Perry.] 60 [February 28, 
nature to indicate that they could not have been produced by the — 
ordinary action of the elements. So the course of the strie seems 
to be, for the most part, independent alike of mountains, hills and 
valleys —it extending, in many cases, either directly or obliquely 
over the most formidable obstacles. While apparently not a little 
diverse in some instances, these striz are yet, on the whole, very 
uniform in their trend, and may be exhibited as occurring with com- 
parative regularity. Though there be innumerable minor variations 
there are three main directions in which they run. The first, and 
this is the dominant direction, is north-south, or in New England 
from a point a little west of north, toward one at a like distance east 
of south. The second is east-west. Striz with this trend lie for the 
most part in east-west valleys, on the western slopes of north-south 
ridges. The third main direction of these furrows is west-east. 
Such as take this course are usually found in west-east valleys, on 
the eastern sides of meridional ranges of hills and mountains. Of 
furrows, which have either of the latter directions, it may be said 
that they generally run pretty nearly at right-angles with the strike 
of the principal ridges, though they largely follow valleys and the 
inclinations of the surface. In addition to these three main bearings, 
there are various deviations of an intermediate character, many of 
the lines running more or less in a south-easterly, and a few in a 
more or less south-westerly direction. 
B. Indications from Overlying Matter. 
(1.) The composition of the superimposed material. The vast 
sheet of unstratified elements, known as Drift, which spreads over 
most of the older consolidated rocks of New England, is very hete- 
rogeneous in its character. The materials of which it is composed 
vary greatly in different localities. They are such as are, for the 
most part, known to occur in ledges situated at a greater or less dis- 
tance from the places in which they are now found. Facts in great 
number seem to indicate generally that this is substantially a true 
statement in regard to drift. That it did not originate in the simple 
decomposition of the surface of the consolidated rocks which it now 
overlies, through the action of atmospheric, or of other kindred 
agencies, is clear from the circumstance that it usually contains many 
rocks and given elements which are entirely different from the sub- 
jacent consolidated masses. What, then, is the composition of the 
