210 DISTRIBUTION OF SOILS. 



the earth in the (hiys of Noali. The record of such n catastrophe is contained in two re- 

 markable phenomena: first, the presence of immense rocks, generally called boulders, in 

 places where they could not have been put by any human means ; and secondly, by the 

 occurrence of marks or scorings upon the surfaces of rocks, which could not be made by 

 causes such as are now in operation. 



Transportation of boulders. The occurrence of rocks in the soil or upon it, or upon other 

 naked rocks, of a kind different from any in the immediate vicinity, is a phenomenon that 

 arrested the attention of the earliest observers. For example, detached masses of granite and 

 gneiss were found resting upon limestone or slate, or upon recent sedimentary rocks ; or, on 

 the contrary, detached sedimentary rocks were found reposing upon granite or gneiss, the 

 general phenomenon consisting in the presence of a loose rock at a distance from its known 

 parent bed. The importance and interest of this phenomenon is increased, when we take 

 into consideration the great distance which the fragment has sometimes travelled, a distance 

 which is often susceptible of determination by direct proof. Where the boulder consists of 

 a particular kind of granite, or of a peculiar variety of rock, it may often be referred to a 

 distant locality of rocks identical with it in constitution. In proof of this assertion, we may 

 state that hypersthene rock has been found in fragments on the Catskill range, and in Orange 

 county and elsewhere ; but this peculiar rock is known to exist in situ nowhere in this 

 State, except in Essex county, where it forms the nucleus of the Adirondack mountains. 

 In this case, then, the inference is, that by some means or other, the boulders of hyper- 

 sthene rock, found in Orange county, were brought from Essex ; and what strengthens this 

 inference, is the fact that they are strewed along in this direction to the very mountains 

 tliemselves, that is, they may be traced to their beds. This single fact is illustrative of this 

 part of the subject, namely, that all boulders or loose stones, occurring far away from their 

 parent beds, have suffered transportation. 



We may extend this subject farther. If the soil is sufficiently examined, it will often 

 be found composed of materials different from any in the vicinity. Thus, mica in glim- 

 mering scales is seen among the soil of an argillaceous slate, or of a limestone district : 

 hence the inference that the soil has been brought from a distance ; and as the soil and the 

 boulders are mixed together, we can scarcely avoid the conclusion that they liave been 

 transported together, perhaps in mass and from one district. All these facts, however, 

 may be kept apart from hypothesis, and it may be that in the facts alone is comprised all 

 that need be said upon the subject. 



There is another circumstance which it is here necessary to inquire into, namely,' the 

 direction in which the soil and boulders have been carried. On this point, we refer to 

 what has just been said concerning the boulders of hypersthene found in Orange county : 

 these are located nearly south from the mountains of Essex county, where they originated ; 

 and we may saj"^, for once, that this instance represents, in general, the direction in which 

 all the boulders and soil of the northern hemisphere have been transferred. We must, it 

 is true, admit of some variation in the direction of these movements ; but it is remarkable 



