GENERAL CONFIGURATION. 



13 



the water, and entirely of sand. This sand, which 

 announces itself a deposit of the sea, is found to a 

 considerable distance inland, where it serves as a 

 bed to that forest of pines, fir, and other resinous 

 trees, of which I have spoken. As it approaches 

 the mountains, it is mingled with a portion of clay 

 and gravel, washed down from the neighbouring 

 heights; and hence results a yellowish, poor, loose 

 soil, which predominates in the middle stripe of 

 the southern states, in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and 

 the upper part of New Jersey, to such a degree, 

 that these three states may be considered as vast 

 alluvions of the rivers Potowmac, Susquehannah, 

 Delaware, and Hudson. Farther north, particu- 

 larly in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachu- 

 setts, the country is furrowed with little mountains 

 and chains, which roughen the surface of all New 

 England, properly so called. We should be almost 

 tempted to suppose this country a prolongation of 

 the mountainous ba.^d, did not the granitic nature 

 of its stones, and the confusion of its ridges, distinguish 

 it from the Alleghanies, which are formed of sand- 

 stone, and which run in a line farther west and in- 

 land. 



