4B 



UNITED STATES 



4. Region of Sea-sand* 



The fourth region, formed of sea-sand, com prises 

 all the shore from Sandy Hook, facing Long island, 

 as far as Florida. Its inland boundary is a stratum 

 or ridge of taicky granite, called foliated stone, or 

 Muscovy glass, or glimmer, which runs constantly in 

 the direction of the coast, that is to say north-east 

 and south-west. This ridge or stratum commences 

 from the extremity of the granitic chains on the 

 right bank of the Hudson, perhaps even from the 

 shore facing Long Island, whence I presume the 

 rocks are continued underneath the sea ; and it ex* 

 tends as far as North Carolina beyond the Roanoke, 

 in the form of a slender ridge, from two to six miles 

 broad, and nearly five hundred long. This ridge, as 

 Evans very justly observed, every where marks its 

 course, by the falls, which it occasions in the rivers 

 before they reach the sea ; and these falls are the 

 extrente limits of the tide. Thus this taicky ridge , 

 cuts the Delaware at Trenton, the Schuylkill four 

 miles above Philadelphia, the Susquehanna above 

 Octorara creek, the Gunpowder above loppa, the 

 Patapsco above Elk Ridge, the Potowmack at 

 George Town, the Rapahannock above Frederics- 

 burg, the Pamunky below its two branches, fifty 

 miles above Hanover, the James at Richmond, the 

 Appamatox above Petersburg, and the Roanoke 

 above Halifax. No fossils have been observed 

 throughout this stratum.* 



• The river Hudson is a remarkable instance of the reverse of MK . 

 Vdlney's position: for, according to the editors of the Med, Repos. of 



