244 Facts relating to Diluvial taction. 



bottoms of cellars, of excavations made in digging wells, and where 

 the earth has been removed by making roads, and in many instances 

 where I have uncovered the solid rock for the purpose of observing 

 the effects of the diluvial action. I have paid some attention to this 

 subject while travelling in the Eastern States, and I could find none 

 of the furrows ;* but the solid strata appears to be worn very smooth 

 by attrition, by the motion of some bodies smaller and less solid than 

 those which have produced the distinct traces, in this part of the State 

 of New York. 



It may be proper to remark first, that Sullivan County is bound- 

 ed south and west by the Delaware river; north by Delaware 

 and Ulster Counties, and east by Orange : that the county lies on 

 the easterly part of the Alleghany range of mountains, and that the 

 mean altitude of the county, is on a level with the highlands be- 

 low Newburgh, — abouf one thousand five hundred feet above the 

 tide water ; that this level is continued westerly through Sullivan 

 County and the state of Pennsylvania, from the Shongham moun- 

 tain to the Susquehannah River ; that a space of above fifty miles 

 wide of this level lies continuously, in the Alleghany range, until you 

 come to mountains of a greater height, on the west side of the Sus- 

 quehannah ; that the depth of the earth above the solid rock, gradu- 

 ally and regularly increases from Shongham mountain to the Susque- 

 hannah ; that the average depth of earth in Sullivan County is not 

 more than twenty five feet, nor more than thirty five through the 

 state of Pennsylvania : that the range of the Kattskill mountain, 

 bounds the north part of Sullivan ; that south of this space of fifty 

 miles, the altitude of the mountains considerably increases ; in this 

 intermediate space it appears that tops of the ridges had been dilapi- 

 dated by mighty force, and that the current had pressed easterly, 

 and often times carried large pieces of rock to a considerable dis- 

 tance, say from fifty to two hundred rods, and if the fragments are 

 of very considerable size they always rest on the solid strata. In 

 many instances, sections of the strata were broken out and raised 

 by the violence of the current and left on the tops of the highest 

 hills; I have seen an instance where a rock twenty feet square has 

 been carried half a mile on the level surface of the strata that are 

 covered about three feet with earth, and there left in that position ; 



* The author wilt find notices of such appearances in Massachusetts by Mr. Ap- 

 pletoii. Vol. XI. p. 100 of this Journal. 



