CONNECTICUT DRAINAGE SYSTEM 487 



scured the architectural lineaments in the landscape. If such archi- 

 tectural elements are present, they are for this reason little likely to 

 force themselves upon our attention, and the key to their system will 

 have to be sought out. 



DRAINAGE SYSTEM OF CONNECTICUT 



The evidence that a mosaic of joint and fault blocks has largely af- 

 fected the drainage system of the state of Connecticut has been elsewhere 

 presented* It was found worthy of note, not only that the master 

 streams adhere for long distances to rectilinear courses, and that after 

 making considerable excursions to one side or the other they frequently 

 return to these courses, but it was further determined that the drainage 

 network discloses a number of parallel series, within which approxima- 

 tion to equivalence of spacing is apparent (see plate 46). 



SCOPE OF INVESTIGATION 



The discovery that essentially one system of control is indicated 

 within this large, area has added confirmation to the views of Davis, 

 Russell, and the writer that the deformation by block faulting of the' 

 Newark rocks of the Atlantic border has been regional, rather than local, 

 in its origin. It was this consideration which suggested the wider appli- 

 cation of the same method of examination. The investigation has, how- 

 ever, been carried out not with a view to find certain directions among 

 lineaments, but to fix the direction, if notably rectilinear, of all dominant 

 lineaments, and further to see whether they reveal indications of arrange- 

 ment within parallel series which approach to uniformity of spacing. 



Having due regard to the danger of being misled by coincidence, the 

 results of the study of the Atlantic border region are sufficiently re- 

 markable to suggest the inquiry why these relationships have not 

 before been made out. This must be explained by the localization of 

 individual fields of study, by the so recent publication of accurate topo- 

 graphic maps, by the obscuring of topographic forms, due to the over- 

 printing of culture on maps (in which the black lines of railroads and 

 highways are forced upon the attention), by the composite nature of 

 lineaments, by the curvature of lineaments when projected on maps, 

 but more than all by the fact that definite orientation of lineaments has 

 not generally been included in the field of inquiry of geology. 



CONSTRUCTION OF MAP 



For an inquiry into the orientation of earth lineaments the most accu- 



* The river system of Connecticut. Jour, of Geology, vol. ix, 1901, pp. 469-484, plate i. See also 

 Connecticut rivers. Science (new series), vol. xiv, 1901, pp. 1011-1012. 



