PREFACE. \ il 



will be overlooked, when it is considered, that this is not tfo 

 voluntary offering of a candidate for literary fame; nor is it 

 the offspring of a visionary whim, ushered into the world 

 from sinister motives, or to answer pecuniary ends. 



The principal and only motive by which he has been ac- 

 tuated, is the wish to interest and invite the attention of 

 Geologists, naturalists, and scientifick men of every deno- 

 mination, to the great and important physical changes, that 

 appear to have taken place upon and near the surface of the 

 I'arth, in various, parts of the world, and more particular- 

 ly in our own country; and also to the numerous and in- 

 king facts, that seem to have, not only a direct rela- 

 tion to, but an intimate connexion with those changes ; and 

 this with the view of enabling us to form, something like, 

 correct ideas of the causes and operations, by which they 

 were produced ; and possibly too, of the times at which they 

 took place. 



Among the most prominent of these changes, (and which 

 may be considered, as being one of the most interesting fea- 

 tures, in the Geology of this country,) is the alluvial region 

 skirting the Atlantic ocean. 



It is this which constitutes the principal subject of the pre- 

 sent work, and in the examination of which, he has endea- 

 voured to adduce facts sufficiently numerous and strong, to 

 prove that the whole region, with the attendant phenomena, is 

 the result of the operation of currents, that flowed from the 

 north east to the south west ; or from the north to the south 

 over the whole continent of America. 



Should these facts or proofs, however, be not sufficient, it is 

 10 be hoped, that when the subject has received that attention, 

 which it merits, and the numerous remaining proofs, that are 

 scattered over every portion of the continent, are collected 

 and embodied, they will be sufficient, ki the hands of some 



