Miscellanies. : 207 
4, Alluvial Deposits of the Mohawk. 
Extract of a letter from Mr. C. H. Tomutnson to the Editor, dated 
“ ScHENECTADY, April, 1832. . 
* Dear Sir—I herewith send you specimens of a deposit of leaves 
which are found ten or twelve feet below the surface of the flats or 
alluvial banks of the Mohawk River at this place. These, with ma- 
ny other specimens, some of them one and a half feet square and six 
or eight inches thick, were washed out of a deep hole made in the 
Erie Canal during the great freshet in March last; when the river 
broke over the canal banks, three miles above this city, and came 
down till it was stopped by the high ground on which the city is 
built. It then rose high enough to break over the canal banks and 
return to the river. The hole spoken of above was about twenty 
feet below the surface of the flats across which the canal runs. Judge 
De Graff of this place, tells me, that in digging a well some years 
ago, about a quarter of a mile from this spot, he dug through the 
same deposit of leaves. It was more than six inches thick. I am 
informed by another person who is familiar with the river, that at low 
water the same deposit may be seen in the bank of the river, a few 
hundred yards from the place out of which these specimens were 
hed.” s Lies nae 
~ Remarks.—Every such deposit is interesting, as giving us the 
means of comparing things that were with those that are. ‘These 
masses of leaves are perfectly combustible, burning with bright flame 
and°much smoke, smelling like that of recent dry leaves. ‘They are 
enveloped by a fine black river mud, exactly like that which forms 
the sediment of the Mohawk at the present time. 
~ Since receiving Mr. Tomlinson’s letter, we have visited the spot 
from which the leaves were taken, and no one who sees the place, 
can doubt that it was once the upper surface, although it is now lower 
than the bed of the river.—Ed. ee 
~ P. S. October 11, 1832.—Observing, recently, some excavations 
going on upon the Genesee River, at Angelica, Allegany county, 
(N. Y.) for the purpose of forming a mill race, we saw parts of trees 
brought up from beneath tough and firm clay, some yards below the 
surface, evincing the shifting of the banks in ancient time. . 
5. Detection of corrosive sublimate.—This is not a difficult task, 
and the following facts ave mentioned, not as being novel, but as af 
fording an example of an easy method of operating with means usu~ 
ally found in the family without resorting to a laboratory. 
