkill, and it is a curious fact that these two rivers which rise within a few rods of each other are of about equal length - the Battenkill flowing south to the Hudson River and the Otter Creek north into Lake Champlain. The latter was named by the French La Riviere aux Loutres, the River of Otters, long before any English settlements were made in the State. It was, from the earliest time of which we have any knowledge, used as a pathway of travel by the Indians. Several years after the establishment of a trading post at Charlestown, N. H., in 1727,the government of Massachusetts, in order to obtain the exact road pursued by the northern Indians in traveling thereto, secured from a certain James Coss the diary he kept of a journey from Fort Dummer to Lake Champlain, performed in the year 1730, which gives the first authentic knowledge we have of the stream. This journal reads as follows:

Monday, ye 27th April, 1730, at about twelve of ye clock we left Fort Dummer, and travailed that day three miles, and lay down that night by West River, which is three miles distant from Fort Dummer. Notabene,-I travailed with twelve Canady Mohawks that drank to great excess at ye fort and killed a Skatacook Indian in their drunken condition, that came to smoke with them.

Tuesday.-We travailed upon the great river [Connecticut] about ten miles.

Wednesday.-We kept ye same course upon ye great river, travailed about ten miles, and eat a drowned buck that night.

Thursday.-We travailed upon ye great river within two miles of ye great falls [Bellows Falls] in said river, then went upon land to ye Black River above ye great falls, went up that river and lodged about a mile and a half from the mouth of Black River, which days's travail we judged about ten miles.

Fryday.-We cross the Black River at ye falls [Springfield village] afterwards travail through ye woods N. N. W. Then cross Black River again about seventeen miles above our first crossing, afterwards travailed ye same course, and pitched our tent on ye homeward side of Black River.

Saturday.-We crossed Black River, left a great mountain on ye right hand and another on ye left [in Ludlow]. Keep a N. W. course till we pitch our tent after eleven miles travail by a brook which we called a branch of Black River.

Sabbath Day.-Soon after we began our day's work an old pregnant squaw that travailed with us, stopd alone and was delivered of a child, and by Monday noon overtook us with a living child upon her back. We travailed to Black River. At ye three islands, between which and a large pond we past ye river, enter a mountain [in Plymouth], that afforded us a prospect of ye place of Fort Dummer, soon after we entered a descending country, and travail till we arrive at Arthur Creek [Otter Creek] in a descending land. Bl this day's travail, which is twenty-one miles, we came upon seven brooks which run in S. W. course at ye north end of said mountain. From Black River to Arthur Creek we judge is twenty-five miles.

page 21 NATURAL CHARACTERISTTCS.

Monday.-Made canoes.

Tuesday--Hindered travailing by rain.

Wednesday-We go by canoes upon Arthur Creek, till we meet two great falls in said river [in Rutland]. Said river is very black and deep and surrounded with good land to the extremity of our prospect, This day's travail thirty-five miles.

Thursday-We sail forty miles in Arthur Creek. We meet with great falls [Middlebury Falls], and a little above them we meet with two other great falls [at Weybridge], and about ten miles below ye said falls we meet two other pretty large falls [at Vergennes]. We carried our canoes by these falls and came to ye lake.

The stream enters at about the center of the county's southern boundary line, in the town of Leicester, and flows in a serpentine course to its northwestern corner, where it drops into the lake in the town of Ferrisburgh. From the county line to Middlebury it flows through a beautiful level valley about two miles in width; but here the meadow begins to narrow, and this condition continues to Vergennes, where it is interrupted by a bed of rocks, after which it continues uninterruptedly to the lake. At Middlebury the stream forms a fine water-fall, affording one of the best mill privileges in the State. Two miles north of the village are Belden's Falls, where the creek has worn deep gorges through the limestone, and makes fearful plunges over the rocky barrier which impedes its course. This, with the picturesque surroundings, makes the locality well worth the trouble of a visit to him who admires wild and beautiful scenery. At Weybridge and Vergennes occur other falls in the stream, affording excellent and extensive water power. From Vergennes to the lake, a distance of about eight miles, the creek is navigable. From the west it receives Lemon Fair River and Dead Creek; and from the east, Leicester, Middlebury and new Haven Rivers.

Lemon Fair River has its source from small streams in Whiting and Orwell. It flows thence through the eastern part of Shoreham, southeastern part of Bridport, and northwestern part of Cornwall into Weybridge, where it drops into Otter Creek. Tradition asserts that its name was derived from the following circumstance: As some of the early settlers were coming into this part of the county they arrived at this stream, when an old woman among them exclaimed, because of the diffculty in crossing. "It is a lamentable affair" which exclamation, contracted into Lemon Fair, became ever afterwards the name of the stream. There are some mill privileges afforded near the head of this river, though it is in general a very muddy, sluggish stream. It receives from the west Little Fair and Birchard Creeks, and from the east Beaver Brook in Cornwall and Beaver Brook in Shoreham.

Dead Creek is formed from streams known as East and West Branches, having their sources in Bridport, and Middle Branch, which rises in Addison. These branches unite near the center of Addison, whence their united waters flow north through Panton into Ferrisburgh, where they join Otter Creek. It is, as its name suggests, a sluggish stream, and is lined throughout nearly its entire course with extensive marshes. It has no mill sites.

page 22 HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.

Leicester River is the outlet of Lake Dunmore, in Salisbury. It flows a southwesterly course through Salisbury village into Leicester, where it unites with Otter Creek. It is a low stream, lined with marshes, and is only about six miles in length.

Middlebury River has its source from a number of small streams in Hancock and Ripton, whence it flows east through the southern part of Middlebury, except for a sharp detour into Salisbury, dropping into Otter Creek in the southeastern part of the township. It is a bright, sparkling stream, about fourteen miles in length and affords some excellent mill privileges.

New Haven River has its source in a network of streams and brooks in Lincoln and Starksboro. It flows across Bristol into New Haven, uniting with Otter Creek in the southem part of that town. It is a dashing stream and affords a number of valuable mill sites, though the number of mountain streams which unite to form it render it subject to sudden and severe freshets. The most severe it ever experienced occurred in 1830, when a number of lives and many thousand dollars' worth of property were lost, an account of which is given in the chapter devoted to the history of New Haven.

Little Otter Creek has its source in Monkton and New Haven and flows a northwesterly course into Lake Champlain, its mouth being about three miles north of that of Otter Creek. In the latter part of its course the stream is wide and sluggish and flows through a tract of low, marshy ground. It affords few mill privileges.

Lewis Creek has its source in the northern part of Bristol, flows north through the western part of Starksboro and eastern part of Monkton, where it enters Chittenden county, to reappear in the northeastern part of Ferrisburgh, across which town it flows to the lake, which it enters a short distance north of Little Otter Creek. The mill privileges of this stream are numerous, and many of them excellent.

There are several short streams in the western part of the county which empty into the lake, and in other parts there are minor streams which do not require detailed notice, and which will be described in the histories of the several towns. The streams we have mentioned are the only important ones in the county.

Geology [note 1] Few localities are as rich in specimens illustrative of the theories advanced by the science of geology as Addison county. Here the "footprints of the Creator" are clearly defined, and the "testimony of the rocks" reveals a wonderful story. Like all other counties of the State, its rocks are

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page 23 NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS.

disposed in parellel ranges, north and south, of varying width and extent; but here these ranges, no less than fifteen in number, are clearly defined, closely cut, and afford valuable subjects of study to the student, or to him interested in inquiries into the formation of the earth's great frame-work. In speculative geology also, the student has here an ample field. But no doubt there are many into whose hands these pages may come, who have, through want of inclination or opportunity, failed to acquire a knowledge of the science of geology. For the benefit of such, we supplement our remarks on the geology of the county with a brief résumé of the fundamental principles of the science in general. Among men of science it has become the common, if not the prevailing, opinion, that in the beginning all the elements with which we meet were in an ethereal or gaseous state--that then slowly condensed, existing for ages as a heated fluid, by degrees becoming more consistent--that thus the whole earth was once an immence ball of fiery matter; that, in the course of time, it was rendered very compact and at last became crusted over, as the process of cooling gradually advanced, and that its interior is still in a molten condition. Thus, if the view suggested be correct, the entire planet in its earlier phases was, as well as the larger part now beneath and within its solid crust, a mass of molten fire. At the time of the early crusting over there must have been in what was then the atmosphere many substances which were volatile from the high temperature. As the globe cooled these would fall upon the now stiffened crust. Among these would have been chloride of sodium, or common salt. When the crust had cooled below the boiling point of water, the condensed water would form a salt sea, entirely covering the fire-made rocks. This would certainly be the case unless, as it was probable, this crust in cooling had been thrown into great folds. The highest of these folds appearing here and there above the waters of the primitive ocean would form the original mountains of the globe.

The warm waters with their dissolved contents must have had great chemical action upon these first crystalline rocks, dissolving out portions and in many ways eroding them. Great as may have been this chemical action, there was early in existence another force, that of the mechanical action of the water operating upon and challging the first-made rocks. Ever since there have been waters upon the globe these waters have been wearing away the cliffs and banks that border them. The early rocks have been ground down, worked over, and then deposited at lower levels. These earthy materials have only to be consolidated by such forces as heat, pressure, chemical action, and the like to become solid rock again. Most of these water-made rocks are deposited in parallel beds or strata, and are known as stratified rock. These stratified rocks are nearly the only ones accessible to study, and geologists are especially interested in their condition, composition, arrangement and relative age.

page 24 HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.

These matters cannot be discussed here at length; still a few facts ought to be introduced which will help to make the views of geologists plain in regard to the age of rocks. Now, no one attempts to tell the exact age of rocks in years or centuries, but certain considerations will serve to show how their relative age may be determined with a good degree of probability.

Most animals have some solid parts, and at the death of such as live in the water these parts would become imbedded in the forming strata and actually become a part of the newly-made rock. Also, animals living on the land may have their remains carried by streams to the sea, and so contribute to the rocks. The old rocks have been destroyed and their materials, with the addition of animal remains, have formed the new. The material of limestone rocks is nearly all of animal origin.

These rocks, containing the remains of once living beings, have been lifted out of the water and up into hills and mountains. The soil itself is chiefly a portion of these rocks which, by various agencies, have been broken into fragments.

There is a vast difference as to the older and newer forms of life as found in the rocks, and geologists believe that by studying these entombed forms they may determine the relative age of the rocks themselves. The stratified rocks- thought to lie upon the original crust, which may be crystalline in structure- have been divided into great ages, which are characterized by the chief types of life which were prevalent at the time they were forming. These ages have been further subdivided, according to the peculiarities of the rocks themselves. These great ages in the ascending order are here named:

I. Archaean Age.--The old age, the rocks of which lie directly upon the crystalline below, and in them the evidences of life are but faint. They are mostly crystalline in structure, and often contain excellent iron ore. Split Rock Mountain and the Adirondacks are examples.

2. Age of Invertebrates, or Silurian Age.--The waters of the ocean as it then existed contained plant and animal life of low forms. Chief among the latter were sponges, corals, and animals covered with shells.

3. Age of Fishes, or Devonian Age.--In addition to the life of the preceding age fishes, some of strange forms, abounded.

4. Age of Coal Plants, or Carboniferous Age.--Vast quantities of plants grew in swamps in this age, and these when buried and compressed became coal. The highest forms of animal life were frog-like in structure.

5. Age of Reptiles, or Reptilian Age.-Reptiles of strange forms and great size inhabited now the water, the earth and the air.

6. Age of Mammals, or Mammalian Age.--Water and land mammals of vast bulk and numbers existed in this age.

7. Age of Man, or Recent Age.--This is an age for which all the former ages were preparatory, fitting the world for man. Of the rocks included in

page 25 NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS.

the above ages, only a part exists in any one country; for some had been lifted out of the sea while others were still forming. The rocks of the Champlain Valley belong chiefly to those laid down in the early part of the Silurian Age, which is properly denominated the Lower Silurian. The Lower Silurian rocks, numbering from below upwards, may be called: 1, Potsdam; 2, Calciferous; 3, Chazy; 4, Black River; 5, Trenton; 6, Utica.

The second division, Calciferous, is named for the character of the rock, while the others take their names from localities in New York, where the rocks were early studied.

These divisions may be briefly characterized here preparatory to a more extended mention hereafter.

The rocks of the Potsdam division are chiefly sandstones. Snake Mountain and the range of hills north and south; the rocks of Monkton, etc., and the loose red stones called bowlders, found in many of the fields of this county, are examples of Potsdam rocks.

The rocks of the Calciferous are made up both of lime and quartz, and are found in many places in the county. Mount Independence, in Orwell, is a conspicuous example.

The rocks of the Chazy are largely pure limestones, and in them are situated the most valuable quarries. These rocks are especially noticeable in Ferrisburgh and Cornwall.

The Black River rocks are mostly a dark limestone. This has been quarried as a black marble. Breaking, as it does, often with natural joints, it gives a plain face, which needs no dressing, and is used in building. Larrabee's Point, Panton, Ferrisburgh, Bay Island, furnish such stone.

The Trenton rocks are chiefly slaty limestones and are often used as a rough flagging stone, as well as for building purposes. The hill west of Middlebury village furnishes an example of the stone.

The Utica rock is a slate. In Rutland county it is quarried as a roofing slate, but neither in Cornwall nor in Weybridge, nor in the towns along the lake shore, is the texture of the rock suitable for this purpose. The black glazing, which it often has, not unfrequently has led to the false hope of finding coal among the strata. Some sandstone and sandy limestone may have, at some time. overlaid the rocks of our valley.

Observing persons will have noticed at least three facts connected with the rocks of the county: first, they are not usually in their original horizontal position; second, that when newly uncovered the surface rock is found plowed down and polished; third, that in most cases they are covered with a coating of clay, above which is the soil.

To account for the first named fact and the attendant phenomena, it is suggested that, after the Lower Silurian rocks were laid down, there came an era of great disturbance among the rocks all along this part of the county, and

page 26 HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.

thousands of square miles of horizontal rocks, before in the ocean, were folded, or broken, and shoved up upon each other. It seems as though some force, as a thrust from the east, had done this work. The shove was accompanied with heat--that from friction or from the center of the earth, or from both. The rocks most heated became, not melted, but plastic, and, yielding to the force, were thrown into folds mountain high, and what is left of them we know as the Green Mountains. Other rocks not so highly heated, and therefore not so yielding, were a good deal crumpled, and in many cases broken and shoved upon each other, like cakes of ice crowded over each other upon a shore. The dip or inclination is towards the east, while the abrupt break is in the other direction.

The softened folded rocks were so metamorphized that their original condition cannot be well made out. They have become mostly crystalline in texture, and the fossil forms have disappeared from them. The heat also influenced the adjacent rocks, metarmorphizing them, obliterating partly or completely the fossils, changing the color and texture, as may be observed in the conversion of fossiliferous-colored fragmental limestone into white crystalline marble.

Going west from the mountain to the lake the metamorphism becomes less noticeable and the fossils plainer. But breaks and foldings of the rock still occur. Many steep western slopes are passed, each indicating usually a break and an uplift in the strata. The most remarkable one is seen in the Snake Mountain Range, where a great uplift has occurred; where even the Potsdam sandstone has been thrust up and over previously incumbent rocks. This break is a portion of a great series of faults which run southward from Quebec Canada, through western Vermont and Eastern New York.

At the foot of the precipice of Snake Mountain the other Lower Silurian rocks are found in their descending order, Utica slate, Trenton, Black River, Chazy, with their fossils, and a little farther away the Calciferous.

The rocks uplifted from the ocean stood out of the water with atmospheric and other agencies operating upon them through uncounted time, while the ocean was still forming the upper rocks of the geologic series. Nearer the time man was to come upon the earth, and near the close of the age called Mammalian, another great change came, as is indicated by the grooved and polished surface of the rocks. The effects are just such as are now seen in Alpine and arctic regions where glaciers are at work. Like effect suggests like cause, and the phenomena are best explained on the theory that a great glacier passed over this whole northern country, going south beyond the border of New York.

It is difficult to conceive how a great ice overflow could have been produccd and how it could have moved over the land. But the suggestion of a time of intense cold, associated with an uplift of the land in northern regions,

page 27 NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS.

will help to make the theory one that can be accepted. No person can conceive what force other than moving ice could have done such tremendous work, breaking the cliffs, planing the rocks, pulverizing the stones, and distributing the débris, coarse and fine, over the land.

This time of rock-grinding and soil-making, this long winter, apparently came to an end by the return of warmer seasons, and especially by a sinking of the land. The ice melted and the lower lands were flooded. Lake Champlain at this overflow was probably vastly larger than now, its eastern border being the foot of the mountain, while, as indicated by the fossil whale, its northern part connected with the St. Lawrence, and so with the ocean.

The muddy waters of this great lake deposited their sediment as clay over the bottom. At length a gradual uprise brought the rocks with their covering of clay to the present level of the land. Then vegetation slowly came back and covered the land. This at its decay mingled with the material from ice and lake and formed the soil. Then the frosts and storms, the air and streams, must have acted as they are acting now, sculpturing the hills and shaping the face of the land, and finally giving to Addison county the geologic features it bears today.

Some of the facts here glanced at will now be treated at length.

Beaches or Terraces.--A gradual rise of the continent would show beaches of then existing waters, at lower levels, while over the lower hills icebergs would still be grating and scouring. By this time we suppose the land to have risen so much that the great valleys are seen in outline; but small tributaries would bring their deposits of gravel and sand into these larger valleys, driving them from the drift and beaches, greatly modifying their character, and constituting the higher terraces. As the continent continued to rise, the lower terraces would be formed from the ruins of drift, beaches and older terraces. But in consequence of the equable rise, the terraces are found at various levels - not even being of the same height on both sides of the same valley - and the lower ones exceedingly variable in number. The action of tributaries upon the great terraces of the large streams would form numerous small terraces from them, in many localities from six to ten or more in number. In other words, the general drainage of the continent has produced all the multiplied and various phenomena of surface geology, mostly from the materials broken off from the ledges by icebergs, glaciers, etc.

In the towns of Ripton and Hancock, near the road which crosses the mountains to Rochester, are finely marked glacial striae and moraines. The moraine in front of the glacier often fills the alley to the height of one hundred or two hundred feet, and the lateral moraines are scattered along the sides of the valley. Good examples of striation are found in many different localities in Middlebury in Whiting, at Chimney Point, foot of Snake Mountain, and other parts of Addison, about a mile south of Frost's Landing in Bridport,

page 28 HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.

in Weybridge, in many localities in New Haven, especially near a school-house on the west line of the town, in Monkton, in Waltham near Vergennes, and in a valley of Vergennes, which is twenty feet wide and twenty-five feet deep. The striae we have mentioned differ in size from the finest scratch visible up to a furrow a foot deep. The largest occurs in Whiting, a few miles south of Middlebury, on the west side of the main road. This furrow is several feet in length.

Clay Deposits.--Leaving these beach, glacial and drift markings, we will turn to the clay deposits of the county, which afford indubitable evidence that they once formed the bed of an ocean--indeed, were deposited by the ocean itself. This celebrated deposit, known as the Champlain clays, is a part of a great deposit covering nearly the whole of Champlain valley,. It consists usually of alternate layers or strata of brown clay, fine sand, loose gravel and blue clay. That the deposit is sedimentary is beyond controversy; while the extensive prevalence of marine shells and fossils proves that the sediment could only have been deposited by the ocean. In Addison county these clays cover nearly all of the territory west of the Green Mountains. The lowest division, or blue clay, contains only shells that inhabit deep water, while the upper division, or the brown clay and the sands, .contain littoral shells, etc., showing that the deposits were made under quite different circumstances--the one in deep and the other in shallow water. The first, the blue clay, is usually found in the lowest grounds near the lake. Sometimes its texture is very fine and it forms then excellent material for the manufacture of bricks. Its fossils are Leda Portlandica and Lucina flexuosa. A peculiar formation occurs in a large deposit of this clay in Cornwall and Shoreham, on the Lemon Fair River, where blue clay is overlaid witll muck, Nvllicll is succeeded by blue clay and then by another deposit of muck. Some of the blue clay contains a considerable percentage of carbonate of lime, and is admirably adapted for a heavy dressing for light soil.

The upper portion, or the brown clay, is not so constant in its lithological character as the lower, as silt, sand and gravel are found associated with it, or take its place entirely. A specimen taken from Middlebury has been analyzed, giving the following result:

Silica ..........................................................49.70

Alumina .....................................................31.20

Peroxide of Iron with traces of Manganese .. 6.60

Carbonate of Lime ......................................3.47

Carbonate of Magnesia................................2.30

Water ........................................................6.73

This clay is extensively distributed through the county, nearly the whole of its area to an altitude of 300 feet above Lake Champlain being covered with it. It lies directly upon the drift, over blue clay, on the lower Silurian

Page 29 NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS

rocks. Its fossils are Beluga Vermontana, the fossil Grampus, a few remains of seals and fishes, several shells such as Sanguinolaria fusca, Saxicava rugosa, Mya arenaria, and Mytilus dulis, and sponge. The following list gives the localities, and heights above the present level of the ocean, where these marine fossils have been found in the county:

..............................................................................Feet.

Chipman's mill, Middlebury.....................................793

Eddy of Otter Creek, Middlebury village.................323

The Prof. Adams house, in Middlebury ..................393

Hill west of Middlebury College.............................470

The next valley west, near the line of Middlebury and Cornwal1...356

A valley half a mile west of Middlebury Village, Cornwall.....359

Hill one mile further west Cornwall .....................453

A valley in the east part of Bridport, a little west of the Cornwall line...l59

Hill next west, near the geographical center of Bridport ..343

Hill northwest of Bridport village.........................338

Lemon Fair River, near the Cornwall line, Bridport.........168

Hill in the southwest part of Cornwall, near the Four Corners..433

Hill near Shoreham village...............................403

"Oven," Monkton..........................................756

Vergennes....................................................225

Hill east of Middlebury..................................434

Addison Center...........................................445

Elgin Spring, Panton.....................................320

West side of Buck Mountain, Waltham.....................383

It is owing to these clay deposits, also, that the streams of the county have such a serpentine channel, for it is a fact that all sluggish streams passing through fine materials are characterized by meandering course. The fine meadows and beautiful natural terraces on many of these streams cannot fail to attract the observer's admiring glance.

There are two terraces upon Leicester River, the outlet of Lake Dunmore, reaching as far as the village of Salisbury. The meadow of Otter Creek, which has been spoken of on a previous page, is wider at the mouth of this stream than at any other place in the creek's course, and much of it on the west side is almost worthless from its marshy condition. An unusually wide meadow runs up Leicester River from the creek, but is soon narrowed. Two pretty terraces, also, pass up Middlebury River to the east part of the town; and at the village of East Middlebury the meadow becomes an extensive plain. Above the second terrace on the west side, the clays rise gradually until they reach the top of a low hill east of Middlebury court-house. The north branch of New Haven River rises in the southern part of Starksboro, and unites with the south branch from Lincoln in the east part of Bristol. Upon so much of the north branch as flows through Bristol there is an immense terrace, besides the meadow, on both sides of the valley. The south branch may have a few terraces upon its banks in Lincoln, but between the village and its union with the north branch the banks are rocky, and the narrow valley is filled with enormous

Page 30 HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.

boulders of quartz rock. The same is the character of New Haven River as far as the village of Bristol. There it has emerged from the mountains, and has deposited its detritus in the form of terraces. The village is situated upon a high, extensive terrace, composed of sand and gravel, underlaid by tertiary deposits. This terrace extends quite a distance towards Monkton. Half a mile west of the village four terraces show themselves upon the north side of the river in regular succession. Between this point and the mouth of New Haven River there are in general only two terraces. The Lemon Fair, Dead Creek and its tributaries, and Little Otter Creek, have done little else than excavate a passage for their first terraces. In ascending Lewis Creek, until we reach the mills east of the village of North Ferrisburgh, it will be found that the stream is so sluggish as to have only cut a channel for itself through the clays; but at the mills it has formed four terraces on the north side, and then four upon the south side, for here it emerges from a somewhat rocky bed. In North Starksboro, near the source of the creek, there is a high terrace of great length, succeeded southerly by a wide meadow.

Rocks--The rocks of the county, as we have previously stated, are disposed in parallel ranges extending north and south. Beginning on the west at the lake shore, and passing east, they are as follows: Utica slate, Trenton limestone, Chazy, Birdseye and Black River limestone, calciferous sandrock, Hudson River slate and Hudson River limestone, red sandrock, eolian limestone, hydromica slate, pliocene tertiary deposit, quartz rock, talcose conglomerate, hydromica schist, and gneiss. In the following description of these several ranges, however, we shall speak of them in the order of their preponderance.

The most extensive, as well as the most important range, is that of the celebrated eolian limestone or marble.[note l] It extends from the southern line of the county, where it enters from Rutland county, north to Monkton, having an average width of about seven miles, and underlying most of the towns of Leicester, Whiting, Salisbury, Cornwall, Middlebury, Weybridge and New Haven, and the western part of Bristol and eastern parts of Orwell and Shoreham. Strictly speaking, any limestone that may be quarried in large blocks, destitute of fissures and sufficiently compact and uniform in structure to receive a good polish, is marble. But in the limestone of this group, as it extends through the State, there is more variety than in almost any other formation in Vermont; yet the variations are slight in themselves chemically, but considerable so far as external appearances are concerned, producing the numerous shades of variegated marble, each surpassing the other in beauty. The coloring matters which produce these varieties are usually derived from minute particles of slaty matter disseminated through them, and, hence, they never fade or disappear, nor change their position in the slabs after they have been quarried. The occa-

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Page 31 NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS

sional stains which appear upon marble are produced by a small portion of pyrites, giving a dirty, brownish hue, while most of the iron rust stain upon the blocks of marble at the mills is temporarily produced by particles of iron worn from the saws.

To speak more in detail of this group: In Leicester the limestone is usually impure, containing both silex and magnesia. The strata are highly inclined to the east at the eastern border of the deposit, or along the western part of Lake Dunmore. Near Whiting railroad station there is a small ridge of limestone and marble, extending into Leicester. In Whiting, east of the slate, the limestone is generally slaty, obscure, and is but slightly inclined to the east. In Salisbury the limestone is like that described in Leicester. Half a mile south of the village there is a belt of impure talcose schist. In Middlebury marble is found over an unusually wide area--in the line of strike with that of Whiting station, which is due to the fact that the limestone is quite variable in its position in consequence of the general small inclination of its strata. In the northwest part of the town the limestone is dark-colored and contains obscure fossils. In passing north from the village to Belden's Falls, the pedestrian will pass over many interesting marble quarries and beds of limestone, all thoroughly metamorphic. At a quarry near the falls the marble is excellent, but the great number of joints crossing it renders it unfit for use. Otter Creek has worn a gorge through the limestone adjacent, thereby displaying its lithological characters to good advantage. Other ledges of marble are found in the northern and eastern parts of the town. In New Haven and Bristol the range is divided in the middle by a bed of sandstones and shales, joining the red sandrock in Monkton. In Weybridge the rock is more or less developed, though clay slate is abundant in it in the southern part of the town, and as it is north of similar ledges in Cornwall it may belong to the same range with them. In the southwest part of the town the rock is a gray, siliceous, thick-bedded limestone, resembling that at Snake Mountain. There is sparry limestone at Cornwall, and also in the west part of the town. The quarry from which the stone was obtained for the building of Middlebury College is in this town, and obscure fossils are found in it resembling fragments of crinoids, this section being the principal source of the fossils which have been of service in conjecturing the age of the limestone. From Bristol a valley runs north between Hogback Mountain on the east, and the hills of Monkton on the west, along a branch of Lewis Creek. Though very narrow in some places, it is barely possible that the limestone may extend along this valley and connect with the eolian limestone deposit in Chittenden county. Near the north line of Addison county this deposit appears in several large ledges, or rather ferruginous impure limestone, probably magnesian. As such it is found for two or three miles upon the east side of the semi-vitreous quartz rock in Starksboro; and there is another belt of limestone in the quartz rock in Starksboro and Bristol, parallel to

Page 32 HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.

the west border of the quartz rock. Part of its course is along the north branch of New Haven River, in Bristol. Marble was quarried to considerable extent in the county as early as 1805-1808, many years before the famous Rutland quarries were first opened. This industry, as far as it pertains to Addison county, is treated in the subsequent history of the town of Middlebury, and need not be further followed here.

In Leicester and Whiting the limestone is extensively used in the manufacture of lime, the celebrated Whiting lime having a national reputation. In other localities, also, quarries and kilns have been opened, which will be spoken of in connection with the history of the several towns.

Chazy Limestone is the name given to a large range of rock underlying a great portion of the towns of Bridport, Addison, Panton and Ferrisburgh, where it crosses under Lake Champlain, having an average width of about five miles. Its name is derived from the village of Chazy, in Clinton county, N. Y., where the formation is finely developed. The general character of the rock is that of a dark-colored, irregular, thick-bedded limestone. It contains many fossils, and is valuable as a building material, and, like all other limestones, as an enricher of the soil. The thickness of the range is estimated at about 300 feet.

The Red Sandrock Group extends from the southern part of Shoreham, through the eastern parts of Bridport, Addison, Panton and Ferrisburgh, and western parts of Cornwall, Weybridge and New Haven into Monkton, whence it passes into Chittenden county. From Shoreham to Monkton the range is only about a mile and a half in width, but here it suddenly widens, underlying nearly the whole of that township, while a triangular spur runs down to nearly the southeastern part of New Haven. This formation embraces a great variety of rocks, and there is some difficulty experienced in associating them together, because of the general absence of fossils. The first and most extensive variety is a reddish-brown or chocolate-colored sandstone. The grains of sand composing the rock are oftell transparent, sometimes mixed with minute fragments of feldspar, while a slight metamorphic action has sometimes rendered the grains nearly invisible, and made the whole rock compact. Some beds pass insensibly into a semi-vitreous sandstone, not distinguishable from the quartz rock at the western base of the Green Mountains. These beds may be seen at Monkton, where it is difficult to draw the line between the red sandrock series and the quartz rock. Upon the east line of the town of Bridport appears a great ledge of rocks, the continuation of the calcareous gray sandstone of Shoreham, which no one can doubt belongs to the red sandrock series, as it possesses the characteristic color and composition of the red sandstone. It is, moreover, the south end of the hill which gradually rises into Snake Mountain in Addison, the highest summit in the range from Bridport to Burlington. As One stands upon the top of Snake Mountain and views one after another the peaks

Page 33 NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS

with their sharp points and steep western mural faces, he sees most distinctly their geological character. Snake Mountain, Buck ,Mountain, Mars Hill, Shell House Mountain, Mount Fuller, Mount Philo, Glebe Hill, Pease Hill and Mutton Hill, all belong to one geological sheet. The thickness of the red sandrock range is estimated at about 500 feet. It contains a few fossils and a number of minerals.

The Quartz Rock Range, enters the county in Leicester and Goshen and extends to the northern part of Starksboro, having a mean width of about three miles, and underlying the eastern parts of Leicester, Salisbury, Middlebury and Monkton, Bristol and the western parts of Starksboro, Ripton and Goshen. The greater part of it is a semi-vitreous or hyalin quartz, remarkably compact, and seemingly a sandstone partially metamorphosed. This variety is traversed by numerous joints, parallel to one another, and generally so near one another as to be mistaken for planes of stratification. The texture is often as fine as that of the pencil slates of Rutland county--one homogeneous mass and it is remarkably compact and enduring. A variety in Monkton decomposes very readily, thereby originating the valuable "glass-sand." A good idea of this quartz rock may be obtained by a visit to the south end of Hogback Mountain, east of Bristol village, which terminates abruptly in a precipice of rather coarse, very compact quartz rock 400 feet high. Much of the range in the valley between Bristol and Starksboro cannot be distinguished from members of the red sandrock series. A few fossils have been found near Rockville, in brown quartz. The formation gradually tapers to a point, and at its termination in the northern part of Starksboro is enveloped in impure limestone. The average thickness is estimated at about a thousand feet. Very few minerals are found in this range--it is in reality a mineral by itself. The most important found in it is hematite, which occasionally occurs in small veins. Iron pyrites are considerably common in small bright crystals. In the eastern part of Middlebury, high up upon the Green Mountains, some strata have been discovered containing an unusually large amount of crystals of magnetite--suffciently numerous to be of considerable value in the viCinity of iron furnaces.

The Gneiss Range has an average width of about three miles and underlies the eastern parts of Goshen, Panton and Lincoln, and western part of Hancock. The essential ingredients of gneiss are quartz, feldspar and mica, forming a rock closely resembling granite, differing from it only in having a distinctly stratified, slaty or laminated structure. For this reason it makes a very convenient and handsome building stone, as the sheets or strata can be easily obtained at the quarries, and can then be split or divided into any required thickness

The Trenton Limestone Range varies from a hundred rods to a mile in width. It enters the county in the western part of Orwell and extends along the lake shore to the northern part of Shoreham, where it branches, one branch follow-

Page 34 HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY

ing the lake shore through Bridport, Addison and Panton, and the other extending through the eastern parts of Bridport, Addison and Ferrisburgh, where it enters Chittenden county; found also in Cornwall and Middlebury. A1though this rock has four distinct or chief varieties, one can usually learn to distinguish it from all others by its common character of black schistose layers, associated with slaty seams of limestone and occasionally argillaceous matter. There are some varieties, however, that can be assigned to this formation only by their fossils, in which the whole group is peculiarly rich. The thickness of the range is four hundred feet in New York, and is stated by Prof. Adams, in his second report, to be of the same thickness in Vermont; but in one of his note-books he suggests that it may be even thicker. Mr. Hagar, however, in his reports says he should think that four hundred feet is rather too great a thickness for it, as it generally appears in Vermont, though he has made no measurements to settle the question. Some varieties of this stone are used for building purposes and for manufacture into lime.

The Utica Slate Range is narrow in limits, extending along the lake shore of the towns of Panton and Addison, and also cropping out in a very narrow ledge in the central part of Orwell, gradually widening as it extends north, till in Shoreham it attains a width of nearly a mile and a half; from this point, gradually growing narrower, it extends through the eastern parts of Bridport, Addison and Panton, into Ferrisburgh, where it enters Chittenden county. This formation is a continuation of the calcareous shales of the Hudson River group of rocks downward, until they meet the slaty limestone of the Trenton group, and it is difficult to distinguish between them and the Hudson River group in Vermont, except by their fossils. The range has a thickness of about one hundred feet.

The Conglamerate Range commences near Ripton village, and extends north to the county line, gradually widening from the point of commencement until it attains a width of three miles. According to Prof. Adams, in his report of 1845, this rock is called magnesian slate; but later its present name was considered more appropriate, and consequently adopted. The vein is a purely conglomerate species, having associated together in its formation the following varieties of rocks: sandstones, breccias, quartz rock, calcareous rocks, novoculite schist, and coarse conglomerates. The sandstones are few, while the quartz variety is quite abundant. Some of its varieties answer very well for a building stone, though rather soft, while others exhibit a fine, compact magnesian slate, which may easily be sawed into any form desired, and is used as a fire-stone. In many places the slaty lamina- are covered with fine talc glazing. In the geological reports of 1861 Prof. Hagar says: "We have made no estimate of the thickness of the talcose conglomerates, but know they must be very thick. They must be 2,ooo or 3,ooo feet at the least culculation. We suppose that this bed of rocks includes the Sillery sandstones of Canada.

Page 35 NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS

These are estimated at 4,ooo feet in Canada." No fossils have been found in the range.

A Hydromica Slate Bed, about a mile in width, extends through Whiting, to a point just nortll of Cornwall village. It is the terminus of the great range extending through Rutland county, from which such fine varieties of slate are procured for manufacture into mantels, etc. Its thickness is estimated at about 3,ooo feet.

Calciferous Sandrock is found on the lake shore of Orwell and Shoreham, the eastern parts of Addison and Panton, and western part of Panton, in Cornwall, Weybridge and Middlebury. All of these beds are narrow. The rock forms the transition from pure limestone to pure sandstone, and therefore partakes of the character of each. The belt in Addison and Panton is mostly concealed by the overlying deposits of Champlain clay, while that lying in the west part of the latter town underlies the Chazy limestone. About a mile south of Chipman's Point, in Orwell, the ledge is eighty feet high, made up of a black, glazed slate, from which calcareous tufa is constantly forming. This range is estimated to be about 400 feet thick.

Beds of Saccharoid Azoic Limestone are found in several localities in Whiting and Granville. These beds are azoic, as they are found in connection with unfossiliferous rocks, and as they are generally white and highly crystalline, resembling loaf sugar, they are termed saccharoid. In some situations the rock is dark-colored, however, or it may receive various other colors from the minerals disseminated through it.

The following is a list of the minerals found in each of the towns of the county; but as the instances where these deposits have given rise to an industry of any kind will be noticed in the chapters devoted to the towns wherein they occur, it would be needless repetition to give detailed descriptions at this point:

Addison-Iron sand, iron pyrites.

Bristol-Rutile, brown hematite, manganese ores, magnetic iron.

Goshen-Manganese ores.

Granille-Gold, limestone.

Hancock-Plumbago, limestone, chlorite.

Leicester-Hematite.

Monkton-Hematite, pyrolusite, feldspar, wad, shell marl, pipe clay.

Middlebury-Dolomite, jasper, tourmaline, epidote, honestone, milky quartz, copper pyrites, marble, calcite, galena, stalactites, alabaster, magnetic iron.

Orwell-Gypsum, flint, calcite, calcareous tufa.

Panton-Marble, limestone.

Ripton-Brown iron ore, augite, octahedral iron.

Salisbury-Hematite.

Page 36 HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY

Shoreham-Iron pyrites, black marble, calcite.

Starksboro-Brown iron ore.

Vergennes-Calcite, quartz, limestone.

Weybridge-Asbestus, amianthus, stalactites.

Whiting-Limestone, calcite.

Soil and Timber.-No county in Vermont equals Addison in the value of its stock products. The soils, although varying materially in their construction and composition, are invariably such as are favorable to the growth of grass, and even the rocky hillsides, which would fail to remunerate those who would attempt their cultivation, afford excellent pasturage. The prevailing soil in the eastern part is loam, in the western part clay. But the fine alluvial lands of the valleys and along the several streams render agricultural pursuits of all kinds pleasing and profitable. The territory was originally covered with a dense forest, only a remnant of which is standing. The natural growth of the lowlands is pine, cedar, tamarack, soft maple, black ash and elm, interspersed occasionally with other trees of a deciduous nature. In other localities were large tracts of pine and oak, with some maple, beech, ash, basswood, butternut, walnut and hemlock.