PEEVIOUS DESCETPTIONS AND STUDIES. 15 



included in two communications to Governor James Bowdoin, of Massachusetts/ 

 from which the following by Mr. Baylies is abstracted : 



I have at length executed the design, which I had formed in consequence of an invitation from the Reverend 

 Mr. West, of visiting Gay Head. In company with him, Col. Pope, and two others I sailed from Bedford in an 

 open two-mast boat. * * * A northerly wind carried us down the river into the midst of the bay in an easy, 

 agreeable manner. A calm then coming on with a hot sun and a constant rolling of the boat, I grew exceed- 

 ingly sick. Nothing could alleviate my feelings but a view of Gay Head, through Quicks Hole, at the distance 

 of about fifteen miles. A variety of colors, such as red, yellow, and white, differently shaded and combined, 

 exhibited a scene sufficient to captivate the mind, however distressed. * * * We beckoned to two young 

 Indians whom we saw on the hilk above us. They immediately came, and by the promise of a little rum our 

 boat was hauled up on the beach. * * * After our arrival at the cliffs we looked round for a place of descent. 

 This in a little time we found. ■* * * On one side we had a red, unctuous, argillaceous earth; on the other 

 a blue, white, and yellow one variegated with gray, black, and green spots, and masses of charcoal under our 

 feet. When we had descended, on looking back the idea of a volcano struck us at once. In fact, it had all the 

 appearance of having blown out but a few days. That it was formerly a volcano was confirmed by a further 

 examination. Large stones whose surfaces were vitrified, great numbers of small ones cemented together by 

 melted sand, and also cinders were to be seen in many places. A black, sooty powder similar to lampblack and 

 made use of by painters to serve the same purposes, under which a whitish matter resembling the gypseous 

 earth calcined, intermixed with the same kind of earth uncalcined, were to be found in great quantities. Besides 

 there are very plain marks of four or five different craters. * * * We tarried on the island * * * 

 examining the cliffs. * * * They appeared to be composed principally of clays of all colors and unctuous 

 to the touch. The red, used as a paint, undoubtedly derives its color from the calx of iron. The blue shoots 

 out copperas in considerable plenty, and we found hard, heavy pieces of matter sparkling with small granulated 

 particles of a white color embedded therein. This, it is probable, will afford something of the metallic kind. 



* * * Small streams of water ran down the sides of the cliffs. * * * Every one of these had more or 

 less of the vitriolic taste. 



The bones of whales, sharks' teeth, and petrified shellfish are frequently picked up, scattered up and down 

 the cliff, at a considerable distance above the surface of the water. The sea, it is said, has made considerable 

 encroachments on this part of Gay Head. Within thirty years it has swept off fifteen or twenty rods. Had 

 Neptune thus demolished part of Vesuvius or Mtna up to their very craters and laid open all their secrets, how 

 would the curious in Europe have flocked from all quarters to behold a scene so full of wonders! But Gay Head 

 is scarcely mentioned in America. 



Probably the next description of importance relating to any portion of the 

 region is that by Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill, in which the author discusses the geology 

 and mineralogy of "Long or Nassau Island." b His statements of facts and his theo- 

 ries in regard to them make curious reading for the modern geologist, and in places 

 may be detected a note of protest against the new ideas of cause and effect that were 

 just then beginning to be accepted. In his speculations concerning the geology, for 

 example, he says: 



From a survey of the fossils in these parts of the American coast, one becomes convinced that the principal 

 share of them is granitical, composed of the same sorts of materials as the highest Alps, Pyrenees, Caucasus, and 

 Andes, and, like them, destitute of metals and petrifactions.. 



The occurrence of no horizontal strata, and the frequency of vertical layers, led him further to suppose 

 that these strata are not secondary collections of minerals, but are certainly in a state of primeval arrangement. 



* * * 



What inference remains now to be drawn frdm this statement of facts, but that the fashionable opinion of 

 considering these maritime parts of our country as flats, hove up from the deeps by the sea or brought down 

 from the heights by the rivers, stands unsupported by reason and contradicted by experience 1 



a Mem. Am. Acad. Arts and Sci., vol. 2, pt. 1, 1793, pp. 147-150; ibid., 1797, pp. 150-155. 

 6 Medical Repository, vol. 3, 2d ed., 1805, pp. 325-335; vol. 5, 1802, pp. 212-215. 



