212 Connecticut River Valley. 
Earth was once rock.—lIt is not, however, on the White Mountains 
only, but over a large part of the mountainous and _ hilly portion of 
the valley, that proofs of a violent and extensive disruption of the 
rocky strata are visible. This is particularly the case in the upper ~ 
half of the valley, as well as near the dividing summits of the lower 
half. Rapid currents and consequent attrition, having worn and 
rounded vast numbers of fragments into pebbles, some of them now 
form the beds of rivers; others have been left on elevated dry ground, 
by the changed courses and deepened channels of the streams in 
which they were smoothed and polished. But in crossing the valley 
from east to west, and in ascending towards the sources of Connec- 
ticut river, innumerable rocky fragments may be seen retaining clear 
marks of forcible disruption, not only on the surface of the ground, 
but more plainly where roads and excavations disclose loose rocks 
which have been long protected from decay by a covering of earth. 
It is believed that after careful and extensive observation, few persons 
could doubt that the rocky fragments which lie scattered above and 
below the surface of the ground, were once combined in larger 
masses, probably united in solid unbroken strata, similar to those 
which are often seen uncovered on the sides of hills and mountains. 
When it is farther considered that the component parts of primitive 
rock, although not commonly transparent, are crystalline in their struc- 
ture; that the quartz, the feldspar, and mica of granite and other 
rocks are as truly crystals, as those produced before our eyes by 
evaporating a solution of salt, copperas, or alum; that the materials of 
sand, gravel, and clay, are the same as the component parts of crys- 
talline rocks ; it is highly probable, that the now remaining solid rock, 
and the fragments, pebbles, sand, clay, and loam, were all once united 
in unbroken strata, the product of general laws of crystallization and 
union, established by Providence to accomplish the work of creation. 
The crystalline rock, also, in order and evidence of design, is as su- 
perior to the confused aggregation of loose earth upon the surface, 
as are the finished: productions of the artist, to the chips and filings 
which have been removed in the progress of his works; or as the 
living tree, with its roots, and trunk, and branches, and foliage, and 
system of vessels, and circulating sap, is superior to the dead and 
decayed substance of the same tree, after it has been converted 
into soil. ‘To prepare a world composed of rock for human habita- 
tion, it was necessary that its crust should be broken up, to produce 
more speedily the requisite covering of earth; just as it was neces- 
