a: 
is Notices respecting Diluvial Deposits. 
this stratum to be universal throughout the district. It is ale 
ways present, excepting those localities where its absence can 
be explained on satisfactory grounds, which are consistent with 
Conybeare’s hypothesis, 
Bayshot sand and crag. 1 find these deposits very ex- 
tensively spread over the marly clay; and they are co-exten- 
ive with it; but, being uppermost, are more frequently re- 
moved by explainable causes. I cannot view them as dis- 
tinct strata; for they pass into each other laterally in all parts 
the district. The bayshot sand is alutost unbroken fronr 
near the head of Lake Champlain to Coxackie, a distance 
of about eighty miles. It runs down the west side of the’ 
Hadson, generally about six or seven miles in breadth. It 
rests immediately upon the marly clay, and contains large 
quantities of iron bog-ore. 
- Diluvion. I find a dilavial trough, extending fron 
Little Falls, along the Erie Canal, e hundred and sixty 
miles. After numerous examinations, [ feel a confidence in 
the following description. It is, as it would have been, the 
whole having been filled to its present level with marly clay, ce- 
vered with bayshot sand and erag, generally overspread with 
a layer of shell-marl, had it then been cut up, by a strong cur~ 
rent running from Little Falls westerly, inte islands, ridges, 
embankments, &c.; and after these channels were thus made, 
had they been filled with a confused mass of , sand, 
clay, trees, leaves, fresh-water shells, &c. Whether the ap- 
pearances originated in this manner, or in any other way, 
such is the present aspect. At the direction of Mr. Van 
Rensselaer, I caused diggings to be made, to the depth 
of forty and fifty feet ; and in one case a well was dug one 
hundred and eichtcen feet. The American hemlock (pinns 
canadensis) appeared every where to the greatest depth of this 
deposit ; also, immense quantities of fresh-water shells.— 
They were chiefly of the genus Mya, (Unio of Bruguires,) 
and Helix, (Lymnza of some authors.) The insulated re- 
mains of the stratified (antediluvial) deposites, present the 
marly clay, bayshot sand and crag, beautifully crowned with 
almost snow-white shell-marble, a fine yellowish soil, and ve- 
getable mould, or peat, I may add, that nothing is more 
manifest, than that these deposites could not have been made 
by any existing cause. Seventy miles of this region is occupied 
xy the summit level of the canal. The surrounding country is 
but a few feet higher, and all the water flows naturally into 
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PARSE EaS Eee. . 
