Dr. Hitchcock on. some Phenomena of Drift. 259 
as a peculiarity of much importance; if, however, he turns north- 
westerly, and follows the train on foot through woods and cleared 
fields, he will find it pursuing a very direct course, over hill and 
valley, for about three miles, when he will ascend a ridge, per- 
haps 600 feet high, in the town of Canaan, New York, where 
the rock in place corresponds to the blocks of the train; and 
beyond this ridge, that is to the northwest of it, he will find no 
more of them. If he now returns to the place where he started, 
in Richmond, and follows the train southeasterly, he can trace it 
over the mountain in Stockbridge, through Lee, and up Beartown 
Mountain, in the northwest part of Tyringham ; that is, from its 
commencement in Canaan, a distance of about fifteen miles. I 
have not myself followed it so far; but Dr. Reid has, and he 
knows not how much farther it extends. 
The character of the surface along which these blocks are 
strewed, may be learned from the accompanying map, which ex- 
- hibits the general features of the topography, and from the sec- 
tion annexed. 'The heights of the hills, as well as the distances 
exhibited on this section, were estimated by the eye. Buta con- 
siderable error in these respects will not affect the deductions 
drawn in this paper. Ihave represented the ridge from which 
the blocks were derived to be about 600 feet above the neighbor- 
ing vallies. (See ridge A, on the map and the section.) There 
the train passes over a valley a mile in width, and ascends an- 
other broad ridge,(B,) which forms the principal part of the 
Taconic Mountain at this place, and which 1 judge to be about 
200 feet higher than the ridge in’ Canaan,—having a valley of 
some depth near its top. Southeast from this ridge the train 
crosses a broad valley, some four or five miles wide, lying mostly 
in Richmond, and ascends another ridge, (C,) lying nearly paral- 
lel to the Taconic, called Lenox Mountain, and which may be 
500 or 600 feet above the plain.. From this it descends into the 
somewhat level country of Stockbridge and Lee, crosses the 
Housatonic River, and ascends that broad, irregular pile of moun- 
tains called ‘‘ the Beartown Mountains,” (D.) 
About half a mile south of the train that has now been descri- 
bed, is another of a similar character, and emanating from the 
same ridge in Canaan. The blocks in it are less numerous, but 
its parallelism to the other train is well preserved as far as it has 
been traced, which, [ believe, is not beyond Richmond. Its 
