358 



tiary. Near Rouse's Point, at Moira, about fourteen miles from 

 Lake Champlain, Mr. Desor had not long since discovered 

 marine shells of the same species as those found on Lake 

 Champlain and at Montreal, at a height of three hundred and ten 

 feet above the sea and two hundred and twenty above the Lake. 

 They were well preserved, most of them having the valves 

 unseparated. It had been contended by some geologists that 

 the shells found at Montreal could not be in situ, from the great 

 elevation of the locality ; but here they were evidently in situ. 

 Similar deposits to those on Lake Champlain are found near the 

 outlet of Lake Ontario, eighty feet above the Lake. Mr. Desor 

 had thus been led to the opinion that the sea had once filled the 

 St. Lawrence, Lake Ontario, and Lake Champlain. As the 

 deposits in these localities do not in the opinion of the geological 

 party to which he was attached, belong to the true drift, they 

 had* proposed for them the name of the Lawrentian deposits, 

 and he hoped the term would be accepted by geologists gen- 

 erally. 



Prof. Rogers remarked, that throughout New England, in the 

 river courses and on the St. Lawrence, there are found strata of 

 thin, laminated clays and sands, which had evidently been tran- 

 quilly deposited. During a visit to the Green and White Moun- 

 tains the past summer, he had seen these layers at an elevation 

 of one thousand feet above the sea, following the outline of 

 the country, and containing no marine shells. He thought it 

 improbable that there had been the coincidence of an elevation 

 of these strata with the mountains and ridges where they are 

 found. He thought it more philosophical not to suppose the 

 former existence of the sea beyond the point where marine 

 fossils have been found. As to the strata of the White and 

 Green Mountains, they were not entirely explicable, but they 

 may have been the result of an extensive drainage. The name 

 offered by Mr. Desor, he was very ready to receive as applicable 

 to a local deposit. 



Mr. Desor spoke of the w^ell known " Ridge Road '' 

 from Rochester to Lewiston. 



He said the Ridge Road had been usually regarded as an 

 ancient beach of the Lake. He considered this opinion, how- 



