The woody growth is scanty, and hence the view is unobscured the greater part of the way.  After reaching the summit the prospect towards the east is especially beautiful.  The surface slopes off towards the Connecticut and is dotted with innumerable hills and ridges, among which winds the romantic valley of the Deerfield River.  This is but a meagre account of the scenery of Berkshire, than which there is certainly none grander in the State, though in beauty it is inferior to that of the Connecticut valley.

In regard to geological formation it need only be remarked that the Berkshire valleys are almost wholly composed of limestone, and the supply for architectural and agricultural purposes being practically unlimited, will prove a source of great wealth to that region for many years to come.  The hills, however, are all composed of quartz, gneiss, talcose slate, or mica slate.

We will now visit the valley of the Connecticut, where is to be found some of the boldest, and by all odds the most beautiful scenery in Massachusetts.  The broad and fertile plains through which the river gently flows are, in themselves, charming, but when we add to them the bordering hills, the scene is one of surpassing loveliness.

Between Hadley and Easthampton, the river runs through a gorge in a greenstone ridge nearly one thousand feet high.  The portion of the ridge east of the river is called Mount Holyoke, and the portion west of it Mount Tom.  This gorge is very interesting because of showing the amount of erosion that can be performed by water in long periods of time.  In all probability the bed of the Connecticut was, in remote time, much higher than it is at present, and the river itself much larger, and the rich, alluvial plains that border it at the present day were once beneath its broad waters.

At one point in the gorge a mass of greenstone projects some rods into the river from the west side of Holyoke, having a perpendicular face twenty to one hundred feet high.  This mass exhibits a columnar structure similar to that of the Giant’s Causeway.  The structure is not very evident above the level of the river, but at low water, by rowing along the face of this rock one can find the tops of regular columns reaching nearly to the water’s surface.  On the opposite side of Holyoke, not far from the road going to the summit, is another interesting example of these greenstone columns.  Professor Hitchcock named these respectively Titan’s Pier and Titan’s Piazza; and any lover of geology is well repaid for the labor spent in getting a view of them.

Holyoke, though two hundred feet lower than Tom, is more frequented by visitors.  The ascent is not very difficult, and the view from the summit is both grand and beautiful.  The river is of course the most attractive feature in the landscape.  Far to the north and south it stretches, like a silver, sinuous thread, gradually becoming narrower until it is lost in the distance.  Owing to an optical illusion the river seems to ascend in both directions, and at the points where it is lost to view, seems on a level with the eye.  It is one of the best examples of this species of optical illusion to be found in this part of the country.