292 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



developed prominent hills. The Hang-ing Hills, Farmings 

 ton Mountain, Cedar Mountain, Saltonstall, Totoket, etc., 

 have thus originated. The rock floor over the entire State 

 has been fractured, cracks and ridges produced running 

 chiefly in a northeast-southwest direction, but also at various 

 angles to that main line of breaking. Streams would follow 

 readily along these lines of fracture and it is believed that 

 many of the larger and smaller water courses of the State 

 are controlled in their direction by the uneven topography 

 produced by. faulting. In certain places, as west of Talcott 

 Mountain, the rock floor was of such softness that the streams 

 cut out a valley much more rapidly than in other places, and 

 regardless of the original slope of the land, the stream made 

 its way along the line of least resistance. Thus the Farm- 

 ington, which now enters the Connecticut at Windsor, ap- 

 pears to have formerly flowed through New Britain and 

 later entered the Sound at New Haven. By the process of 

 glacial damming and the filling of channels many of the smaller 

 Connecticut streams have been greatly modified in their di- 

 rection, and flow in channels which evidently are abnormal. 

 The streams at Winsted are good illustrations of such 

 changes. 



Taken as a whole, the rivers of Connecticut have in- 

 trenched themselves in rocks which absorb but a small portion 

 of the water that falls as rain, and accordingly the rivers carry 

 to the sea a large part of the annual precipitation. A series 

 of measurements made on the Connecticut from 1871 to 1885 

 shows a remarkable uniformity in the rainfall and in the per 

 cent, of water which enters the river. The amount of annual 

 run-off varied between 45 and 71 per cent., and the rainfall 

 between 43 and 50 per cent., excluding the abnormally low 

 rainfall of 1871. An examination of the monthly rainfall 

 charts shows also a remarkable uniformity throughout the 

 year, but there is considerable variation in the per cent, of 

 run-off. The smallest amount of water is in the river in 

 September. The per cent, of run-off in Connecticut rivers is 

 verv large and is in striking contrast to rivers of arid and 

 semi-arid districts where a very small portion of the water 

 which fall as rain is represented in the river. Because of 

 the regularity in rainfall and the water-tight drainage basins 

 certain brooks and streams in Connecticut that are not large 



