GORGES. 221 



of the mountains, and retaining but slight evidence in the shape of falls, how the work was done. On the 

 sides of the gorge we find the rocks standing almost upon their edges, the layers passing across the river, 

 and bearing evidence of erosion, not of dislocation ; BO that no " great convulsion of nature" can here be 

 evoked to explain the phenomena. But we are forced to the conclusion that this gorge has been worn away 

 by the slow action of water. But how enormous the work and into what distant ages of the past must we 

 look for its commencement. Imagination can picture a time when the giant crest of the Green Mountains 

 stretched unbroken almost to Canada, with only here and there a depression. The ocean too, stood almost 

 as high, but its waves broke over one of those depressions, and began a work, which having been unceasingly 

 carried forward, either by the ocean or by rivers, through countless ages, is well nigh completion, and 

 amazes us by its magnitude. Probably since the settlement of Vermont by the white man, the Winooski 

 has not lowered its bed (except perhaps at some cataracts), a single inch. Yet this mountain, say from a 

 height of 2,000 feet, has been cut down to its base by the same agency that has done the whole work, 

 although now showing itself probably in its least effective form ; for we are disposed to refer the lion's share 

 of erosions to the ocean. 



Nor has this great work been without design ; but, like all other works of the Creator, 

 we can see definite objects accomplished by it. And when we see a railroad following a 

 valley of erosion from the mouth of White River to Burlington, across the whole central 

 part of the State, and passing by its metropolis, do we not see one of those objects ? For 

 without such erosions, such communication would hardly have been possible. And 

 though the construction of a railroad, even through such a valley, be a great labor, yet 

 just think how vastly greater has been the previous work performed by nature, and man's 

 part sinks into comparative insignificance. 



The same reasoning as to providential design applies to other railroad routes in the 

 State ; and also to some valleys equally well adapted for steam communication. And if 

 it be said that these last cases show that there has been no special design in their erosion, 

 we reply that railroads are not the only means of inter-communication facilitated by them : 

 but we ask the objector to wait a hundred years to see how many more of these valleys 

 will echo the steam whistle before that time, for some of us well remember the day, and 

 that too since we began to look at its geology, when it had not been sounded within the 

 limits of Vermont. 



9. The passage of La Moille River through the Green Mountains. The general character of this valley 

 corresponds so well to that of the Winooski, that the same description and theories and inferences will 

 answer for both. 



AMOUNT OF EROSIONS. 



Have we not now presented facts enough to justify the inference that all the valleys of 

 tiie mountainous parts of Vermont have been the result of erosion, excepting, perhaps, 

 the broad Champlain Valley, and possibly the general depression known as the Connecti- 

 cut Valley? In other words, the present contour of the surface, with these exceptions, 

 II.TS been the result of denudation. That the original surface, before denudation began, 

 may have been very irregular from original structure, upheaval and plication, we do not 

 doubt; but we think that subsequent erosion, with the exceptions named, may have 

 entirely obliterated all the original forms of the surface, except that these original forms 

 gave the directions, which they have taken, k> the denuding agents. If, as we have en- 



