56 
GEOLOGY OF THE FOURTH DISTRICT. 
The illustration in the margin exhibits the most perfect analogy to 
the appearances before described. 
On the side toward the lake the surface of the sand was marked 
with wave-lines, as well as the ridges, exhibiting all the phenomena' 
described, and showing the most perfect analogy with the same 
appearances upon the strata of the Medina sandstone at Lockport. 
The illustration No. 13 is from this place, and hundreds of similar ones might have been 
copied from the sand in the space of a few rods. A heron (Ardea Herodias) had been walking 
upon the spot but a short time before, and one of the footsteps is represented as it actually 
appeared in connexion with the wave-lines. In this instance parts of three distinct series of 
curves are represented.* 
13. 
Wave-lines on Sand-beach. Long pond, Monroe connty. 
Should any one doubt the possibility of such slight markings being preserved, he has only 
to examine the beautiful series of curved lines upon the surface of the strata in the quarries, 
and thence transport himself to a smooth sandy beach upon the lake shore, and the phenomena 
exhibited will not fail to convince him that the cause there operating, has also been one of the 
active powers of nature, in those periods during which few records have been preserved of 
the relative situation and distribution of sea and shore. 
Without desiring to dwell too long on a subject that has been to me of the most thrilling 
interest, I have still the desire to give all the illustration and elucidation it requires, and to 
direct the attention of observers to similar appearances in the older strata, by which, per¬ 
haps, we may be able to explain more satisfactorily many circumstances attending their for¬ 
mation. 
All the appearances enumerated seem corroborative one of another ; the Lingulae, which are 
a deep water shell, have been drifted, the valves separated and strewn upon the sand; the 
clouded and mottled surface, and lastly the wave-lines, indicate very clearly that the deposit 
* It may sometimes be observed that a wave advancing obliquely upon a beach removes the sand as far as it reaches, leaving a 
depression seaward; this happens if the sand be light, or saturated with water, and may perhaps take place under other circum¬ 
stances, but it is only an exception to the general rule. 
