96 J. D. Dana on the origin of some of the 



ally eastward to 61^ feet above high tide in the river ;* yet the limit 

 of the stratified drift formation is well marked beneath the surface ; 

 for tlie material of the part of the hill above 44 feet is much more 

 compact than that below, and abounds in boulders or large stones 

 promiscuously distributed, (many of them over a foot in diameter, and 

 some very distinctly marked with parallel grooves from abrasion 

 while in the foot of the old glacier), f showing plainly that it is 

 unstratified drift. 



On the icest side of the Quinnipiac, the terrace plain (also here not 

 very well defined) has a height of about 46 feet above mean-tide 

 level. 



Now this height of 44 to 46 feet (or perhaps 50 normally), at North 

 Haven village occurs on the same east-and-west line with that of 103 

 feet in the Mill River valley. If an elevation of the land were the 

 cause of the increase of height oiorthioard, the two shoidd have been 

 alike. The difference must be owing to the peculiarities of the two 

 river regions. The Quinnipiac valley is that of a much larger river, 

 has a much greater width as well as length, and opens toward the 

 bay with a breadth of more than a mile. Moreover it descends to 

 within four feet of the level of the sea at North Haven, four miles 

 farther north than Whitneyville, a condition owing to the deep ex- 

 cavation of the basin in earlier time. The waters over such a basin 

 would have been nearly level throughout, with only a small rise if 

 the floods descending it were very great. The terraces therefore 

 should have been but little above those at the southern limit of the 

 basin between East Rock and Fair Haven, which is the fact ; and 

 hence the wide difference in height above the sea from what is observ- 

 ed in the Mill River region. 



The conclusion that the amount of elevation was near 50 feet is 

 sustained by the fact that the terraces on Mill River are at least 50 feet 

 in height above the level of the river even as far north as Augurville, 

 2\ miles from Whitneyville. The height of the terrace depends on 

 the depth of the excavation after the elevation ; and if the slope of the 

 river's bed after the excavation is just what it was before, (provided 

 the slope of the land had not been changed by greater or less eleva- 



* According to leveling by Mr. D. H. Pierpont. An average tide rises 3^ feet. 



f The boulders lying on the surface in the southeast part of the Cemetery, (the part 

 that is highest on the slope of the hiU) were thrown out, as I learn from Mr. James H. 

 Thorpe, in excavations for graves. On the east slope of this hill (or that away from 

 the river), the stratified drift, judging from the loose sands of the surface, may extend 

 a little higher than on the west side ; but this point remains to be investigated. 



