16 
GEOLOGY OF THE FOURTH DISTRICT. 
which supports the heavy forests, and produces the abundant harvests which render western 
New-York the garden of the State. 
The high hills and deep valleys indicate the absence of an immense quantity of matter, 
which, during the same period, was transported in the direction of the great outlets into the 
present ocean, there to lay the foundation of future continents in strata like those occupying 
our district, filled with the organic remains of successive ages, and exhibiting throughout 
their extent all the varying characters that we now find in the rocky strata of our continent. 
