DILUVIUM. 
279 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
GEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES-(Continued). 
ALLUVIAL AND DILUVIAL FORMATIONS. 
Diluvium. — Causes of Diluvial Deposites. — General Deluge. — 
Existing Causes. — Diluvium of Cape Cod. — Alluvium. — 
Where Found. — Banks of Rivers.— Seas.— Lakes. — Long Isl- 
and. — Dunes or Downs. — How Found. — Phenomena of. 
Diluvium. — We have defined diluvium to consist of 
gravel, bowlders,* sand, and loam, and mixed con- 
fusedly together by powerful currents of water. Of 
course it occupies much of the surface throughout 
a great portion of the United States, and it is im- 
possible, in a work like the present, to attempt to 
give a complete description of its localities. It has 
generally been attributed to the agency of a general 
deluge, and most geologists have formerly been 
v^illing to acknowledge that the phenomena con- 
nected with it might all have been occasioned by 
that described in the Bible. There are others, how^ 
ever, such as Mr. Lyell, who attempt to show that 
these phenomena might all have been produced by 
causes now in operation, and such as we have 
pointed out in our chapters on the destruction and 
formation of rocks, viz., rivers, rain, frosts, &c. 
This theory, however, is so little satisfactory, that 
we do not deem it necessary even to attempt to 
refute it. The hypothesis, however, that the pheJ 
nomena in question are the result of different floods, 
produced by the elevation of rock strata at various 
* Rocks and stones which have been transported from their 
original beds, and are, generally, more or less rounded by attri- 
tion and the action of the water. 
