UPPER SECONDARY ROCKS. 99 
convinced by observing the immense quantity of 
debris and fragments at the base of the Palisades, 
which have been precipitated from the mural pre- 
cipices above; and these fragments are finer in 
proportion as they are more distant from the main 
body of the rock. 
Professor Hitchcock infers from a variety of facts, 
that the greenstone or trap rocks in the Valley of 
the Connecticut began to be thrown up not far 
from the middle of the epoch of the deposition of 
the sandstone, and also at intervals during the re- 
mainder of the period in which the sandstone for- 
mation was advancing to its completion. 
The red marl produces, in general, a very fertile 
soil, owing, doubtless, to a due admixture of silex, 
alumine, and lime ; and it is stated by writers on 
agriculture, that sheep living in marly* districts 
have their wooLtinged with red. 
It has been disputed whether the new red sand- 
stone has ever been found in the United States, and 
especially whether that in the Valley of the Con- 
necticut River belongs to this group of rocks. But 
some beheve there is no good reason to question the 
existence of this rock not only on the Connecticut, 
but in the states of New- York, New-Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, Alabama, &c., &c. 
Professor Hitchcock, in his admirable Report on 
the Geology of Massachusetts, has shown very 
conclusively, we think, that the sandstone of the 
Connecticut Valley corresponds to the new red 
sandstone of Europe ; for which opinion he offers 
the following satisfactory reasons : 1. The disco v- 
* Quere : May not the nankeen cotton of China owe its col- 
our to the same cause ? 
We are aware that this species of cotton has been intro- 
duced into our own country (South Carolina), and still retains 
its characteristic colour when grown here. But it is well 
known that when a plant has, by the influence of cultivation or 
local causes, acquired certain habits, so to call them, it will re- 
tain those marks when transplanted to other localities. 
