Facts relating to Diluvial Action. 31 



removed, and where there was no visible obstacle to alter the 

 current of water, the furrows crossed each other, shewing that 

 the current took a new direction, after the first furrows were 

 made. About twelve or fourteen miles west of Newburgh, I 

 found the marks on the solid grey wacke to run nearly north and 

 south. At Coxakie, in Green County, in digging a well, and 

 coming to the solid strata, the furrows ran northerly and south- 

 erly about in the direction of the mountain. I found that in 

 different places, between thirty and forty miles apart, the fur- 

 rows ran about ten degrees north of east, especially where the 

 current had a free course for any considerable distance, without 

 any obstacle. Where the solid strata remained, but a part has 

 been removed by some powerful agent. On examination, I 

 have found, that the corners of rocks have been worn off by 

 abrasion from eighteen to twenty-four inches, and that the fur- 

 rows made on the rocks by the abrasion of hard substances, 

 were very distinct, although the edges of the rocks were round- 

 ed. This fact is of frequent occurrence. On the high land, as 

 well as on the low, the furrows appear near small streams, in 

 every possible situation, showing, without a doubt, that the ri- 

 vers and hills remain now as they were before the flood. Pieces 

 of the solid strata with the furrows on them, are often found 

 where part of the strata was broken up after the furrows were 

 made, but more of the argillite than of any other rock appears 

 in fragments. It was supposed that these grooves were made 

 by the Indians, before the settlement of the country by the 

 white people. Large fragments of rocks or boulders are found 

 in every part of the country, which fragments, in passing over 

 the surface of the strata, have doubtless made these furrows. 

 Most of them have the corners worn off. There are but few in- 

 stances in which other stones are found besides the natural 

 strata of the country. In some instances the stones are com- 

 posed altogether of sea-shells ; in two instances I have found 

 palm-leaves and ferns incorporated in the soft grey slate. The 

 soil is much fuller of the small particles of quartz and feldspar 

 than in Orange County, or in the New England States. The 

 disintegration produces a fine sand, upon which there rises an 

 abundant growth of pine and hemlock. For three hundred 

 miles to the westward, it is evident that the soil or earth was 



