er 
372. Gen. LiNCOLN'S Account of feveral Strata of 
XVI. dn Account of feveral Strata of Earth and Shells om; 
the Banks of York-River, in Virginia ; of a fubterraneous , 
Paffage, and tbe. fudden Defcent of a. very-large Gurrent of, 
Water from a Mountain, fear Carlile ; of 2 remarkably , 
-large Spring near Reading, in Fennlilrdiia FA and alfo of fe~. 
veral. remarkable Springs in the States. of Pennfylvania and : 
Virginia. In-aLetter from tbe Hon, BENJAMIN LINCOLN,. 
Ef; F. A, A. to the Rev. Josz?u WinLaAn», 7. Pref... 
abe A. and Prefident of the Univerfity at Cambridge. . 
F HAT this earth, fince its formation, Kis met with great 
changes, and that the. fhores, now covered with the 
talleft- cedars and moft luxuriant plants, were once wafhed by. 
the ocean, none can deny. The land between "fame:-river and - 
York-river, in Vi arginia, is very level its furface being about | 
forty feet above high-water mark, Tt - appears to have arrived" 
to its. prefent height at different periods, far diftant each from . 
the other, by means of the ocean : for, near York=t own, where 
the. banks: are. perpendieular; you firít fce a ftratum of earth, 
about five fect high, intermixed with fmall fhells, which has the 
appearance of a mixture of clay and fand. On that lies; hori- 
zontally, a ftratum of white fhells, the cockle, the clam, and 
othérs, an inch or two thick ; then a body of earth, fimilar to . 
that firft mentioned, eighteen tithes thick : and on that lies ano- 
ther thin body of {mall hells, then a third body of earth, about 
the fame thicknefs as the laft ; ; and on that lies another body of 
white ‘fhells, of various kindé: about three feet thick, with. 
very little fand, or earth, mixed with them. On thefe lies a 
body of oyfter-thells, about fix feet thick ; then a body of 
garth to the furface, The oyaa are fo united by a very. 
flee 
