MOUNDS. 247 



been seen on the ocean, the fragments encased in the ice, in fashion like the diamond of the 

 glazier. ' 



The second mode, the more recent explanation, and now the more generally received, being 

 the result of actual observation, and the more probable one of the tviro, is that which attributes 

 their origin to glaciers. These bodies have the weight required ; they are well known to have 

 stones of all sizes affixed to their lower surface ; water flows beneath them, and their move- 

 ment commences near the line where perpetual snow ceases, and continues to the bottom of 

 their valleys. The glacier origin harmonizes with the fact that the scratched surfaces are 

 found at no regular or defined elevations ; that the surfaces are too much worn, and extend 

 over too great an extent of the same rock, to have been caused by icebergs, especially as the 

 lines are always straight ones, and the motion of icebergs oscillatory and rotatory. The 

 direction sdso of the scratches is in accordance with existing valleys, and hence local, agreeing 

 with glaciers in both respects. And besides we have no actual knowledge that icebergs produce 

 such results, though there exists not the least difficulty in conceiving that like results may 

 have been produced by them. As matter of fact from actual observation, the glacier theory 

 will have preference of the two, especially should the term local ice be substituted, being a 

 more general expression, glaciers having their origin near the hne where perpetual snow 

 ceases ; whereas local ice embraces the same, as well as all bodies of solidified water, be the 

 cause of the reduction of temperature what it may, whether permanent or transient, that has 

 given rise to it. In another point of view, the local system is to be preferred to that of ice- 

 bergs ; for should the very varied forms of organic remains, which date from the end of the 

 Chalk deposit, be due to greater changes of temperature ; also should the destruction of the 

 mammoth, and numerous animals of warmer regions forming a part of the alluvials in Europe, 

 etc., correspond with the era of the scratches, no better cause could be imagined than a fall 

 of temperature destroying life ; the glaciers forming barriers of a perishable nature, from 

 whence floods would result, as known to do in the Alps, the effects of which would cover up 

 in part the remains of animals destroyed. 



MOTTNDS, &c. 



From the facts collected to this time, mounds appear to be of twofold origin, natural and 

 artificial. Those which have come under my notice, are referable to the former and not the 

 latter origin. 



The depression in which the quarry at Marcellus village is seated, widens east, and gra- 

 dually opens into a flat towards Onondaga valley. On Mr. Cox's farm, about three and a half 

 miles from the quarry, a high well-sloped mound appears in the middle of the flat, perfectly 

 insulated on all its sides. It is made up of sand, earth, and rolled stones such as red and 

 grey sandstone, limestone and primary rock. In the upper part, the sand and gravel in part 

 are cemented by tufa, showing that a connection had existed with calcareous waters of a higher 

 level. The sides of the flat show a similar alluvial mass, firom which a portion projects like 



