388 'PRIMITIVE BASIS OF NEW-YORK CITY. 



greater part rent to fragments by gunpowder, and 

 dragged away. In a few years much of the scenery I am 

 describing will vanish, and the bustling cit will hear 

 with wonder, or rather refuse to hear, the curious geolo- 

 gy of the street in which he resides. They consist of 

 rolled or rounded masses of 



". . .:> - '..: '^i., 



Schoerl rocks. 



Rocks of quartz and schoerl. 



Rocks of stellated asbestos. 



Granite rocks, in which the ingredients are variously 

 associated and modified. 



Gneiss rocks, whose constituent parts are also differ- 

 ently mixed and combined. 



Now, it is apparent, that there is a strong and close re- 

 semblance between these alluvial substances in New- 

 York city, and those beyond the Highlands, and at New- 

 burgh and Fishkill. For example, the sand, gravel, and 

 stones are of the same quality with those near Newburgh, 

 and are disposed in similar loose strata. 



The shistose fragments occurring in New-York, exactly 

 resemble those in the region north of the mountains. 



The primitive rocks, of the kinds already enumerated, 

 can only be considered as fragments from their parent 

 mountains. Who can view them in any other light, than 

 that of members torn by violence from the body to which 

 they were once attached ? In short, they may be con- 

 ceived as the materials which before their disintegration 

 and removal formed the barrier of the mountains where 

 the Hudson now flows. 



