Connecticut River Vi alley. 213 
sary that the beauty of plants and trees should perish and decay, to 
fertilize, by a vegetable soil, the otherwise sterile ground. 
It would be fruitless to inquire by what means the superficial solid 
“strata were broken into fragments. Whether the familiar laws of 
expansion by heat, and contraction by cold, were agents in breaking 
up the rocky surface, or whether this effect was produced by other 
means, will probably never be ascertained. 
Soil and vegetation.—The process by which rocks in fragments, 
and to some extent in the unbroken strata, become decomposed and 
acquire fertility, is sufficiently obvious. ‘Those fragments which re- 
main upon the surface, belong to the harder kinds of rock. Heat 
and cold, and moisture, gradually abrade their surfaces. First, the 
feebly vegetative lichen, of inferior organization, takes root, spreads, 
and dies; and falling off carries with it a small portion of disinte- 
grated rock. In process of time the interstices of accumulated 
fragments become filled, and the fragments themselves are wholly 
decomposed, or buried in earth formed from their own ruins. Ferns 
and grass and trees succeed to lichens, in due order, propagating and 
increasing according to laws established by the great Architect, until 
full forests and verdant fields perfect the work, and complete the 
beauty of the vegetable world. Volcanoes may burst forth, and 
pour over the surface the melted substance of interior rocks: floods 
may deluge the world, disarranging and bearing away the accumula- 
ted earth and soil of ages; but the silent processes of decaying rocks 
and advancing vegetation recommence; the ravages of fire and flood 
are obliterated or obscured; verdure, and flowers, and fruits reap- 
pear; and whilst heat and cold, and moisture, and rocks remain, this 
progression will continue. 
Such, it may be believed, have been, substantially, the progress and 
changes which have contributed to bring the valley of the Connecti- 
cut to its present state. ‘The more fragile rocks decayed rapidly, 
until protected by a covering of earth formed over them. The 
harder rocks decomposed slowly, and when elevated to a tempera- 
ture almost freezing in summer, many centuries would elapse with- 
out producing any considerable changes. Hence, on the summits of 
the White Mountains, the marks of fracture on the rocks are so little 
defaced; and ages must yet elapse before those piles of moss-covered 
fragments will crumble away, or be even perceptibly diminished. 
Vou. XXIT.—No. 2. 28 
