FIELD TRIPS OF THE CLUB 



Trip of June 20-21 to Haxgixg Hills, 

 Meridex, Coxx. 



Meriden Mountain, the highest point of the range called the 

 Hanging Hills, with an altitude of 1,007 feet, the highest trap 

 dike in the State of Connecticut, was the principal objective of 

 the week end trip of June 20-21. The geology of the region was 

 explained, from this viewpoint, by Mr Lougee, of the Depart- 

 ment of Geology, Columbia University, who has been making 

 a study of the region. He said that the Hanging Hills are part 

 of a basalt sill injected into the Triassic formations of eastern 

 North America. A series of cross faults in this rock allowed 

 greater weathering in such faults where the rock was crushed, 

 and the Hanging Hills are the remaining harder portions. 



The party spent the night in the home of the writer's father, 

 built in 1766. and the first Congregationalist parsonage in the 

 Town of Southingtcn. Xearby is a rounded hill, a beautiful 

 example of a kame, or water laid deposit of glacial debris, near 

 the edge of the continental ice sheet of the Ice Age. 



In a nearby pond, several amphibians were collected, includ- 

 ing the somewhat rare Spadefoot toad Scaphiopus Holhrookii. 



A local botanist, Mr Howard Whitney, joined the party and 

 was very helpful in identifying the flora. About 125 species 

 were checked, some of the most noteworthy being: 



Menispernum, Moonseed; Caulophyllum thalictroides, Blue 

 Cohosh; Corydalis glauca; Polygala polygama; Geuni album; 

 Fragaria vesca, Wood Strawberry; Cornus circinata, Round 

 Leaved Dogwood; Sambucus racemosa, Red Berried Elder; 

 Campanula rotundifolia, Harebell; Arctostapliyllos uva-ursi, 

 Bearberry, growing in large mats on the summit of Meriden 

 Mountain; Gentiana crinita, Fringed Gentian; Lilium phila- 

 delphicum, Wood Lily. 



Photographs were made of lichens, including a beautiful 

 colony of Stereocaulon paschale, with both the normal and the 

 dense form, conglomeratum , on a shelf on the top of the cliffs 

 on the west side of the mountain, also of the orchids, Calopogon 

 pulchellus, Grass Pink and Pogonia ophioglossoides , Snake's 

 Mouth. 



Louis W. Anderson 



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