Mineral Industries and Geology of Certain Areas - Vermont Agency ...

REPORT OF THE VERMONT STATE GEOLOGIST. 63
I yJ,i S' 111,L hill
PLATE XI.
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in length and follows north and south along the line of the
strike of the Washington limestone. Near the northern extremity
it is very narrow, scarcely wide enough for a carriage
drive. The tilted limestone rises upon either side from ioo
feet to 500 feet above the roadbed. Where the gulf is the nar -
rowest the sides of the cliff are too precipitous to be easily
scaled. The entrance to the valley road from Williamstown is
broad and beautiful. Its exit to the south is into a broad and
fertile valley flanked by long limestone barricades. The Gulf
House, encircled by conical hills of erosion, is about one-half
mile south of the northern entrance to the gulf. Near it is a
arnous well, worn out in a perfect circle, about nine inches in
diameter and of unknown depth. It remains nearly full of
water yet seldom overflows. Near the northern entrance to the
gulf is the watershed of the eastern fork of the Green Mountains.
Here the meteoric waters divide, a part becoming a
tributary to Stevens Branch, which finds its way to the ocean
through the St. Lawrence River and Gulf; the other is one of
the head branches of White River, which ultimately empties into
the Atlantic through the Connecticut River and Long Island
Sound.
In the western part of Brookfield is found a gulf extending
to the north ten miles. The deepest and most beautiful part
lies in the southwestern part of the town between Bear Hill and
Moody Mountain. It lies partly in Washington limestone and
partly in Bradford schist.
The remaining valleys are much wider and often beautifully
terraced through sedimentary deposits from glacial rivers. To
the east of the watershed they extend southeast; to the west,
north and south. Yet on the latter side several streams flow
into the Winooski.
Conical peaks may he observed at their maximum altitude
along the line of the watershed, which is also the line of the
great anticlinal of the Washington limestone. The highest of
these are in Chelsea, \Vashington and Orange; varying from
i,800 to 2,500 feet above the sea level and arable to their very