226 TERTIARY STRATA. 



From all these facts we cannot doubt that Ascutney has been in a melted state, so as 

 to require the stratified rocks to rise around and above it to prevent its flowing outward. 

 And if they probably extended 2000 or 3000 feet above its present top, as we do not 

 doubt, then the amount of erosion at Windsor has been as much as 6000 feet, or a mile 

 and a quarter ! And by parity of reason, probably it has been as great all along the 

 Connecticut valley ; so that originally the surface there was as high as Mt. Washington. 



The vastness of such a denudation makes us almost shrink from this conclusion. Yet we 

 see that it is sustained by three independent sources of evidence, and does not exceed the 

 amount that has been swept from other lands. Yet how vast the time requisite to such a 

 work by any agencies now in operation ! Imagination can hardly grasp the mighty periods 

 that have passed by since it began. 



A few years ago it would have been necessary, to prevent unreasonable imputations, 

 when thus assigning an age to the world so vast, to have stated our conviction that such 

 facts and conclusions are not discrepant to the Mosaic History of creation. But the great 

 age of the world is now so generally admitted by theologians, and that Moses does not fix 

 the time when the world was created, but only says that it was in the beginning, that we 

 hardly need say that, between the scriptures and geology on this or any other point, there 

 is, in our view, not only no collision but harmony and mutual corroboration. 



II. TERTIARY STRATA. 



We have occupied a good deal of space with the Surface Geology of the State. But 

 Vermont is particularly rich in phenomena of this sort ; and we fancy that we have been 

 able to present more that is new, than we shall be in any subsequent part of our report. 

 We now advance to some deposits which we venture to refer to the Tertiary Period, al- 

 though not with strong confidence, and with the knowledge that some able geologists 

 hesitate to admit our conclusions. 



A few years since the idea of finding tertiary strata in Vermont would have been re- 

 garded as absurd. But some facts, which came accidentally under our notice when 

 engaged in a survey of the Surface Geology of Massachusetts, led to the conclusion that 

 a newer tertiary formation existed not only in Vermont, but extended, at intervals, 

 through nearly the whole United States, along the foot of the Appalachian Mountains ; 

 and although the evidence was found in Vermont, yet its importance in relation to certain 

 ore beds in western Massachusetts led us to embrace a description of the Vermont deposit, 

 in a Report to the Government of Massachusetts. It was an account of a deposit at 

 Brandon, and in looking it over we do not see that any important changes are necessary 

 to express our present views, except to add to the number of species of fruits and 

 seeds, and to notice some objections that have been made to the tertiary character of the 

 strata. We beg leave, therefore, to make it a part of our present Report. 



FOSSIL FRUITS. 



In the autumn of 1851, Prof. Shedd, of Burlington, presented me with a few specimens 

 of beautifully preserved fruits from Brandon, Vermont. They were converted into 

 brown coal, and retained exactly their original shape and markings. Early in the spring 



