Facts relating to Diluvial Action. 2A1 



for half a mile, and on meeting a ridge of rocks in the low grounds, the 

 furrows turned due east, and after passing the obstruction, again turn- 

 ed north east, or east. Not a mile from the same place, on descend- 

 ing from the same high ground, the furrows run east, tallying with the 

 face of the hill. On the high lands west of the Shongham and where 

 there could be no obstruction for seventy or eighty miles, I examined 

 ten or twelve different places in which the furrows were deep and 

 distinct, and found them to run from ten to twelve degrees north of 

 east, and they continued In the same direction for a considerable dis- 

 tance down the mountain ; at no great distance to the south, the 

 furrows tended twenty- five degrees south of east, leading to a low 

 opening in Shongham mountain, through which the currents of water 

 naturally run. I have rarely examined the strata below the de- 

 composing effects of frost, without discovering distinct traces of di- 

 luvial action. Near the banks of streams, I hardly ever found any 

 such marks, but the solid strata appeared broken and very little 

 altered by attrition. In one place where the earth was removed 

 and where there was no visible obstacle to alter the current of water, 

 the furrows crossed each other, shewing that the current took a new 

 direction, after the first furrows were made. About twelve or four- 

 teen miles west of Newburgh, I found the marks on the solid gray- 

 wacke to run nearly north and south. At Coxakie, in Green County, 

 in digging a well and coming to the solid strata, the furrows ran^ 

 northerly and southerly about in the direction of the mountain. I 

 found that in different places, between thirty and forty miles apart, the 

 furrows ran about ten degrees north of east, especially where the 

 current had a free course for any considerable distance without any 

 obstacle. Where the solid strata remained, but a part has been re- 

 moved by some powerful agent. 



On examination, I have found, that the corners of rock have been 

 worn off by abrasion from eighteen to twenty four inches, and that the 

 furrows made on the rocks by the abrasion of hard substances, were 

 very distinct, although the edges of rock were rounded. This fact 

 is of frequent occurrence. On the high land, as well as on the low, 

 the furrows appear near small streams, in every possible situation, 

 showing, without a doubt, that the rivers and hills remain now as they 

 were before the flood. Pieces of the solid strata with the furrows 

 on them, are often found where part of the strata was broken 

 up after the furrows were made, but more of the argillite than 

 of any other rock appears in fragments. It was supposed that these 



