156 F. Ward — "Dam" at Cheshire, Connecticut. 



An examination of road cuts, wells, etc., along a strip a 

 couple of miles wide from Yalesville to West Rock Ridge 

 reveals the fact that if all the drift were entirely stripped from 

 the rock surface the Qninnipiac River would still flow out 

 through the gorge at South Meriden. A very natural path for 

 the old Farmington to have taken is west of Cheshire along 

 the course of the railroad : this is now filled with stratified 

 drift. But even here a well shows the bed-rock surface to be 

 at a height of 120 feet above sea level, while the head of the 

 Qninnipiac gorge, at Cheshire Street, is 100 feet. 



The walls of the gorge are largely covered with till; 

 obviously the gorge was cat before the glacier arrived on the 

 scene. 



Since the drift seems to play no part in diverging the 

 waters the most natural explanation lies in the bed-rock itself. 

 It is believed that an anticlinal warping of the bed-rock on an 

 axis running about N. 70° W. would accomplish the result. A 

 gentle anticline having that same general axis is known some 

 miles to the southeast between the ends of Saltonstall Ridge 

 (Pond Rock) and Totoket Mountain. Again, the main trend 

 of the gorge itself is N. 70° W. and it is possible that the cut- 

 ting was initiated at that particular place because of some 

 fracturing along a line parallel to the anticlinal axis. It is 

 possible, too, that the southern termination of the Hanging Hills 

 might be dependent on faulting belonging to this same period 

 of movement. 



The warping in question is pre-Glacial in time. 



