FEATURES OF THE STRATA. 
13 
and species are as well defined in that primeval ocean, as in the present; and as now, upon 
the same bottom, we find in some places great accumulations of organic forms, while in others 
they are rare or wanting. Like our present ocean also, we know that this ancient one was 
agitated by winds and moved by tides; the drifted shells and comminuted corals tell us 
plainly of waves and currents, while in other places the fine sediment and equally distributed 
organic remains speak either of a quiet sea or deep water, where they were placed beyond 
the tumult that might have raged nearer the surface. 
It is scarcely possible that the organisms of successive epochs could have been preserved 
in greater integrity than throughout the series, not only in our limited district, but over the 
whole State, and far westward to the Mississippi river; upon whose banks, and those of its 
tributaries, we find such an abundance of forms, as perfect almost as the living Naiades of 
these streams, which derive the material of their habitations from the destruction of these 
ancient deposits. 
In its great topographical features, this district presents the following view : Bordering Lake 
Ontario on the north, is a low plateau, gradually rising to the south for a distance varying 
from four to eight or nine miles, where we abruptly ascend a terrace, which at its western 
extremity attains a height of two hundred feet, but which slopes gently down almost to the 
general level farther east. From the top of this terrace, we pass over a broad plateau of nearly 
level country, slightly depressed towards the centre, but rising gently again to the south till 
we come to the base of a second terrace, having a general height of sixty feet or more above 
the country on the north. These two terraces correspond with the outcrop of the two great 
limestone formations, the southern one extending throughout the State, forming a prominent 
feature from the Hudson to the Niagara river. Beyond the terrace last mentioned, the coun¬ 
try is level and generally even for several miles, when we commence a gradual ascent to 
higher ground. Here, however, there is no definite line bounding the northern extension, as in 
the case of the two terraces; but the outline is irregular, projecting in one part and receding 
in another. We find ourselves upon the margin of a country composed of hills and valleys, 
having no general direction other than that given by the water courses. Although the coun¬ 
try to the south of this is hilly, and in some parts rising to an elevation of twenty-five hundred 
feet above the ocean, yet it must be remembered that there are no ranges of mountains ; the 
whole surface is equally and alike covered with elevated plateaux, without the possibility of 
limiting any of them as to course or direction. The deepest valleys being north and south, 
give this apparent bearing in some places to the neighboring hills. 
Having no indications of disturbances or upliftings, we are therefore to look to another 
cause for the production of these hills. We must fancy this whole southern border of the 
State as having once been a high and broad plateau, with the underlying rocks extending 
much farther to the north, uniform in outline and even in surface as the limestone terraces 
just described ; and that from denudation, the breaking up of the strata in some places, to¬ 
gether with the action of waves and currents, has resulted this irregular and uneven surface. 
As proof of this, if we examine the strata on the two sides of a ravine, we shall find that if 
