92 Geology and Topography of Western New York. 
any power in nature with which we are acquainted, other than 
the one suggested, capable of effecting the change with so muc 
regularity and order? Every inch of surface has been subjected 
to the denuding agent; the _tops of the highest hills, no less 
than the limestone platform, ar the scars and scratches of 
the contending elements. yce, except on the steep es- 
carpments, is every where everest with a thick coat of dilavium, 
composed of water-worn pebbles, boulders, sand, &c. The val- 
leys are often deeply filled with these materials, more or less 
comminuted ; and sometimes they contain large quantities of 
a gee 
detrital matter, little worn, evidently deawed from strata similar 
to those of the adjoining hills. 
The condition of an ancient inland lake which has burst its. 
barriers and disappeared, could not account for these things; nor 
could its drainage from a higher to a lower plain, as snggestéd by 
Prof. Rogers,} excavate the deep and long ravine through which 
the Niagara now flows. It is equally idle to suppose, that the ex- 
istiig streams have excavated the valleys through which they 
flow ; much less could they have effected the comminution and 
uniform distribution of the coat of diluvium. And as for a sud- 
' den inundation, deluge, or any succession of them, (aside;from 
the improbability of nature stepping so-far out of her ordinary 
track, ) had they been sufficiently powerful to tear up the strata, | 
and lay bare so large a district of the limestone: rocks, we should 
hardly expect to find the work so systematically accomplished. 
A great deluge, it is true, may account for the uncovering of the 
limestone ; and by sweeping heavy boulders over its surface, 
might have produced the “ diluvial scratches.” But portions of 
this rock are highly polished, and indicate a much longer con- 
tinuance of the watery friction than is consistent with the notion 
of adeluge. The systematic and parallel arrangement of the 
long sloping ridges, composed of shale and sandstone, no better 
adapted t to resist a sudden and Sprceines inundation than 
“ The numerous proofs that this whole region was once submerged, ads led to 
‘the Ge theory of an ancient lake, far more extensive than any or all of the existing 
- together. Had the pass through the Highlands been elosed - and a 
seohe of sufficient height existed across the valley of the St Lawrence, such @ 
lake must have been the result. But these have not been rendered woke by 
any indications hitherto discove peat = toe tee i Sn el presuming that 
t See Awaitas aay. Vol SXxviT, p- 329. ~ 
j 
