'Jl<! DISTRIBUTION OF SOILS. 



menon, is a different thing from the ax\ estigation of the manner in which thai phenomenon 

 really produced. There is a simplicit] in the operations of nature, which it is wel] to 

 heed. The hypothesis which we have trained, is based upon two or three facta, the prin- 

 cipal one of which is the submergence of the northern part of our hemisphere. This 

 submergence is proved bj the discover] of the marine formation which occupies the valley 

 of Lake Champlain, and which maj be traced far Bouth into the vallies of the 1 1 mKi in ami 

 the St. Lawrence rivers, while another branch extends eastward to the Gulf ol St. Law- 

 rence. So also in the vallies and upon the coast of the State of .Maine, a marine formation 

 i> found to exist This formation was deposited after the period of diluvial action, u • 

 much as it reposes upon the scored rocks, anil also upon the, drift in many places where it 

 9 is left on the cessation of iis transport. Ii i- a formation that indicates a state of quiet 

 after one of turbulence ; for the fossils are entire, though extremelj ihm. and the valves 

 often remain attached together, which could not well have happened in such shells as the 

 I ■hratula psittacea, if they had not been deposited during a period of quiet. The thick- 

 ii' -s of this formation is about one hundred feet ; and it is now found to lie three or four 

 hundred feet aho\ c the level of the sea, preserving at tins height the character of a deposit 

 from an ocean in quietude. 



Our hypothesis connects the transportation of the soils and scoring of the rocks, and the 

 submergence of this continent, as antecedent and consequent. We might add to the former 

 the simultaneous uplift of a continent to the north, which, displacing suddenly the waters 

 there existing, would give them a southward movement, with a force capable of trans- 

 port^]? all the moveable materials found in their way. A mighty rush of the waters 

 would thus he produced, which would lie competent to tear up the exposed strata, and 

 hear the ruins along in constantly accumulating masses. 



It is no part of our business here to attempt to offer an explanation of the causes of a 

 submergence. That such a change has occurred in the condition of our continent, is a 

 position that is borne out by many facts; not only by the existence of the marine forma- 

 tions of the Champlain and St. Lawrence vallies, hut by the condition of all sedimentary 

 rock-, each of which was deposited at the bottom of a sea that has long since retired, and 

 now covers lands that formerly existed as continents or islands. 



On considering the relations of the period of submergence above spoken of, we are in- 

 clined to place it in juxtaposition to that of the diluvial action, for the reason that the 

 marine deposit is found either upon the drift, which i~ the product of the diluvial period, or 

 else immediately upon the scored surface itself, which is one of the consequences ,,f th e 

 ie period. This scratched surface, where the removal of the superincumbent materials 

 ■i recently made, is as fresh as if it were made yesterday ; but where it has l» • n 

 expo-ed for a fen - '•> the action of the waters of the lake, those of Lake Champlain, 



the gnx obliterated. It is then proved that these surfaces could not have been long 



exposed to abrading action, before they were covered and defended by a deposit. 



\\ • da not propose to enter into farther attempts to explain the phenomena of the trans- 



