184 THEORY. 



1. Marine fossils have been found in the Champlain clays at the height of 540 feet, and 

 clay, evidently continuous with the strata containing the relics, occurs at 756 feet. 2. The 

 upper parts of the clays contain littoral fossils, and the lower parts contain pelagic fossils, 

 among which are some foraminifera, recently discovered by Dr. Dawson of Montreal. 

 Hence, as these beds containing foraminifera (the same animals that were obtained by 

 Lieut. Maury from the telegraphic plateau in the bottom of the Atlantic) rest upon the 

 bowlder clay with no intervening deposits, we maintain that the continent was submerged 

 in the drift and beach periods, and not elevated, as the advocates of the glacier theory 

 suppose. For in that case the sinking of the continent, after its supposed elevation in the 

 drift period, to the depth of 700 or 800 feet at the least estimate, to accommodate the foram- 

 inifera, would have left traces of its subsidence by the occurrence of alluvial deposits 

 containing littoral remains between the drift accumulations and the foraminifera beds. 

 These are not found ; and it seems a plain inference from this absence of strata and fossils 

 that the ocean at the close of the drift period was at this height over the continent without 

 any intervening period. If this point be admitted, the submergence of the continent 

 previously will readily follow. 



The character of the Champlain clays and associated beds agrees with this statement. 

 In the Champlain valley they are mostly clay, such deposits as are made only in deep 

 and quiet waters. Their source was probably the streams descending from the Green 

 Mountains, which, leaving the heavier gravel and sand at their mouths in this former 

 ocean, would transport the fine particles of clay much farther into this body of water. 

 The current must have been southerly in the Champlain valley, as a submergence to the 

 depth of less than 300 feet would connect the ocean at the mouths of the St. Lawrence and 

 Hudson Rivers. The distribution of the deposits corresponds also with this view, for the 

 coarser sand and gravel brought down by the Winooski and La Meille Rivers is retained 

 in the form of terraces near their mouths, while the fine clay is mostly found south in the 

 southern part of Chittenden and the whole of Addison County. 



3. From the lowest locality of marine shells to the highest sea beach in the State 

 (Ripton), there may be traced a continuous deposit of water- worn materials, generally 

 of considerable thickness. The Ripton beach follows the west side of the Green Moun- 

 tains southerly into Rutland County, and in Brandon, Pittsford, Rutland, etc., may be 

 found at much lower levels^ associated with- moraine terraces. There are also what are 

 marked beaches and sea bottoms on the Map, continuous from the moraine terraces, and 

 mostly composed of fine materials, to the terraces and Champlain clays on Otter Creek 

 north of Brandon. The beaches and clays may have been formed at the same time, the 

 one on the shores and the others at the bottom of the same ocean ; and the great part 

 of both in an arctic climate. Any one who will examine the union of the higher and 

 lower deposits at these localities, can only be satisfied by ascribing to the same grand 

 body of water, whatever that may be, the origin of both beaches and bottoms. 



4. The respective characters of the sand and gravel of the higher deposits and the clays 

 of the valleys may show why fossils are wanting in the upper beds. The compact clay 

 permits no water to pass through it into the subjacent strata and gradually remove the 

 carbonate of lime by solution ; but the friable sand, containing also much feldspar, al- 

 lows the free and rapid passage of meteoric water and of air through it. It would not 



