Z. Hatch — Marine Terraces in S.E. Connecticut. 321 



A study of these profiles, combined with a study of the field 

 itself, leads the writer to believe that these levels were probably 

 produced by wave action. The remarkable flatness of the up- 

 land patches combined with the development of the same level 

 in adjacent hills shows that some erosive agent must have cut 

 at these elevations. That these levels abut against distinctly 

 higher hills and that the line separating the two levels roughly 

 parallels the shore, and not the river valleys, seems to make wave 



Fig. 1. 



Chciniplin Hill 



chapman Hi 

 -500 



T^pdsJoiit' "Ricloe 



-'^°^'4^Mill___,,,. 



Stpwart- ^00' 



-400 



-200' 



Ptpnticp ITll-. 



La.ifern Hill 



3) 



A;^'"^ 



*^i&^ 



Ji^^SJJ^ 



....400' 



ITlprriW Mill jQQ/ 



- 200' 







^ 





::=>^-=cic^"' 



Aver Hill 



Fig. 1. Profiles of hills and divides in the Stonington Quadrangle. 



erosion the most important agency in their formation. "When 

 it is also found that these levels correspond over wide areas, 

 and that, therefore, it is possible to draw shore lines to show the 

 extent of these former sea advances, the hypothesis is strength- 

 ened to a strong probability. 



Assuming then that the terraces were wave-cut, a study of 

 the shore lines developed at the various elevations shows that 

 they were very irregular. They bend in, decidedly, along river 

 valleys, and thus may show (except in the case of the 500-foot 

 level) that the sea advances alternated with periods of sub- 

 aerial erosion, the marks of which ^^ere never quite obliterated 



