THE CONNECTICUT
TIMOTHY DWIGHT
Connecticut River rises in New Hampshire. Its fountains are between 44°, 50′ and 45° north latitude, and nearly in 71° west longitude from London; about twenty-five miles eastward from its channel, where in the same latitude it divides Stuart[1] and Colebrook from Canaan in Vermont. These fountains, which are at the distance of two or three miles from each other, flow in two small converging rivulets; one of which empties its waters into a pond, covering about six acres, whence it proceeds to a lake, which from its resemblance to the numerical figure 8, I shall name Double Lake. The other rivulet, also, unites with the same lake; which is two miles long and half a mile wide; and covers between five and six hundred acres. Hence the waters flow in a single channel, about seven miles, into another lake, which from its figure I shall call Heart Lake;[2] about six miles long and three broad, and covering between nine and ten thousand acres. From Heart Lake with a material addition to its current, the river runs north-westward for four miles and a half; and is a continual rapid through the whole distance. In one part of this reach it descends fifty feet in a course of three hundred. Below the rapid, it receives from the northward a stream called Perry’s Brook; and a little further down, another, called Cedar Brook. About two miles further on it receives another from the south, called Dear Water Brook; and, about a mile further, a fourth from the north called Back Brook, conveying into it the waters of a small lake, called Back Lake. That portion of the Connecticut, which is between Perry’s Brook and Back Brook, four miles in length, is named the _Dead Water_: the ground on either side being low and level; and the stream winding, sluggish and deep. After receiving the waters of Back Brook, it runs for one mile over a succession of rocks, termed the Great Falls; in one part of which it descends, perpendicularly, over a ledge twelve feet.
[Footnote 1: Now Stewartstown.]
[Footnote 2: Now Connecticut Lake.]
Before its junction with Indian River, the Connecticut runs about the same distance with that stream, and discharges more than twice its quantity of water into the common channel. Hall’s River is sensibly less than Indian River.
The course of the Connecticut to Perry’s brook, between twenty-five and thirty miles is north-westward; thence to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude west-south-west; thence to the city of Hartford south-south-west, and thence to the Sound about south-east.
The length of this river is about four hundred and ten miles. From Griswold’s point, in Lyme, to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude, the distance measured by its waters, is about three hundred and seventy-four; and thence to the head-waters from thirty-five to forty. Its meanders throughout a great part of its course are almost perpetual.
[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY DETROIT PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPANY THE CONNECTICUT]
The number of its tributary streams is very great. The waters which form the Connecticut are remarkably pure and light, such as we commonly term the best water for washing. The tributary streams, almost without an exception, issue from hills formed of stone, covered with a gravelly soil; and roll over a gravelly and stony bed through their whole progress. The waters of the parent stream are, therefore, everywhere pure, potable, perfectly salubrious, and inferior to none in the world for the use of seamen in long voyages.
As a navigable water, this river is inferior to many others of a smaller size. This is owing to two causes; falls and shallows. The falls are the following: Little Falls, Great, Indian, Judd’s, Fifteen-mile, Lebanon, Waterqueechy, Bellow’s, Miller’s, South Hadley, Enfield.
The Fifteen-mile falls, Waterqueechy, and Enfield, and the greatest part of the distance attributed to the others, are mere rapids; and there are also other small rapids, which are of no consequence.
The Valley of the Connecticut is a tract of land, extending from the Sound to Hereford Mountain; five miles beyond the forty-fifth degree of latitude. In the largest sense it includes the tract which is bounded by the Lyme range on the east, and by a confused cluster of hills, commencing at the Sound, and terminating below Middletown, then by the Middletown range, then by that of Mount Tom, and then by that of the Green Mountains, on the west. In this sense it is of very different breadths, from five miles perhaps to forty-five; and its surface is composed of an indefinite succession of hills, valleys and plains. But there is another sense in which the phrase is used with more obvious propriety and in which it denotes that portion of this vast extent, which appears as a valley to the eye, moving in the road along its course from its mouth to the great bend in the northern part of the township of Stuart.
The Valley of the Connecticut extends through almost four degrees of latitude, and is bounded on the north by Hereford Mountain; a magnificent eminence, ascending five miles beyond the line. The superior limit of this mountain is an arch more gracefully formed than that of any other within my remembrance. Its elevation is about 2,000 feet above the neighbouring country.
The Intervals on this Valley begin at Hall’s River, about twelve or fourteen miles from its mouth. The word, Interval is used by me in a sense altogether different from that which it has in an English Dictionary. Doctor Belknap spells it Intervale, and confesses his want of authority for the use of the word. There is in truth no such word; unless we are to look for its existence in vulgar and mistaken pronunciation. Originally, when applied to this very subject, it seems to have meant nothing more than that extent of ground which lay between the original bank of the river and the river itself.
This extent was composed of land, peculiar in its form and qualities. The English, so far as I know, have no appropriate name for grounds of this class. Whether such lands exist on the rivers of Great Britain, I am ignorant, having never seen any definite account of them, or allusion to them in any book descriptive of the surface of that country. From the accounts of Sir John Sinclair’s _Statistical History of Scotland_ of the lands on some rivers in that country, I should suppose that a part of them might be Intervals, yet they are distinguished by no appropriate name. On some rivers in this country there are none; and on others very few. Wherever they exist, they are objects of peculiar attention to farmers and subjects of much customary conversation. That a name should be given to them, therefore, is a thing of course. Interval is the name which they have accidentally obtained in this country; and a New Englander relishes it more than _flats_ or _bottoms_.
This word, in its appropriate meaning denotes lands formed by a long continued and gradual alluvion of a river.
Beauty of landscape is an eminent characteristic of this Valley. From Hereford Mountain to Saybrook, it is almost a continued succession of delightful scenery. No other tract within my knowledge, and from the extensive information which I have received, I am persuaded that no other tract within the United States of the same extent can be compared to it, with respect to those objects which arrest the eye of the painter and the poet. There are indeed dull, uninteresting spots in considerable numbers. These, however, are little more than the discords which are generally regarded as necessary to perfect the harmony. The beauty and the grandeur are here more varied than elsewhere. They return oftener; they are longer continued; they are finished by a hand operating in a superior manner. A gentleman[3] of great respectability, who had travelled in England, France and Spain, informed me, that the prospects along the Connecticut excelled those on the beautiful rivers in these three countries in two great particulars--the Forests and the Mountains (he might, I believe, have added the Intervals also); and fell short of them in nothing but population and the productions of art. It is hardly necessary to observe that both these are advancing with a rapid step (perhaps sufficiently rapid), towards a strong resemblance to European improvement.
[Footnote 3: The late Chief Justice Ellsworth.]
Nor are these grounds less distinguished by their beauty. The form of most of them is elegant. A river, passing through them, becomes almost of course winding. As the earth, of which they are composed, is of uniform texture, the impressions made by the stream upon the border, are also nearly uniform. Hence this border is almost universally a handsome arch with a margin entirely neat, and very commonly ornamented with a fine fringe of shrubs and trees. Nor is the surface of these grounds less pleasing. The terraced form and the undulations are both eminently handsome. In a country abounding in hills, plains moderate in their extent, like these, are always agreeable. Their universal fertility makes a cheerful impression on every eye. A great part of them is formed into meadows. Meadows are here more profitable, and everywhere more beautiful, than lands devoted to any other culture. Here they are extended from five to five hundred acres, and are everywhere covered with a verdure peculiarly rich and varied. The vast fields, also, which are not in meadow, exhibit all the productions of the climate, interspersed in parallelograms, divided only by mathematical lines, and mingled in a charming confusion. In many places, large and thrifty orchards, and everywhere forest trees standing singly, of great height and graceful figures, diversify the landscape.