18 Mr. Sanies'^ Section of the Canaan MountaiJiy ^c* 



■ 



Lawrence to the Ocean. What that force was, that could 

 operate with such tremendous energy as to rive "the ever- 

 lasting hills," through a space of three hundred miles, may 

 he left to the Plutonians and Neptunians to determine- That 

 it operated from heneath is prohable, and that after it had 

 opened for itself a vent, and escaped through theriftj caused 

 by its action, the rock-strata, of the Western part, fell into 



the cavity which had previously contained the imprisoned 

 agent. This supposed disruption will account for the course of 



the River Hudson and its passage through the highlands : and 

 also for the position of Lake Champlain, which probably at 

 some more remotely distant period, was the outlet of the 

 great inland sea that once covered the country above the 

 highlands. That the lowest part of the fallen or subsided 

 tracts should be at some Utile disfance, from the line of its 

 disruption might naturally be expected, for the western 

 part, in falling, w^ould impinge against the eastern, and be 

 in some degree supported by it, causing the strata to bend 

 and form a hollotv on the upper surface. That little distance^ 

 on the grand scale of operations which we are considering is 

 from twenty to thirty miles, and the hollotv is occupied by 

 Lake Champlain, and the River Hudson. If, as we have 

 supposed, some mighty force operating from below raised 

 up this tract, and while the part eastward of the rift remain- 

 ed firm, produced a disruption, it would be natural to expect 

 that some other traces of its operation, should be found on 

 the other side of the tract. Such traces, in fact are found 

 and they are so distinctly marked, as to produce a powerful 

 confirmation of our supposition. In the counties of Vv'^arren, 

 Washington, Montgomery, and Saratoga, westwardly of the 

 general course of Champlain and the Hudson, eccactly 

 ivhe.T'e we should desire we find the western limit of this tract 

 " butted and bounded" by the primitive through a distance 

 of more than one hundred miles* On this subject I refer 

 you to the respectable authority of Prof. Eaton, and to Dr, 

 J. H. Steel's excellent treatise on the mineral waters of Sar- 

 atoga, to ivhich he has prefixed a geological Map with ob- 

 servations on the goology of the surrounding country. Steel 

 says, pp. 11, and 26, ^^Thc eastern side of the Palmertotvn 

 range (primitive) commences abruptly and in many places 

 presents an almost perpendicular front^ that rises several 

 hundred feet above the level of the plain that skirts its base- 



