ee ee ee. ee Ue TU 
Stetina nes 
Geology and Topography of Western New York. 93 
those portions which have been removed from the intermediate 
valleys, could hardly have resulted from any sudden irruption of 
water. ‘The strata would have been indiscriminately torn up; 
and the ruins, instead of being finely pulverized, and —. 
distributed over the surface, to hide the “ nakedness of the la 
and prepare it for cultivation, w have been thrown together 
by the eddies of the currents} nsightly heaps ; and this fair 
region, instead of being the “ garden of the West,” would have 
presented to view the uncouth surface of barren rocks, and would 
have offered, comparatively, few inducements for se anor 
enterprise of the agriculturist. 
But to return.—Suppose this dividing ridge to pee attained 
an elevation above tide water. The southern slope would pre- 
sent to the waves the smooth surface of the strata; whereas their 
basseting edges would be exposed on the icetinown declivity. 
Deep notches would soon be worn into it from both sides, which 
would occasionally interlock, and sometimes meet ; thereby cut- 
ting the ridge into a series of islands, with transverse passes be- 
tween them. These islands now form the highest peaks of the 
range; and the passes correspond to the elevated valleys, in 
which the prin¢ipal-streams take their rise. 
When a considerable elevation had been attained, small stream- 
lets would collect ; and at the places where they entered the sea, 
the waves and the tides would be more powerful in tearing up 
and removing the shaly rocks, than at any other points; and 
thereby a system of valleys of denudation, precisely similar to 
those we here witness, would be commence On the southern — 
slope, where the streams flowed over the intlindd planes of the 
strata, in the direction of their dip, they would meet few ob- 
would seldom be formed. Not so ou the 
There, where the streams flowed over the 
dges of the ‘strata in an opposite direction; each harder layer, 
being fonger able to resist the denuding process, would, for a cer- 
tain distance, form the bed of the stream; and the dip, being in 
irection opposite to the current, a succession of pools of 
vould result... These phenomena may frequently be 
: the small streams on the northern slope of a hill, 
where some of the strata are composed of hard, chose giained 
se ggancete: Ry those on the southern deulivity of the same 
