AMERICAN GEOLOGY MACLHREAN ERA, 1785-1819. 233 



A second breach was conceived to have been at the northern 

 extremity of Lake George, whereby the lake was diminished to about 

 its present size. A third was at Hadlev Falls; a fourth at the upper 

 falls of the Mohawk; a fifth was made by the pent-up waters of the 

 Delaware above Easton, Pennsylvania; a sixth by the Lehigh to the 

 northwest of Bethlehem; a seventh by the Schuylkill ; an eighth by the 

 Susquehanna, and a ninth by the Potomac cutting its way through the 

 Blue Ridge at Harpers Ferry. A second series of lakes and dams he 

 conceived as having existed outside, i. e., to the southward of those 

 above mentioned. To the bursting of these he attributed many of the 

 minor features of the present landscape. 



The work contains little in the wa} r of systematic geology aside 

 from the speculations above mentioned, though there are disconnected 

 references to and descriptions of fossil remains and rocks found in 

 various parts of the country. He, however, called attention to the 

 possibility of the Great Lakes having formerly drained into the Mis- 

 sissippi, the gradual retreat of the falls of Niagara, and the formation 

 of the gorge through the undermining of the harder surface limestone, 

 facts which seem to have been very early recognized. 



This same year witnessed the first appearance in geological science 



of Edward Hitchcock, then a young theological student of twent}-five, 



but who was destined to be one of the most prominent figures of his 



time. Hitchcock came first into notice in 1815 through 



Edward Hitchcock's . . , 



First Geological some astronomical observations and corrections fur- 

 nished Blunt's Nautical Almanac. His inclination, 

 however, early took a geological turn, and throughout a prolonged 

 period of activit}% first as a clergyman and later as professor, presi- 

 dent, and again professor in Amherst College, he kept himself ever 

 prominently to the front. 



The first State geological surve}- carried to completion, that of 

 Massachusetts, 1830-1833, was primarily his conception and executed 

 almost wholly through his efforts. He became, however, most widely 

 known and is best remembered through his work on the footprints 

 found in the Triassic sandstones of the Connecticut Valley and his 

 studies of the drift phenomena, in both of which he was a pioneer. 

 Indeed, if one may be allowed to speak facetiously of so cultured and 

 dignified a gentleman, he was America's first k " superficial geologist," 

 and a perusal of his papers alone will give a very fair idea of the 

 development of the glacial lypothesis in America. 



The paper to which allusion is made above, Some Remarks on the 

 Geology and Mineralogy of a Section of Massachusetts on the Con- 

 necticut River, with a Part of New Hampshire and Vermont, was 

 published in the first volume, 1818, of the American Journal of 

 Science. It is noteworthy on account of a geological map of the 

 region, colored by hand, and a transverse section of the rock strata 



