84 Geology^ ^c of the Connecticut, 



count for this. But in general along this river, the char- 

 acter of the rolled masses corresponds to the rock in place 

 underneath them ; — that is the greatest number of the 

 loose stones are of the same description as the rock that 

 underlies them. But to this there are many exceptions — a 

 most remarkable one occurs a few miles west of New- 

 Haven in Woodbridge and Milford. The surface is cover- 

 ed with rolled masses, sometimes quite large, of primitive 

 and secondary greenstone, mica slate, gneiss, granite, and 

 almost every other rock, except that which is in place 

 viz. chlorite slate, or argillite. In many places on the map 

 which are highly mountainous, the geest is so abundant 

 as to occupy most of the surface ; — the subjacent rock 

 rarely appearing ; — as in the east part of Plainfield and in 

 Shutesbury. The diameter of the loose fragments varies 

 from an inch to twenty, or even thirty feet, and they are 

 usually rounded, indicating attrition. Some of the highest 

 of these bowlders are found insulated on the pinnacles of 

 Qur mountains. 



There is a particular kind of geest, which I have al- 

 ready mentioned, occurring along the Connecticut, that 

 does not seem to be comprehended in Professor Jameson's 

 definitions. It is that kind of soil that results from the 

 slow disintegration and decomposition of certain rocks, 

 with a mixture of decaying vegetables. This, as already 

 observed, is not uncommon above the old red sandstone 

 and the red siliceous sandstone slate of the coal forma- 

 tion. And the epithet dduvian ?.eexx\?> to exclude this kind 

 of soil from Prof. Buckland's deluvian detritus; and so the 

 epithet Jiuviatile excludes it from the jiuviatile detritus of 

 the same author. (Rees' Cyc. Art. Geology, Addenda.) 



Hayden's Hypothesis of a primeval northeasterly current of 



water, 



I allude to Hayden's Geological Essays, in which he ex- 

 presses the opinion that the alluvion of our middle and 

 southern states was formed by a current or currents that 

 formerly flowed across this continent from the northeast to 

 the southwest; and I am inclined to believe, (without in- 

 tending, however, to adopt altogether his theory on the 



