Geology, ^c. of the Connecticut. 17 



tensive lake : and also, that when this began to subside, by 

 the wearing away of the outer barriers, other barriers would 

 appear and produce other lakes of inferior extent. 



It is no argument, as some have thought, in favour of 

 such a supposition, that so much rock occurs in this basin 

 which is evidently a recomposition of the detritus of 

 older formations ; and that organic remains are found 

 in these rocks. For every geologist knows that all this 

 must be referred to a period anterior to that, in which 

 the last grand diluvian catastrophe happened to the 

 globe and left our continents in their present form,* Nor 

 is the mere occurrence of masses of stone, evidently round- 

 ed by the attrition of running water, any evidence in favour 

 of this hypothesis ; for we must look for the cause of this 

 also, as far back at least as tlie Noachic deluge, — No cur- 

 rent of water with which we are acquainted is sufficient to 

 transport such masses of rock into the situations in which 

 we find them : "for though we can readily conceive how the 

 agency of violent currents may have driven these blocks 

 down an inclined plane, or, if ihevis a ergo were s fB; ; r, 

 along a level surface, or even up a very slight and gradual 

 acclivity, it is impossible to ascribe to them the Sisyphean 

 labour of rolling rocky masses, sometimes of many tons in 

 weight, up the face of abrupt and high escarpments.''f 

 Rounded masses of rock may however occur under such 

 circumstances as to show them to have been removed by 

 currents posterior to the deluge. 



The principal evidence in favour of the supposition that 

 the waters of the Connecticut once flowed over the broad 

 valley on its banks, consists in the appearance of the chan- 

 nel of the river where it passes through certain mounuiuis. 

 Thus, every one perceives that this nver must have cut its 

 deep passage through the mountains below Middletown : 

 in other words, this supposition will account Jor that gulf 

 several hundred feet deep in which this river now flows, and 

 we are not acquainted with any other agency that will ac- 

 count for it. And if it be admitted that this passage was 



* See some excellent remarks on this subject in the recent work of Cony- 

 beare and Philips, entitled " Outlines of the Geology of England and 

 Wales" — page 57 Introduction. 



+ Vid. same work page 29, Introduction. 



Vol.. VII.— No. 1. 3 



