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SOME RIVERS OF CONNECTICUT.
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follow courses re-adjusted in one cycle and revived in a later uplift.

We can assert with the more confidence that such was the history of the upper Housatonic, because we find in other states, in regions whose history has been the same, similar examples of "conformably superimposed" and "revived" streams. The Musconetcong and Pequest, highland rivers of New Jersey, are streams "revived" from mature old age to vigorous youth and "conformably superimposed" upon saddles of gneiss between two limestone valleys.[1]

Unconformable rivers. In considering the course of the lower Housatonic we meet with some difficulty at the outset. In the southern part of the town of New Milford the river leaves the limestone belt which continues with some slight interruptions to the Hudson, and swings sharply into the crystalline plateau in a southeasterly course until it is joined by the Naugatuck, when their united waters flow south for a few miles to the sound. The course of the lower Connecticut is even more surprising. At Middletown it leaves the broad open Triassic sandstone lowland, and through a gorge enters the plateau, which has an average elevation of 600 to 700 feet. In this plateau of crystallines the river has sunk its valley nearly to sea-level. The slopes are steep compared to the lines in the sandstone lowland, and the contrast between the two parts of the river is one of the striking features of Connecticut scenery. Several theories may be framed to account for the curious behavior of these two rivers, but none of them are free from all difficulty.

As a consequent river. The lower Connecticut has been thought[2] to be a revived river, whose course was consequent upon the post-Triassic tilting and faulting. The faulted monocline seems to have had the shape of a half-boat, ends to the north and south, and one gunwale rising toward the west, the combined effect of the tilting and faulting being to swing the river to the southeast, where the keel of the boat was lowest. The proba-

  1. ↑ Davis, W. M., "Geographic Development of Northern New Jersey," p. 397-8.
  2. ↑ Davis, W. M., Amer. Jour. of Sci., 3d Ser. vol. xxxvii., 1889, p. 432.
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