214 
[Assembly 
Alluvions. 
These deposits are in constant process of formation, by a great vari- 
ety of causes in action at the present time. The two most important 
alluvions in the counties under examination, may be classed under the 
names of fluviatile and marsh alluvions. 
A large portion of the low lands along the rivers, creeks and smaller 
streams, which are so generally celebrated for their fertility, and which 
vary in texture from clay through loam and sand, to gravel and pebble 
beds, belong to fluviatile alluvions. The most extensive deposits of 
this class, in the counties under examination, are those on the Wall- 
kill, extending from below Springtown, by that village and New-Paltz, 
to near Libertyville : those of the Rondout river, near Rochester, Wa- 
warsing and Ellenville ; those of the Esopus creek, from Marbletown, 
by Hurly and Kingston, to near the Esopus Falls ; those of the Cat- 
skill and Katerskill creeks ; and the Schoharie flats, which extend 
with slight interruptions, from the mouth of Kripplebush kill, by the vil- 
lages of Central Bridge, Schoharie and Middleburgh Bridge, to 4 or 5 
miles above the latter place. 
The Schoharie flats have long and justly been celebrated for their 
exuberant fertility. The soil contains a mixture of such materials as 
makes sandy, gravelly and argillaceous loams, with a suitable mixture 
of animal, vegetable and calcareous materials. These flats are fre- 
quently overflowed by freshets, and the soil is thus renovated by fresh 
additions of animal, vegetable and mineral matter. The soil, in conse- 
quence of these additions, is less rapidly deteriorated by constant tillage 
than it would be under the common skinning and exhausting modes of 
cultivation, in which the produce of the land is taken ofl" and nothing 
returned to it, to serve as aliment to the succeeding crops. 
There is another class of fluviatile alluvions in the counties under 
examination, as yet unsusceptible of cultivation ; but these deposits are 
gradually approaching a state, in which they may be expected to be= 
come productive and valuable lands. These are the mud flats, at, and 
near the mouths of the various streams that flow into the Hudson ri- 
ver; the shoals of sand, gravel and mud, in the re-enterings of the shore, 
and where eddy currents are formed during the flux and reflux of the 
tide ; and where the tidal flow is checked by the current of the river. 
These deposits are continually increasing in extent and thickness, not 
only by the deposition of earthy materials, but also by the constant 
