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The Memorial History of Hartford County Connecticut 1633-1884
The Memorial History of Hartford County Connecticut 16331884 Author:J Hammond Trumbull Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: MEMORIAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF HARTFORD, CONN. part I. — CI;e County. CHAPTER I. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HARTFORD COUNTY. BY CHARLES L. BURDE... more »TT, O.E. Extent And Boundary. — Natural Features. — Geology, Mineralogy, Etc. ????? larger part of the territory included within tho limits of I Hartford County lies in about the centre, north and south, of a valley or depression the origin of which is placed by geologists in- the Paleozoic, or Ancient era. The geological features of this valley have been for years the subject of investigation and study, and the writings of Dana, Hitchcock, 1'crcival, and others have contributed to a large fund of information. The valley was formed by the bending of the crust of the earth which, according to Professor Dana, " took place as a sequel to or in connection with the crystallization of the rocks of which the bottom of the valley is made." This bend was made in the Archaean rock before the deposit of the covering layer of sandstone. It was during tho succeeding era, tho Reptilian, that this layer of sandstone was formed by deposits laid down while the valley was occupied by an estuary of an average width of twenty miles extending from what is now the southern part of Vermont to New Haven, about a hundred and ten miles. In the several periods following tho Paleozoic era, the whole valley was subject to various changes in elevation and conditions as to climate. The depression became (illcd with water as an estuary, so protected that the ocean forces, except the tidal, exerted but little influence within it, and so remote as a whole that no sea life entered it ; at least, no organic remains have been found to warrant the conclusion that it did. Large beds of sandstone were deposited over the whole bottom of this arm of the sea,...« less