226 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



qaent intervals project masses of the naked rock, yet defying 

 the influence of time. 



Granite countries are ordinarily nigged, and, in consequence 

 of this very slow disintegration of the rock, a great difference 

 exists between the soil of the valleys and that of the hill sides. 

 Every thing soluble, and all of the finer particles, are, of course, 

 liable to be washed downward, and the more because they are 

 produced so slowly; — as a general rule, then, in such districts, 

 the soil will be found light and thin on the slopes of the hills, 

 and rather inclining to clay in the hollows, having there a large 

 proportion of potash and soda. But when streams rim through 

 the valleys, it almost uniformly results that a soil of superior 

 character is introduced. The reason of this is obvious, from a 

 fact already stated, that the rocks vary in composition. There 

 are few streams that do not pass through a number of diflx3rent 

 formations, and when, swollen and muddy from the accession 

 of spring torrents, they overflow their banks, a mixture of fine 

 particles, brought from every part of their course, is deposited. 

 A soil, formed in this Avay, is obviously more likely to be fertile 

 than that derived from any one rock, because it more probably 

 contains every substance necessary to the sustenance of vegeta- 

 tion. Almost all of the deep and apparently inexhaustible soils 

 which occasionally occur in our own and other countries, seem to 

 have been originally formed by depositions from water, either as 

 a stream or a lake. The distance to which fiuely divided particles 

 are carried by a rapid stream is truly astonishing. The fine clay 

 found in the bottom of some lakes in Holland, is known, from 

 its composition, to have been brought down by the Rhine from 

 its upper waters, in the mountains of Switzerland and Ger- 

 many. The deposit, even from waters which flow through a 

 very inferior soil, is of good quality, or at least much better 

 than would be expected. I have recently had an opportunit)' 

 of seeing this fact exemplified in New Haven, Ct. The Farm- 

 ington canal, which terminated at that place, ran for nearljr 

 thirty miles from the city through a very light sand, so light 

 that it was a long time after its completion before its banks 

 could be made to hold water at all. This canal is now aban- 

 doned, and, in cleaning out one or two basins near the city, a de- 



