133 



Under these circumstances, it seems impossible that 

 either the columnar, or irregular and porous trap can 

 owe its origin to, or even be modified by, the agency 

 of subterranean heat, while its substruction, the red 

 sand-stone, discovers not the least possible indication 

 of a similar agency. 



It is this important ridge or mountain, bounded on 

 the east and on the west, by others composed of primi- 

 tive and transition rocks, which renders the mineralogy 

 and geology of Connecticut so highly and particularly 

 interesting ; and, at the same time, gives to New 

 H.iven a decided superiority over any other situation 

 in the United States, for the cultivation of those two 

 sciences. 



From Yale College, that fountain of literature, and 

 where those two sciences are cultivated with the most 

 happy success ; an individual, or the whole mineral- 

 ogical class may, in the space of two hours enter 

 upon the primitive range ; observe and examine 

 through the various gradations and transitions, the 

 order, structure, and arrangement of the various strata 

 that compose it. 



From thence, in a short space of time, they enter 

 upon the secondary district, and at the foot of the 

 West Rock, (so called) the base of which is red sand- 

 stone, they contemplate with mingled emotions of awe 

 and pleasure, the abrupt and lofty battlements of colum- 

 nar trap, whose mouldering fragments have, for ages 

 past, been tributary to the soil below ; and on the sur- 

 face of which, vast masses, burst off by the frost 



