Sugar Loaf, on the other side of the river, in South Deerfield, is one
of the most picturesque objects to be found in this region. It is an
isolated peak of red sandstone rising, on the riverside, by an almost
perpendicular cliff, to the height of five hundred feet. From the river
it looks wholly inaccessible, but on the opposite side is a very good
path, rather steep, to be sure, by which one can gain the summit with
comparative ease. Upon the top there is a house in which is a good
telescope that visitors can use for a small fee, and a very extensive
view may thus be obtained. But the most interesting feature of a visit
to this hill is to stand upon the brink of the precipice on the eastern
side, and look down to the river and green plain five hundred feet
below. One feels an almost irresistible desire to take a plunge into the
blue waters of the Connecticut.

This hill overlooks the place where one of the most inhuman atrocities
was perpetrated by the Indians, and a scene of carnage enacted that will
long be remembered by the people of New England. The Bloody Brook
massacre occurred in 1675 on a spot about a mile north-west of this
hill, and eighty young men, "the very flower of Essex County," while
engaged in transporting grain from Deerfield to Hadley, were suprised by
the Indians and murdered almost to a man.

A little north of Sugar Loaf is Deerfield Mountain, or, as it is often
called in that region by the original Indian name, Pocumtuck, which is
the last eminence to be visited in this locality. Its summit is about
seven hundred feet above the village of Old Deerfield, and the bold
sandstone brow overlooks the valley of the Deerfield River. This brow is
bare and level for quite a space upon its top, and is called Pocumtuck
Rock. It is a favorite place for picnic parties, and if there were a