92 Geology and Topography of Western New York. 



any power in nature with which we are acquainted, other than 

 the one suggested, capable of effecting the change with so much 

 regularity and order ? Every inch of surface has been subjected 

 to the denuding agent ; the tops of the highest hills, no less 

 than the limestone platform, bear the scai-s and scratches of 

 the contending elements. The surface, except on the steep es- 

 carpments, is every where covered with a thick coat of diluvium, 

 composed of water-worn pebbles, boulders, sand, &c. The val- 

 leys are often deeply filled with these materials, more or less 

 comminuted ; and sometimes they contain large quantities of 

 detrital matter, little worn, evidently derived from strata similar 

 to those of the adjoining hills. 



The condition of an ancient inland lake* which has burst its 

 barriers and disappeared, could not account for these things ; nor 

 could its drainage from a higher to a lower plain, as suggested by 

 Prof Rogers,! excavate the deep and long ravine through which 

 the Niagara now flows. It is equally idle to suppose, that the ex- 

 isting streams have excavated the valleys through which they 

 flow ; much less could they have effected the comminution and 

 uniform distribution of the coat of diluvium. And as for a sud- 

 den inundation, deluge, or any succession of them, (aside from 

 the improbability of nature stepping so far out of her ordinary 

 track,) had they been sufficiently powerful to tear up the strata, 

 and lay bare so large a district of the limestone rocks, we should 

 hardly expect to find the work so systematically accomplished. 

 A great deluge, it is true, may account for the uncovering of the 

 limestone ; and by sweeping heavy boulders over its surface, 

 might have produced the " diluvial scratches." But portions of 

 this rock are highly polished, and indicate a much longer con- 

 tinuance of the watery friction than is consistent with the notion 

 of a deluge. The systematic and parallel arrangement of the 

 long sloping ridges, composed of shale and sandstone, no better 

 adapted to resist a sudden and overwhelming inundation than 



* The numerous proofs that this whole region was once submerged, early led to 

 the theory of an ancient lake, far more extensive than any or all of the existing 

 ones put together. Had the pass through the Highlands been closed up, and a 

 barrier of sufficient height existed across the valley cf the St. Lawrence, such a 

 lake must have been the result. But these have not been rendered probable by 

 any indications hitherto discovered ; and there is no reason for presuming that 

 they ever existed. 



1 8ec American Journal, Vol. xsvii. p. 329. 



