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out doubt correct ; and that it is to this increase of 

 alluvion, that we must attribute the inroads, which 

 have been made upon the ancient limits of the ocean, 

 in several instances on our Atlantic shores. But al- 

 though we are informed of material changes having in 

 the course of time taken place, yet no one has attempt- 

 ed to account for the immense extent of alluvial for- 

 mation, where there are no rivers of any consequence, 

 that could have contributed much in this great and ex- 

 tensive operation. Neither has any one, that I know 

 of. attempted to assign any plausible reason for the 

 great difference in the extent of the alluvial formation 

 at the mouths of several of the great rivers in America, 

 which discharge themselves into the Atlantic Ocean. 



These two circumstances are of such importance iu 

 the present view, that it would be inexcusable to pass 

 them over without notice. 



In the first place, I shall take into consideration the 

 five principal rivers to the northward of the Delaware, 

 viz : the river of St. Johns, the Penobscot, he Kenne- 

 beck, the Connecticut, and the Hudson. The longest 

 of these five rivers, viz : the Connecticut, is from two 

 hundred and eighty, to three hundred miles ; and the 

 shortest, viz : the Kennebeck, is one hundred and forty. 



Now agreeable to Mr. McClure's geological chart, 

 there is no alluvial district appertaining to, at least, 

 four of these rivers ; (though I shall endeavour, by 

 and by, to prove that there is some alluvial soil at 

 their mouths,) and although the mouth of the Hudson 

 is embraced in the alluvial district, it has not in fact 



