and Hudson's bay, overflowing their ordinary limits, 

 poured their whole forces upon the great Lakes, Su- 

 perior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario ; which, 

 being no longer able to discharge themselves by the 

 St. Lawrence, overrun their ancient limits, and, being 

 at first confined by the great chains of mountains, 

 spread destruction over the land, and rushed, with in- 

 conceivable rapidity, into the general current of the 

 Atlantic ocean and gulf of Mexico. The consequence 

 was, that the face of the country being overflown, and 

 for a long time saturated with water, and as constant- 

 ly subjected to the operations of an impetuous current, 

 the soil and earth were torn up, carried, and deposited 

 along upon the coast of America, from Long-Island to 

 the bottom of the bay of Mexico ; and in proportion to 

 the extent of country, as I have before observed, over 

 which this current passed 5 to the quantity of soil, and 

 rapidity of current, when unaltered or changed by lo- 

 cal circumstances, so is the extent or breadth of 

 alluvial deposites from Long Island to the bay of 

 Mexico. 



For example, the distance or extent of country 

 over which this current flowed, from Sandwich river 

 on the coast of Labrador, to the latitude of Cape Cod, 

 is about twelve degrees of latitude. In this distance, 

 as has been already remarked, there is little or no 

 alluvial soil on the^coast. 



But in consequence of the coast of Labrador stretch- 

 ing away north westwardly, from cape Charles to cape 

 Chidley, or Button Island, the distance is greatly in- 



