300 Observations on the Primitive Boulders of Ohio. 
ing generally washed, and not sufficiently dried, was less valuable than 
usual, in proportion to the quantity obtained. ‘The Indian corn crop 
was abundant, and on the low lands it ripened in the month of Au- 
gust. The season was too warm and humid for potatoes, and the 
crop came in light—rye, oats, &c. suffered extremely by blight. In 
the vallies fruit trees of every kind were tolerably productive, but on 
high lands very little fruit was obtained. 
Fayetteville, Vt. May 1, 1832. 
Arr. VII.—Observations on the Primitive and other Boulders of 
Ohio; by Darius and Increase A. Lapuam. 
Ir is well known, that large rounded masses of primitive, and. 
other foreign rocks, lie scattered over the secondary regions of the 
West. This subject has of late years, received much attention from 
geologists; and many very ingenious theories have been, at various 
times invented and proposed to account for their origin and to show 
the means by which these “lost stones” have been removed to so 
great a distance from their original beds. We will not stop here 
to enumerate all the various theories (many of which are now laid 
aside) but will proceed to state such facts as have come under 
our observation and the conclusion to which they have “ irresistibly ” 
brought us. 
The bed and banks of the Ohio river are composed in part of 
gravel or water worn fragments of rock. The kinds of rock called 
granite and greenstone (one a primitive and the other a superincum- 
bent rock) which are not found in the neighboring hills, nor indeed 
any where within the great basin of the river, forming the greater 
proportion of this gravel. The first inquiry which presents itself in 
reflecting on this subject is, whence came all this granite and green- 
stone? Our curiosity is excited and we examine the subject fur- 
ther. This same kind of gravel is discovered mixed with clay and ° 
sand forming banks and -even hills of moderate elevation that are 
entirely beyond the influence of the Ohio or any other existing cur- 
rentof water. It is evident therefore that we must seek some other 
and mightier cause for the wearing down and removal of these pebbles. 
But these banks appear to be the kind which geologists call dilwvial ; 
they consist of layers more or less distinct which are always curved 
or bent and variously distorted. ‘The gravel is generally cemented 
