330 
I Assembly 
and more difficult to conceive how it could transport such immense 
quantities of fragments. Before the doctrine was admitted that vast 
portions of land have suffered elevation and subsidence by gradual pro- 
cess, or by suilden and repeated shocks, these effects were all referred 
to a deluge; and the ancient alluvium has by most authors been termed 
diluvium. But since the experience of the last century has demonstra- 
ted that large continental areas are in some places sinking and in others 
rising, it is easy to comprehend that any portion of a country may have 
been subjected to such action at a time when it was perhaps at even a 
lower level than that of the sea. 
It is probable that at an early period, by the elevation of the primary 
ranges of New-England and New- York, the interior of our country 
extending far to the west, became a lake or estuary. Some subse- 
quent cause, perhaps the elevation of a portion of country in Canada, 
which raised all the strata of Western New-York, produced a current 
to the south. Other agencies may have been in operation to break up 
the strata in the region of Lake Ontario, which were besides of such a 
nature that water would soon remove a great portion of the rocks once 
occupying this area. 
The northern parts of Ontario and Seneca counties, along the line of 
the Onondaga Saliferous group, are for the most part covered with deep 
alluvium, rising into hills of greater or less elevation. In the western 
part of Ontario these are very irregular in form and arrangement, and 
appear as if produced by the eddy of a great current flowing from north 
to south: hills of the same character extend westward to Genesee river. 
Unlike most of the alluvial hills farther east, they contain, mixed with 
pebbles and boulders from the north, masses from strata immediately be- 
neath: these present rounded and smooth surfaces, showing that they 
have been in motion, though not far removed from the parent rock. 
The upland country north of Seneca-Falls and through Wayne coun- 
ty, exhibits a series of parallel ridges extending N 10° E, and so uni- 
form that a line in this direction may be seen on the very summit for a 
long distance. From the south the rise is very gradual to near their 
northern termination, which is an abrupt descent; while alternating with 
them may be seen the commencement of similar ridges, which continue 
their course for a quarter or half a mile, to be succeeded by others. 
Thus, in crossing the country east or west, we are constantly ascending 
and descending, now the high northern terminations, and again the low 
southern extremities. Some of these ridges are long and low, rising to 
