JEFFERSON COUNTY. 411 



elevation south, ranging about two or two and a half miles southeast of Adams towards 

 Lorainc, and thence towards Mannsville. Some portion of this band of boulders lies along the 

 connnon travelled road leading from Adams to Mannsville. 



The region which I have imperfectly defined, may strictly be called the Boulder region ; 

 and all parts of the State where the surface and elevation resemble tliis, and analogous con- 

 ditions exist, w-ill furnish a region in which the same disposition will be found in regard to 

 the arrangement of the boulders. It lias been interesting, in noticing the kinds of boulders, 

 to find among them the hj^persthene rock, which, as the reader will have observed from 

 remarks in other parts of the volume, is found in place principally in the western part of 

 Essex. But those which occur upon the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario cannot be traced 

 to the Esse^ mass, but must be referred to the more northern regions of Canada or Labrador. 



Besides ihe distribution of drift and boulders, our attention is directed to another class of 

 effects, the cause of which is perfectly well understood, but which is as surprising as to find 

 the rocks of Labrador encircling our mountains and hills. I refer to the wearing out of deep 

 holes in the rocks of some of the ridges of Jefferson, usually called pot-Jioles, from their shape 

 resembling a pot. The peculiar form which these holes always take when made by ruiming 

 water, is such that there is no possibility of error in assigning one and the same cause for 

 their production wherever they may be found, whether in the present reach of ruimiiig water 

 or not. No cause whatever is capable of producing a deep hole in a sohd rock, except a 

 current of water moving with a sufficient power to carry around a quantity of stones. 



One of the most remarkable of these holes is in Antwerp, about three-fourths of a mile 

 south of Oxbow. It is in a high cliff of granitic rocks, rising up on the west side of the 

 road. This cliff is the western border of a valley one hundred rods wide. The perpendi- 

 cular face of the rocks in which the pot-hole is made, is thirty or thirty-five feet. Its appear- 

 ance from the road is represented in the sketch at the head of this article. 



The hole is from twenty-four to thirty feet deep, and from twelve to fourteen feet in dia- 

 meter ; about twelve feet in the neck of the passage, and fourteen in the largest part. A 

 large mass of stones remains in the bottom, which were left by the water when it ceased to 

 flow in this valley. The ledge of rock is about one hundi-ed feet, and perhaps more, above 

 the Oswegatchie. 



The effect observed in tliis instance, is one which I have already remarked may be traced 

 to its cause. No doubt can exist in the mind of any person, who has once seen a pot-hole 

 in a creek or river, but that this appertains to the same class of phenomena. It is impossible, 

 however, to say when it was produced, or in what direction the river flowed, for there has 

 been a change of the surface of the country. But there is one point which may be determined : 

 it is in relation to the movement of the subjacent rocks, which vvathout doubt have been ele- 

 vated, and, in consequence of this elevation, have turned the channel of the waters in some 

 other direction. 



Other pot-holes, I have been informed by Mr. Bailey of Hammond, exist three miles below 

 this place, about fifty feet above the St. Lawrence river. These I have not seen ; but from 

 the accuracy of Mr. Bailey as an observer, there is no doubt of the fact as stated. 



