TOPOGRAPHY AND SOIL 



fertile Pomperaug valley at the south side of the county. 

 Into these vast deep-water areas were washed fine par- 

 ticles of rock materials from many sources, thus making 

 soils with a great variety of mineral compounds and of 

 a fine sandy texture. These soils now constitute some 

 of the richest farm lands of the county. Near what 

 must have been the shores of these old lake areas will 

 be found deltas and beaches that constitute plateaus of 

 coarser sandy or gravelly material. Such areas must 

 have been formed by the swift inflowing rivers or the 

 lashing waves. These soils are more sandy and less 

 fertile than those that were formed beneath the deeper 

 waters of the lake. 



In the larger river valleys, such as the Housatonic, 

 the Farmington, the Naugatuck and the Shepaug, will 

 also be found soil areas formed similarly to those just 

 mentioned. The extent of these areas depends on the 

 width of the valleys and the volume and the velocity of 

 the water of those early times. For example, the 

 Naugatuck River on the east, while it was probably 

 many times as large as now, apparently always had a 

 rapid movement, and flowed over very hard rocks, and 

 these two factors tended to prevent the formation of a 

 wide and fertile valley. On the other hand, the waters 

 of the Housatonic represented a larger volume and 

 passed over rock formations which were not especially 

 hard, and so the conditions were more favorable for 



