Mr. Barnes'' Section of the Canaan Mountain, 8^c. 1 9 



This plain, he describes, as either transition slate and 

 Grayioack, or in some small part, secondary, "approaching 

 ihejoot of the Palmertoivn mountain" and "in this manner 

 it continues along the base of the mountain." Eaton says, 

 (supposing a force to have been applied beneath) " At this 

 place it happened to break through them all at once, form- 

 ing a north and south Jissure of twenty or thirty miles in ex- 

 tent. All the strata on the east side of the fissure, ^eZZ back 

 nearly entire and still remain so, with the compact limestone 

 covering the whole, which in some places meets the gran- 

 ite so closely that it may be compared to a board scribed up 

 to a wall by a carpenter." Eaton's index, 2nd Edition, 

 p. 108. 



No confirmation is needed in support of such respectable 

 authority which, however, will be fully confirmed and illus- 

 trated by a personal inspection and examination of the coun- 

 try described. 



We have before taken for granted the Wernerian order of 

 superposition of rock-strata, we here remark further, that 

 it does not appear probable that the transition, most of which 

 contains no organic remains; or even a great part of the 

 secondary, that, namely, which contains the petrified remains 

 of marine productions, now extinct, is of later origin than 

 that tremendous catastrophe of our globe in which "all the 

 fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the waters 

 prevailed greatly" and " exceedingly and all the high hills, 

 and the mountains under the whole heaven were covered." 

 If at the period when the continents were broken up" and 

 submerged, and the earth and sea were commingled ; the 

 tract, of which we are speaking, sunk to a lower level than 

 the adjacent tract of primitive, it would in that situation be 

 protected from wearing down, while the higher and soft stra- 

 ta, over nearly all New-England, would be washed away. 

 We say nearly all, for there are two small tracts, one of 

 transition, and the other of older* secondary remaining. The 

 secondary! lies in the deep valley of the Connecticut river, 

 and the transition extends from Providence to Boston, on a 

 level with the surrounding country. Both are in situations 

 to be protected in the manner before mentioned. 



* Or transition. t Old red sand stone. 



