No. 200.] 
143 
their attention and hospitality, and for their zeal in aiding to carry into 
effect the. enlightened views of the Legislature, in developing the natu- 
ral resources of the State. 
The rocks of Columbia and Dutchess counties, with a few local excep- 
tions, dip to the E. S. E. and east, at angles 30° to 85°. The usual dip 
is from 30° to 60°. The line of bearing is generally nearly north and 
south, and bearing more or less to the east of north, and west of south. 
There are many local variations, where the line of bearing for short dis- 
tances is N. W. and S. E. and even east and west, but they are always 
accompanied by contortions of the strata. Faults are not uncommon, 
and are well defined. Veins are seen almost every where. In many 
instances the rocks are filled with a net work of them, permeating the 
rocks and swelling into ganglions and nests. Fissures traverse the rocks 
in two general directions, viz, nearly north and south, and east and 
west, 
A net-work of geological sections has been completed over Dutchess 
and Columbia counties during the past season. As it is impossible to 
illustrate the geological features of a country to the eye, without topo- 
graphical maps, I have constructed maps of those two counties, as ac- 
curately as a coup d'ceil, without measurements, would permit. The 
contour of the ground, the shape of mountains, hills, valleys, and their 
relative heights, are approximately delineated. 
Alluvial Deposits, 
Fluviatile Alluvions. 
The alluvions of the Hudson river have been accumulating in an in- 
creasing ratio for many years, and they must necessarily continue to do 
so in proportion to the increased cultivation of the soil. The rains and 
surface waters remove only small quantities of the soil where the sur- 
face is covered with its native forests, or with grass sward. The labors 
of man, in tilling the soil, in making roads, canals, and various other 
improvements of civilized life, expose the naked earth to the action of 
the surface waters, so that every shower transports more earthy matter 
from a higher to a lower level, than if the surface had been left in its 
natural state. Great' quantities of the finer materials are transported in 
suspension into the small streams, and eventually make their way into 
the larger, and are carried on, until eddy currents or tranquil waters al- 
low their deposition. The soils along the Hudson, and its tributaries, 
are more or less clayey, and large quantities of the muddy alluvions are 
brought into it and deposited. Almost every creek entering the Hud- 
