No. 30.] STILL RIVER. 43 



of this limestone ridge possesses a unity that is not in harmony 

 with the present division of the drainage. The streams from this 

 hillside and those from the west may have joined in the flat- 

 floored valley at the head of the Saugatuck and from there flowed 

 into the Saugatuck system. The former divide then lay in a line 

 connecting the limestone rim of the swamp with the tongue of 

 highland which the highway crosses south of Todd Pond (fig. 7). 



THE STILL-CROTON DIVIDE 



INTRODUCTION 



The deep valley extending from the Danbury Fair Grounds 

 to the East Branch Reservoir in the Croton River system, has 

 given rise to the suggestion that the course of the Housatonic 

 formerly may have been along the line of Still and Croton 

 rivers and thence to the Hudson. 1 From the evidence of the 

 topographic map alone, this hypothesis appears improbable. 

 The trend of the larger streams in western Connecticut is to the 

 south and southeast; a southwesterly course, therefore, would 

 be out of harmony with the prevailing direction of drainage. 

 Also, the distance from the present mouth of Still -River to tide- 

 water by the Still-Croton route is longer than the present route 

 by way of the Housatonic. 



FEATURES OF STILL RIVER VALLEY WEST OF DANBURY ( S ^ 



From Danbury to its source Still River occupies a valley 

 whose features are significant in the history of the drainage. 

 Between Danbury and the Fair Grounds (fig. i) the valley is a 

 V-shaped ravine i^ miles long, well proportioned to the small 

 stream now occupying it but entirely too narrow for the channel 

 of a large river. Along the valley are outcrops of schist, and 

 granite rock is present on both sides of the valley for a distance 

 of about one-quarter mile. Part of the valley is a mere cleft 

 cut in the rock and is unglaciated. At the Danbury Fair Grounds 

 the valley opens out into a marshy plain, through which the 

 river meanders and receives two tributaries from the south. 

 The plain, which extends beyond Lake Kanosha on the west, 

 has a generally level surface but is diversified in places by mounds 

 of stratified drift. 



W. H., Still rivers of western Connecticut: Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., vol. 

 13, p. 25, 1901. 



