50 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



of the valley which turned the Still to the east over rock and 

 forced Long Brook to flow for more than a mile along the 

 extreme western side of the valley. 



The broad valley through which the Still flows in the lower 

 part of its course extends northward beyond it for over two 

 miles, bordering the Housatonic River. At Lanesville near the 

 mouth of the Still, the river has cut a gorge 30 feet deep and one- 

 quarter mile, long in the limestone. Upstream from this gorge 

 the river meanders widely in a flat valley, whereas on the down- 

 stream side it has cut a deep channel in the drift in order to 

 reach the level of the Housatonic. There is room in the drift- 

 covered plain to the west for a buried channel of Still River which 

 could join the Housatonic at any point between New Milford and 

 Stillriver station. If the depth of the drift be taken at 25 feet, 

 there would seem to be no objection to the supposition that the 

 Still initially joined its master stream opposite New Milford, 

 as shown in fig 6. After the limestone had been worn down to 

 approximate baselevel, the tendency of the Still would have 

 been to seek an outlet farther south in order to shorten its course 

 and reach a lower level on the Housatonic. This stage in the 

 evolution of the river may not have been reached before the ice 

 age, and it is thus possible that glacial deposits may have pushed 

 the river to the extreme southern side qf its valley, superimposed 

 it over rock, and forced it to cut its way down to grade. 



. SUGGESTED COURSES OF HOUSATONIC RIVER 



As possible former outlets for the Housatonic, Hobbs has 

 suggested the Still-Umpog-Saugatuck valley or the Still-Croton 

 valley (by way of the East Branch Reservoir ) 1 , whereas Crosby 

 has suggested the Ten Mile-Swamp River-Muddy Brook-Croton 

 River valley (by way of Webatuck, Wing's Station, and Pawl- 

 ing), or the Fall's Village-Limerock- Sharon- Webatuck Creek- 

 Ten Mile valley. 2 The sketch map, fig. 10, indicates the courses 

 just outlined and one other by way of the Norwalk. The latter 



1 Hobbs, W. H., Still rivers of western Connecticut: Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., vol. 13, 

 p. 25, 1901. 



2 Crosby, W. O., Notes on the geology of the sites of the proposed dams in the 

 valleys of the Housatonic and Ten Mile rivers: Tech. Quart., vol. 13, p. 120, 1900. 



