Topographical Features of the Keio Haven region. 95 



Carmel. The height of the terrace-plain along ]Mill river is approxi- 

 mately as follows : 



Above the river. Above mean-tide level. 



At Whitneyville dam, (by calc.) . . 55 feet, 55 feet. 



1-40 m. N. of A¥h., at mouth of P. M. Creek, 



(by calc.) ...... 



2-25 m. IST. of W., at Augurville 



4 m. " -J m. S. of Ives's Station 



4^ m. " at Ives' Station, 



5^ m. " south of Mt. Carmel gap 



The heights above mean-tide level are obtained by adding the known 

 height of the river at the several places mentioned (see page 101) to 

 the height of the terrace. The height corresponding to the position 

 of the Whitneyville dam is deduced from that at the Suydam grounds, 

 a sixth of a mile below. The slope of the terrace plain up to the sta- 

 tion half a mile south of Ives's station, according to the above, is 1 2 

 feet a mile, the quotient from dividing the difierence of 103 and 65 by 

 4 (the distance). For the whole distance to Mt. Carmel, the average 

 is about 11 feet a mile. 



When it is considered that the waters which leveled this plain were 

 the same that distributed the sand and gravel of the drift formation — 

 that, in other words, the plain is only the u})per surface of the drift 

 formation then deposited, it is obvious that the water, to have made 

 such a slope over so wide a region, even to the shores of the bay, must 

 have been those of a flood of no common magnitude. For the last 

 mile, the flooded waters of Mill River were united in one great tumul- 

 tuous sea with those of western Hamden, or those of the several tribu- 

 taries of Wilmot Brook, for the plain in this part has one level all the 

 way across, a distance of three miles. Such a flood could hardly have 

 come from any source but a melting glacier, and must have been sim- 

 ultaneous with the deposition of the material arranged by the waters. 



The evidence that the drift formation north of the line of Whitney- 

 ville is attributable to the action of river floods, and not simply to an 

 elevation of the land greatest to the north, is proved by the very dif- 

 ferent level of the terrace formation in the same latitudes in the Quin- 

 nipiac and Mill River valleys. 



In the village of North Haven the stratified drift, east of the river, 

 has a height in St. John street (a road ascending the west sloj^e of a 

 hill) near the northeast angle of the cemetery, of 40 feet above the 

 river at high tide, or 43 to 44 feet above mean-tide level in the bay. 

 The terrace plain is however poorly defined, and the hill rises gradu- 



