CLINTON GROUP. 149 



formation, but hnvc resulted from the operation of far more modern causes than any which 

 have acted upon it. It is true that these rocks form a ])art of the mountain ridge in Nia- 

 gara county, extending from Lockport to Lewiston ; still they appear only in an inferior 

 slope, which gradually dies away, and is lost in the lower grounds which succeed it towards 

 the lake. It is in fact an inconsiderable elevation, rising only three hundred and fifty feet 

 above Lake Ontario and the surrounding countrj'. The tortuous course of this ridge, 

 however, adds something to the varictj' of surface. In general tiie country descends towards 

 Lake Ontario, from near Rome to Niagara, in a very gradual manner. At the termination 

 of this group, there is a single steep oflset ; but at Lockport, and most of the intervening 

 country, there are two terraces, which are formed by the presence of the sandstone below, 

 and the soft shales which succeed, together with the hard limestone that forms the surface 

 rock of this part of the district. The uneven surfaces, then, which are due to the rocks of 

 tliis group, exist mostly in Niagara county ; and the hilly surface elsewhere corresponding 

 to this group, is formed by the action of diluvial currents, which have brought together 

 sand, gravel and boulders, and arranged these materials in the form of ridges and rounded 

 hillocks. 



Waterfalls in the Ontario division, T have just referred to the influence of running 

 waters upon the soft rocks which compose in the west a large proportion of the Ontario 

 division, and by which deep channels are cut. These, if interrupted by hard layers, form 

 cascades or falls in the stream, as the waters are longer resisted by these harder deposits. 

 Most of the high falls in the State are thus produced, and two remarkable instances have 

 just been spoken of. The Niagara fall, the most commanding of all the phenomena of 

 this kind, is formed in this division of the New-York rocks ; a part of which, called the 

 American Fall, is represented in PI. X. It is inferior in grandeur to the Great Horseshoe 

 Fall. It was drawn from the Canada side. 



Agricultural capacity of the soil of the Clinton group. The nature of this formation, at its 

 eastern termination, favors the production of a siliceous soil ; while at the west, owing to 

 the predominance of argillaceous and calcareous matter in combination, the soil partakes 

 of the composition of the parent rocks. It is difficult, however, to estimate the influence 

 which this formation exercises on the soil, as it is underlaid at the west by a rock also 

 allied to a marl, or which at least decomposes like one. I allude to the parts already 

 described of the Medina sandstone, which constantly crumbles bj^ the action of atmospheric 

 agents, and passes into soil. So in the superior masses, it is soon succeeded by a marly 

 deposit, the only rock which intervenes being the Niagara limestone. It is therefore un- 

 necessary to dwell upon the influence this mass exerts, as it is merged in the rocks above 

 and below, all of which are particularly and nearly equally concerned in the production 

 of the peculiar soils of the western counties. Much of the country, however, which is un- 

 derlaid by the Clinton group, is low and swampy, and hence unfavoral)ly situated for 

 exhibiting the true value to be placed upon the soil which it has formed. 



The sandstones and conglomerates of Herkimer decompose slowly ; but the process is 

 aided by the interlamination of the green shales, which, however, do not crumble so 



