236 
GEOLOGY OF THE THIRD DISTRICT. 
as we now find in the valley of Cherry-Valley, for example, going south by the valley of the 
Susquehannah, a regular declining plane from the Onondaga limestone to the Catskill group, 
though constantly ascending in geological height. 
It might be conceded that icebergs had been the agents for the transport of the boulders of 
Primary rock so profusely scattered over the same surface; but when the amount of rolled 
stones, and even earth which has been carried south, and the extent of surface over which the 
boulders are distributed, are well considered, their origin from that cause is not more admis¬ 
sible than for the rolled stones, especially since innumerable facts exist in the district, of 
boulders of a local origin having been transported from every lesser distance to that of twelve 
miles, and from north to south invariably; making it certain, that whatever cause effected 
their removal, could, by an increase of degree, remove those of a more distant region and of 
different origin, such as those of primary rock. Nothing is more certain than that a cliff com¬ 
posed of rocks like those of the Helderberg range could not have existence, unless the result 
of a fault, of which there is not the slightest evidence, but must have been produced by the 
erosive action of water. From the nature of its mass, it evidently must gradually have thinned 
out north, unless high rocks there existed, of which there is no evidence; and as all its pro¬ 
ducts, with the exception of the Oriskany sandstone, have been of the nature of mud, they 
must originally have been level. 
In order satisfactorily to account for all the loose materials which are scattered over the 
surface to the south of the Helderberg range, the great mass of those materials having been 
collected in the valleys, nothing more is required than an extension north of its rocks, which 
must have existed, so as to bring those of a lower level, by the dip or inclination which the 
rocks have, upon the geographical level which contains their products ; and to bear in mind, 
that the Primary nucleus between the three first districts to the northeast rises to three times 
the height, at its highest point, of any of the boulders of its mass in the third district; and 
moreover, that the whole of the rocks upon which the boulders and other products rest, incline 
in a mantle-form manner from the Primary nucleus. 
The first of the valleys of the Helderberg range to the east, is Cherry valley. It is of 
great interest, rising twelve hundred feet above the Mohawk river, and showing at the village 
of Cherry-Valley a sojourn of water upon the Corniferous limestone, and again upon the 
Onondaga limestone, the latter now forming the bottom of the valley; also an intermediate 
one, upon which the principal north and south street of the village is placed. The Onondaga 
limestone extends to the edge of the great east and west range, showing there a solution of 
the rock at its vertical joints, which cannot be explained without a movement of the water 
from a south to a north direction, thus reversing the great ancient flow through the valley; 
unless by an inadmissible supposition, that the north end of the range was at that time ex¬ 
cavated below the limestone, and admitted the water by its vertical joints. The Marcellus 
shales and the Hamilton group extend north on both sides of the valley, and appear near the 
edge of the range, circumscribing the mouth of the valley. 
The next valley which rises upon the range is Bridgewater flats, the northern termination, 
