2^ Geology, fyc. of the, Conneciicul. 



feet deep. Both the cave and the fissure are in an immense 

 mass of pudding stone with scarcely any thing like stratifica- 

 tion throughout ; and this is incumbent upon a soft, decom- 

 posable, argillaceous sandstone slate. The disintegration 

 of this slate, either by the waters of the lake above des- 

 cribed, or by simple exposure to the vicissitudes of the cli- 

 mate, has probably caused this enormous stratum of con- 

 glomerate to fall partially down and thus to form the cave 

 and the fissure. 



Favourable situation of Yale College as a School of Mine- 

 ralogy and Geology. 



It is a curious circumstance, that this Institution should 

 have been fixed by its founders, who must have been alto- 

 gether unacquainted with geology, at the very focus of 

 most of the VVernerian rock formations. It stands at the 

 southern extremity of the secondary region of the Connec- 

 ticut ; and had experienced geologists searched the whole 

 of New-England, they could not have found a more eligible 

 situation fur a geological and mineralogical school. It is 

 also a fortunate coincidence of favourable accidents, that 

 the first mineral cabinet in the United States should have 

 been deposited in Yale College, before there was much 

 known concerning the interesting nature of the surrounding 

 country 



The geological professor at Yale could, even from his 

 lecture room,* point out most of the rock formations of the 

 globe. He could direct the attention of his pupils to the 

 plain around them, as alluvium ; and to the hills of Wood- 

 bridge and Milford, as exhibiting interesting deposites of 

 diluvium. On the north they would see the striking sec- 

 ondary greenstone eminences of East and West Rock ; and 

 on the west, hills of primitive greenstone. In this same di- 

 rection, only four or five miles distant, he might point them 

 to the West-Haven chlorite slate, to the Woodbridge argil- 

 lite, to the Milford verd antique and serpentine, and a little 

 beyond, to the mica slate. A (ew rods to the north, or 

 east, they might see the old red sandstone and the green- 



* The cabinet which is in the third story of a hi»h building and in which 

 the lectures are given commands a view ol'the neighbouring hills. 



