110 



is unwilling to admit that the great valley of the Mis- 

 sissippi was ever a lake,* what was the Mississippi 

 doing for the space of about four thousand years pre- 

 vious ? for we must admit that it has flown as long, 

 perhaps, as that of any other river. Were there no 

 alluvial deposites in those days ; no annual inunda- 

 tions by long continued storms of rain, and by the 

 melting of the snows ? Doubtless there were : but it 

 is highly improbable that the present banks of the 

 Mississippi river, or those of any other rivers, except 

 at the mouths of some, were formed by their annual 

 alluvious deposites. Neither is it probable, that the 

 different strata which present themselves in those 

 banks, were each the result of an annual deposite; 

 for we find in the section of a hill upon the margin of 

 the great alluvial district, on the Atlantic, where pro- 

 bably no river has ever flowed, the same stratification, 

 in parallelisms of one or two inches, as regular as the 

 courses of brick in a wall. Examine those strata jn 

 a perpendicular section of the hill, at right angles from 

 the first section, and they appear undulating, tortuous, 

 or having various degrees of declination ; so that all 

 attempts to determine the time employed in their depo- 

 sition and formation, is rendered abortive by this cir- 

 cumstance alone. 



If the great alluvial district upon the borders of our 

 Atlantic shores, and the alluvial banks of all our ri- 

 vers were gradually formed by the annual deposites of 



* Stoddard's Sketches, page S8-J. 



