2 J. B. Dana on the Quaternary of the New Haven Region. 



and-soutli course ; so that, whether glaciers or icebergs were the 

 agents, it would, in either case, have guided their great move- 

 ments, and the New Haven region would have necessarily be- 

 come filled with registers of the successive events. Being situ- 

 ated on an arm of the Sound, and at the same time extending 

 inland for seven or eight miles along three streams that here 

 have their discharge, the phenomena presented comprise results 

 from both the sea and the rivers, and also from their combined 

 action. On these several accounts, the New Haven region is 

 eminently well situated for deciding the glacial question for all 

 central New England. 



A special study of the region during the last two years has 

 led the writer to the conclusion that the effects are solely those 

 of glaciers, or rather, of a Connecticut valley^ or Central New 

 England, glacier.^ To exhibit all the evidence bearing upon 

 the question would require a full discussion of the whole range 

 of facts presented by the New Haven Quaternary. I propose at 

 this time to mention only a few of the more trenchant and de- 



The question is — ^Was the interior of New England in the Gla- 

 cial era covered by a sea at least 4,000 feet deep for the floating 

 of icebergs ; or, was it emerged land as now, (perhaps to a higher 

 level than at present) and submerged only beneath ice, the ice 

 of an immense glacier, 3,000 feet and less in thickness, the ice 

 in Vermont and New Hampshire being 4,000 feet and more 

 above the level of the sea ? 



1. The sea, if it covered the land in the Grlacial era, should 

 have left proof of it along the southern coast of New England. 



About New Haven, the height of the stratified Quaternary 

 deposits above the sea (Long Island Sound), or above the river 

 flats, no where exceeds 50 feet. This is the maximum ; the 

 particular facts will be stated at another time. Fifty feet is 

 therefore the greatest amount of depression of the land which is 

 indicated, the greatest that can be admitted by those who base 

 their geological conclusions on facts. There are no traces of 

 sea beaches or any thing corresponding thereto at a higher level. 

 On passing the level of 50 feet above the Sound there is an 

 abrupt transition from the stratified to the unstratified drift, 

 except along the courses of streams, and near these, there is the 

 same transition on passing the level of 50 feet (or less) above 

 the existing river flats. 



The highest sea-level of the Quaternary era about the New 

 Haven region is thus definitely marked. It is often assumed 



* The existence of essentially ii 

 in the Glacial era was recognized by the 

 XXXV, p. 243, 1863, and in hia Manual of Geology, p. 763, published about the same 

 time ; and four great glaciers were there particularly mentioned, the Connecticut 

 River, the Penobacot, the Hudaon River, and the Mohawk River. 



