68 



tains. Vermont furnishes many very interesting cases of the trans- 

 portation of bonlders to a distance of many miles from the quarries 

 in which they originated. Rolled masses of a peculiar kind of 

 granite, often of several tons weight, are found scattered over the 

 lower parts of Caledonia county, from 20 to 30 miles to the south- 

 eastward of the locality, in Orleans county, from which they were 

 evidently derived, and blocks of a calcareous sandstone, found, in 

 place, only along the shore of Lake Champlain, are met with far 

 into the interior of the State, and, in some cases, to the eastward 

 of the principal summits of the Green Mountains.* I mention 

 these merely as examples. Many other cases might be adduced of 

 equal interest. 



The unstratified drift in the western part of the State, and the 

 Champlain rocks, are to a great extent covered by a post-tertiary 

 marine deposit of stratified sand and clay, which has been called 

 the Pleistocene formation. The strata of this formation are nearly 

 horizontal, and are, for the most part, undisturbed and regular, 

 showing that they w,ere deposited in a tranquil sea. The depth 

 of this deposit, in places, exceeds 100 feet, and the highest parts 

 of it are about 400 feet above the present level of the ocean. The 

 fossils found in it are considerably numerous, and are, in general, 

 such as are now found in a living state on the coast of New Eng- 

 land. The fossil bones of a small species of whale, which I had 

 the pleasure to exhibit before this Society in December last, were 

 found in this formation. 



From the remarks which I have made, it must be obvious that 

 Vermont combines in its geology the characteristics of western 

 New England with those of New York. The meeting, in Vermont, 

 of two great botanical and zoological districts or provinces, is equal- 

 ly apparent. 



* Some of these boulders are found resting at a level 50 feet or more above the high- 

 est parts of the same rock as they are now found in place. 



