90 Geology.and Topography of Western New York. 
recede; but by the action of the waves and tides on this alluvial 
mud, they would soon regain possession of that part of their for- 
mer bed, bor ring the stream to a greater or less extent. The. 
centre of the valley would thereby be lowered; and this pro- 
cess being | repeated, a series of terraces, or steps, would re- 
sult, precisely similar to those in the valley of the Connecticut 
river, which Prof. Hitchcock attributes to the fluviatile action of 
existing streams.* Valleys could thus be formed where streams 
of no great magnitude ever flowed, and where currents, “except 
the ordinary ones of the ocean, never existed. 
_ The formation of sand hanks and of gravel beds, the rounding 
and transportation of boulders, the formation. and distribution of 
what we call diluvium, all admit the same. simple explanation. 
Truth is said to be more. wonderful than fiction ; however this 
may be, it usually proves more simple than hy potheuss We 
ought not, therefore, to, be surprised, if the phenomena which 
have led to the crude notion of a deluge, or a succession of deluges, 
_have been produced by an agent no less active now than at any 
former time ; an agent, as much more powerful in its action, as 
it is permanent in its duration. -._ : 
Could the Atlantic be drained of its.waters, we should find 
great diversity of surface ; and that portion oceupied by the Gulf 
stream, would unquestionably present a succession of beds of 
sand, gravel, clay, &c., with boulders, more or less profusely. 
distributed, in proportion to their proximity to beds of rock, or 
cliffs, which have been successively undermined by the contin- 
ued action of the surge. In other words, we should find. the 
~ surface covered with diluvium, and arranged, perhaps, very much 
after the fashion of that in Massachusetts, described by Prof. 
Hitchcock, as exhibiting “‘concavities and convexities resem- 
bling very much the sandy or gravelly bottom of existing 
streams, where the current has been very rapid.” 
Assuming, then, that the. transition rocks of western New 
York. extended far to the north, probably or possibly covering 
that portion of this State, and of Canada, which now constitute 
the primitive districts, and which seem to have been the nearest 
points of disturbance, it must follow as a consequence, that they 
were the first peh into. contact wish the waves by the process 
_ 
“IB, p. 144. 
