8 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 



These, with added evidences of the work done by water in 

 another age, will be considered in the proper place, when it will 

 be shown that these wonderful monuments now bear mute but 

 unimpeachable testimony to the existence of powerful and long- 

 continued currents, fiowing in so vast a volume as to make the 

 proudest river of to-day a p]a\ thing. These propositions, with 

 the facts referable to them, are as certain as anything in Deut- 

 eronomy, but we regret to say there are still otherwise intelli- 

 gent people who refuse to believe them. The Agnostic claims 

 that he can know nothing, and is aware of it ; but even such 

 an one is less difificult to convince than he who likewise knows 

 nothing but has no knowledge of it. 



Should it be desired to prove beyond question that New Eng- 

 land was once the scene of volcanic activity, a piece of Roxbury 

 pudding stone would be sufficient. So, in reference to our pres- 

 ent purpose, any strip of land in New Hampshire, with hills 

 and valleys and water-courses, will serve for illu.stration. Such 

 a region was Derryfield — a territory one mile wide and eight 

 miles long — ranging upon the Merrimack, and now the river- 

 front of Manchester. 



