196 Miscellanies. 
ingly find, that he acknowledges his indebtedness to naturalists here, and 
more particularly to the reports which have been made upon the geology 
of the states, for many of the facts presented. 
After some preliminary remarks in relation to the space occupied by 
the country, the advantages to be derived from the geological surveys now 
making of the several states, &c. the subject of diluvial action or rather 
of the indication of the action of water upon the continent is taken up, 
and the phenomena ascribable to this cause, brought to light by the ob- 
servations of Prof. Hitchcock, Dr. Jackson, and others, are dwelt upon at 
some length. Reference is also made to.an article in the first volume of 
the Transactions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, by 
Major Bonnycastle, and extracts are given, from which we learn that the 
same evidence is presented by an examination of the country north of the 
United States, as has been furnished from within our borders and else- 
where, of the violent action of running water or moving ice, or of that 
agent, whatever it was, by which the large masses of rock were moved, 
and by which the dry land has been generally strewn over with bowlders 
and debris. 
The view presented by Mr. Hayes, a few years since, in an article 
upon the geology of western New York, that the action of the tides and 
waves alone upon the rocks subsequent to their elevation above the ocean, 
would account for all the effects usually attributed to the action of run- 
ning water, does not meet the favor of ourauthor. He thinks that Mr. 
H. in adopting it; “ overlooked the fact, that the force of submarine cur- 
rents extends but a little way beneath the surface of the ocean, and that 
even the Gulf Stream could have no power to move a block of stone along 
the bed of the sea underneath it so soon as it was once = deposit 
upon its bottom.” 
From the consideration of the iets caused upon i. surface of the 
country by the effects of water, the memoir next refers to those that have 
resulted from fire, and which by subterraneous action uplifted from be- 
neath the waves, the great chains of the Alleghany and Rocky mountains, 
and gave rise to the thermal springs associated with them. In this con- 
nection is presented an account of the unstratified primary rocks. Cot 
mencing with those of the Blue Ridge of the south, they are described a5 
extending north and east to New York, and into New England, where 
_ they are the predominating rocks. The two groups of mountains comr 
posed of these rocks, east and west of Lake Champlain, are mentioned a 
uniting in Canada, and there blending i in a low chain which crosses the 
continent northwesterly, the any strata eee: visible until approaching 
Lake Winnipeg, where they ht of beneath the cretaceous group. 
This class: of formations is also referred. to as prevailing in the Rocky 
mountains, travellers there, wherever observations have been made, hav- 
Ing noticed granite, gneiss, quartz rock, éc. 
