i) 
of Long Island, which extends across the northern portion of the 
Brooklyn Botanic Garden? What the origin of the plain to the 
south of it? 
Peculiarities of the Boulders 
That the boulders on Long Island are of rounded contour and 
smooth surface seems to have been recorded first by Timothy 
Dwight, president of Yale College from 1795-1817. In Volume 
III of his Travels in New England and New York, page 279 
(London, 1823), describing his journey on Long Island, there 
occurs this rather remarkable passage: 
“When we commenced our journey on this island, I proposed 
to my companions to examine with a continued and minute atten- 
tion, the stones of every size, which should be visible to us 
throughout all the parts of our progress. This examination was 
made by us all with great care, and was extended to the stones 
on the general surface, to those washed out in hollow roads, to 
those uncovered on the summits and sides, and at the bottom of 
hills, to those found in the deepest valleys, and to those which 
were dug out of a considerable number of very deep wells. The 
result of this examination was, that all the stones which we saw 
were, without an exception, destitute of angles, limited by an 
arched exterior, appearing as if worn by the long-continued attri- 
tion of water, and in ail respects exactly like those, which in a 
multitude of places we found on the beach of the ocean. In ten 
or twelve instances, possibly a few more, we observed small blocks 
of granite on our road. Every one of these exhibited what I 
dle 
— 
thought plain proofs of having been washed for a considera 
length of time ... we did not find in a progress of more than 
two hundred miles, a single stone which did not exhibit proofs 
of having been washed for a considerable period.” 
Noah’s Flood on Long Island 
— 
“From this extraordinary fact,’ President Dwight continues, 
“it would seem to be a natural conclusion that the great body of 
this island, or perhaps more properly the materials of which it is 
composed, were at some former period covered by the ocean, and 
by a cause which cannot now be discovered, were thrown up into 
their present form.” 
