Finding More Stuff

It is one of the best days this year with a very light wind, sun, and temperatures into the lower 40's.  I put in on the Housatonic, under the highway bridge, with an hour of falling tide still to go. It would be nice to visit a different river, but if most of those rivers are open, they will have a bunch of ice moving about.

I cross the river and head upstream, following the east side of Carting Island, one of the four island complex just upstream of the put-in.  There is about 3 to 4 feet of cut bank exposed here and I consider that unlike down in the Wheeler Marsh, I almost never find anything sticking out of the bank. I would think that occasionally I would find an old bottle, but the only time that has happened on these islands, it has been a mudflat find, which is of no use at figuring soil accumulation.  These islands are only a mile up from the Wheeler, and so I'd imagine some similarities. One thing is that the cut banks on the four islands appear more stratified with obvious layers that are 3 or 4 inches thick. I do find some cobble features. Without any firm land or rock outcrops,these rockeries are almost for sure man-madeIt reminds me of an archaeology project I worked on.  The ground was old volcanic ash and the archaeologist told us, "If you find a rock, it's an artifact, because someone had to bring it here."

Carting Island

I flush a flock of two dozen Bufflheads plus an immature Bald Eagle, and a Harrier circles overhead while drifting in a down river direction.

At Peck's Mill, I spot some old trolley type rails and two associated axle/wheels and some assembled planking that seems too fine to just be a dock platform.  There was a couple of millponds above the river at this location.  An old map lists a boat yard among the mills. The rails and wheel sets could have been used for launching boats.  But, there is another possibility for the debris.  There also was a trolley line running along the river with a long fifty foot high trestle crossing one of the millponds. In 1899, the trolley derailed off of the bridge and landed upside down killing 28 people.  I make a note to myself that I need to return with a tape measure and get the gauge of the axles.

I continue up, cross over to Fowler Island and round it, rturning on the east shore.