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5. On the geological map of Connecticut, a little black dog marks the basalt of Meriden ’s Hanging Hills. It is a warning to all geologists who climb these steep peaks and do not believe in omens. The Metacomet Ridge 129 The Curse of the Black Dog “Countless years have elapsed since the great tide of molten lava rolled over the region.Years, fewer, but still countless, have passed during which the shattered and tilted remains of the lava sheet have watched over the land. Deep gorges divide the masses into separate mountains, lonely and desolate.”William Pynchon wrote those lines after visiting the Hanging Hills, part of the Metacomet Ridge north of Meriden; he used this area for a fictional encounter with a short-haired black dog. One day, while sampling basalt from outcrops in one of the gorges, Pynchon noticed a black dog trotting up the path toward him.The animal appeared friendly but kept its distance while following Pynchon throughout the day.Where Pynchon stopped to collect samples, the dog scoured the nearby wood, poking his nose into every hole and behind every stump. At the end of the day, when they had returned to the spot where they had met, the dog started off, looked back at him, and then vanished into the woods. One evening three years later, Pynchon and Herbert Marshall, a geologist who had climbed to the west peak many times, were discussing the local geology when the subject turned to the black dog. Marshall mentioned that he had seen the same dog twice before and that the animal was the subject of a local saying:“If a man shall meet the Black Dog once it shall be for joy; and if twice, it shall be for sorrow; and the third time he shall die.” Marshall laughed and said that he did not believe in omens, unless they were lucky ones.The men agreed to climb the Hanging Hills the next day. The early spring morning was sunny but very cold. Instead of following the snow-clogged path in the MerimereValley, they decided to ascend the steep southern face of the mountain using one of the clefts where a fault intersects the lava flow.The surface was bare except for the patches of snow and ice in hollows.When they reached the top, a cold wind blew so fiercely that they had to hold onto the ledge for support, and they quickly decided to turn back. Marshall led the way. Halfway down the slope, he abruptly stopped, turned, and pointed to the top of the cliff. High up on the rocks stood a black dog.They saw his breath steaming from his jaws, but no sound came through the biting air. Marshall’s face turned white; and as he steadied himself against the rock face, he whispered,“ . . . it’s the third time.” Even as he spoke, the ledge on which he stood gave way.There was a cry, a rattle of stones falling—and Pynchon stood alone. He quickly made his way down, but when he reached the spot where Marshall lay, bruised and bleeding, he realized that his friend had died. Later that day, men from neighboring farms climbed up to collect Marshall’s body.When they approached the spot, they noticed a black dog watching over the geologist.As they got nearer, the dog swiftly fled back into the shadows of the ravine.5 George Edward Candee was born in New Haven and also appears to have been interested in the basalt masses surrounding the city. It is not known with whom he studied in New Haven during the 1850s. Both Nathaniel Jocelyn and George Durrie were working there around that time, and they might have influenced Candee’s career. Candee painted watercolors of West Rock around 1870 and 1880. In the latter period, he also made two watercolors of East Rock. One of his works is an oil painting that shows the Sleeping Giant in the background. This intrusive mass of basalt is the same age as East and West Rock; rather than following steeply inclined fractures intersecting sandstone layers, however , its magma intruded along the more or less horizontal bedding planes of the New Haven brownstone formation to form a large blister. Interest in the basaltic masses jutting out of the valley north of New Haven persisted into the twentieth century; John Ferguson Weir painted East Rock in the fall of 1901. Weir’s work strongly contrasts with...

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