CLAYS AND PINE-BARRENS AROUND ALBANY. 141 



Ing from Albany, along the railway, towards Western 

 New York. 



The day was fine as we came np the Housatonic 

 Valley. Soon after leaving Newhaven, we passed 

 from the new red sandstone of Connecticut to the old 

 slate and metamorphic rocks, and along these we con- 

 tinued most of the way to Albany. The soil in general 

 was light and stony, resting for the most part on gravelly 

 and sandy drift. Such light soils are adapted to the 

 culture of Indian corn, and we saw many fields of this 

 grain as we came along. It was indeed the only bread- 

 stuff we saw during the day, with the exception of an 

 occasional field of buckwheat, where the soil was espe- 

 cially poor. The rolling upper valley of the Hudson 

 Eiver, towards which we descend on approaching Albany, 

 contains much strong yellow clay, the same post-tertiary 

 clay which borders Lake Champlain, and thence stretches 

 north and east along the banks of the St Lawrence. 



This formation is a hundred feet thick upon Lake 

 Champlain, and it forms high banks along the Hudson 

 Kiver in the neighbourhood of Albany. It consists, in 

 the under part, of stiff blue clay, resting upon the grooved 

 rocks or upon beds of drift; above this, of a lighter 

 coloured clay, pale brown or drab, containing shells of 

 existing species ; and, over all, a deposit of yellow sand, 

 sometimes loamy and fertile, but often barren, and 

 sustaining only stunted pines. The soils, the natural 

 vegetation, and the agricultural capabilities of the dis- 

 trict over which this formation extends, vary according 

 as the upper sand remains on the surface, or has been 

 more or less completely removed by natural causes. 

 The stiff clays bear natural forests of hardwood trees of 

 various kinds ; but when cleared, and put under crop, 

 the clay hardens, cracks, and becomes parched under the 

 hot suns of summer. The sandy loams which rest upon 

 the clay nourish numerous pines stretching along the 



