22 W. H. HOBBS — STILL RIVERS OF WESTERN CONNECTICUT 



character of a " Bears den ,? moraine. This ridge rises to an elevation 

 of about 160 feet above the bottom of the eastern channel, where runs 

 the highway and both of the railroads connecting Winsted with Torring- 

 ton, and where is the hardly perceptible present divide between the two 

 river s} r stems. Here is found a little of the uneroded limestone. It is 

 therefore, highly probable that the Naugatuck was once dammed by 

 an obstructing ridge of drift which completely choked both the east and 

 the west channels at this point. 



A second barrier of drift, which is still intact save where it has been 

 pierced by the railway, closes the Mohawk valley to the w r aters of the 

 Still. The summit of the obstructing ridge is about 45 feet above the 

 present valley of the Still, in the same latitude. The effect of the dam- 

 ming near Daytonville, therefore, while it might discharge some of the 

 impounded waters into the Farmington through the Mohawk by over- 

 topping the obstruction, would extend the ponded area in the direction 

 of Robertsville and also a small distance up the steeply ascending valley 

 of the Mad. The top of the rock cut at Robertsville where the cascades 

 begin in the discharge of the Still into the Sandy is, by aneroid measure- 

 ments, 68 feet below the Winsted railroad station, which is at about the 

 altitude of the top of the barrier which closes the Mohawk valley. This 

 corresponds, then, to a fall of the river of about 23 feet in the 3 miles 

 between Winsted and Robertsville falls. A new outlet for the impounded 

 waters would, therefore, have been found over the steep wall at Roberts- 

 ville into the Sandy, whose bed lies a full 100. feet below. Thus has 

 doubtless been produced the beautiful series of cascades whose energy 

 has been found so valuable in supplying the light for the city of Win- 

 sted. The third and fourth diagrams of figure 2 illustrate respectively 

 the lake and the present stages of the river's history. 



Plate 1 is a view of the upper cascade from a photograph taken before 

 the construction of the dam and power plant. 



The Still River Tributary to the Housatonic 



course of the stream 



While the Still river of the Housatonic drainage area is believed to 

 afford, like that just described, an instance of reversed drainage, the 

 causes which have brought about the reversal are here by no means so 

 clearly indicated/ As shown upon figure 3, this sluggish stream flows 

 from the city of Danbury in a direction about due north, and in a dis- 

 tance of about 18 miles from the headwaters of its eastern branch has a 

 fall of about 200 feet— about 11 feet to the mile. It forms its junction 



