86 Sketch of the Mineralogy 



to ascertain how far these speculations derive confirma- 

 tion from the nature of the soil, and of the materials 

 found beneath it. 



The soil of this plain seems to have been originally, 

 viz. before it was improved by European cultivation, lit- 

 tle more than a stratum of reddish sand, mixed with a 

 small quantity of vegetable mould, arising from the spon- 

 taneous decomposition of such vegetables as it was able 

 to produce ; and, even to this day, M-e find it marked by 

 the same character, in those places, w^here it has not 

 been improved by art. I need only refer, for the proof 

 of this fact, to a space of considerable extent which lies 

 at the foot of Pine Rock^ and extends to the Beaver 

 Ponds. We find the surface there composed principal- 

 ly of reddish siliceous sand, generally in masses of per- 

 ceptible magnitude, but variously comminuted from the 

 size of a pebble as large as a hen's egg, to that of a grain 

 of sand. Now this stratum appears to be the fair effect 

 of the alluvion of the neighboring hills, and there seems 

 no ground for making any other distinction between it, 

 and the rest of the surface of the plain, than what has 

 arisen from manuring and cultivation. From these caus- 

 es it has happened, that a rich vegetable mould is now 

 found on a considerable part of our plain, and that no 

 small degree of fertility has, in many places, succeed- 

 ed to primeval barrenness. 



If we penetrate into the ground, we find reason for 

 extending these conclusions to the strata beneath the 

 surface. 



The digging of ditches, canals, cellars and wells, has 

 afforded some opportunity to observe the structure of the 

 more superficial strata. So far as the writer is inform- 

 ed, no quarries or masses of rock have been found, nor 

 any other indications of a primitive country- 



The mass of materials is all stratified, and the strata 

 differ from each other only in the size of the individual 

 masses which compose the different gravelly beds. 



At the Beaver Ponds, where a canal has recently been 

 dug to drain the morass, a stratum of fine sand has been 

 thrown up, and mixed with it are masses of white quartz 

 of four or five inches in diameter, which have evidently' 



