Topographical Features of the Neic Haven region. 103 



high near the Whalley Avenue bridge, extends northeastward to a sliort 

 distance beyond Parker's Paper Mill, and then is interrupted by this 

 Edgewood ridge, the level of the road rising from 62 feet, that of the 

 terrace plain, to about 90 feet. The ridge consists, to a considerable 

 depth, of drift, and many boulders lie over its surface. Descending to 

 the north, the terrace plain is again reached near Harper's INIill, 

 but instead of being 39 feet above the bed of the stream, as near 

 Parkers' Mill, it has the low height of about 8 feet above mentioned. 



After the excavations were completed to their modern limits, the 

 movement of the tides ascended West River to Westville ; West 

 Creek to Broad street ; East Creek to Elm street ; Mill River to 

 Whitneyville ; and the Quinnipiac to two miles beyond North 

 Haven. East and West Creeks were the drainage streams for the 

 surface between Mill and West rivers ; and considering their little 

 length, they were remarkable for the distance to which the tides 

 ascended, for it was nearly half their whole length. They are now 

 almost obliterated through the progress which man's " improvements " 

 have recently given to nature's grading processes. 



The Beaver Pond dei^ression even in the earlier Champlain era had 

 become partly filled up (probably because originally rather shallow) 5 

 and after the elevation of the land its bottom was, as now, above the 

 sea-level. But the present height of the Meadows does not give us the 

 original level ; what this height was we shall not know until we have 

 ascertained what part of the present 22 feet above the sea is occupied 

 by peat or other formations of the Recent or Terrace era. 



At the same time that the rivers were cutting down their valleys 

 the tides and waves were making encroachments on the coast deposits 

 about the New Haven bay, and carrying forward a new system of 

 tide-flats, sand-banks, and sea-beaches : and at this they are still at 

 work. 



Moreover, over the land, lakes were made shallower, and many 

 were reduced to swamps or wholly dried up. Some of the peat or 

 muck bogs had their origin in these swamps, while others date from 

 the commencement of the Champlain era, if not before. The muck 

 or peat of the Quinnipiac meadows must be mainly of the former, 

 since in the Champlain era the region was deep under salt water. 

 Part of what was fonned along the borders of the old Quinnipiac 

 harbor, however, may have begun in that earlier era, and if so, this 

 part ought to indicate it by the remains of salt water grasses and 

 infusoria. This remark applies also to the Beaver Pond peat mead- 

 ows. 



