328 
GEOLOGY OF THE FOURTH DISTRICT. 
western part of the State. Whether these are to be referred to the same origin, or as having 
been produced at the same period; or if the striae only followed the previous direction of the 
valleys, may be a question not easily decided. I shall, however, show that in some instances, 
at least, they are connected with the excavation of large masses of the rocky strata. 
The shore of Lake Erie, from Buffalo to the Pennsylvania line, in a southwesterly direction, 
coincides very nearly with the dip of the strata, presenting many interesting sections, as il¬ 
lustrated in Plates V. and VI. The rocky strata in vertical cliffs are succeeded by deposits 
of gravel, clay and loam ; the lowest, as before remarked, consisting of fragments of the 
subjacent strata, but little worn, and intermingled with clay and gravel. Along this extensive 
line of natural section, there are some interesting exhibitions of the connection of these de¬ 
posits of such widely distant geological epochs. 
Sometimes the projecting edge of a stratum is uplifted, and the gravel and fragments pressed 
beneath it, elevating and sometimes overturning its edge, and loosening others some distance 
beyond. In this way, I have seen a stratum fractured and elevated at an angle of 30 or 45 
degrees, imbedded in the drift which was pressed on from the northward. Stupendous opera¬ 
tions of this kind have sometimes taken place, and immense masses of the strata have been 
elevated and moved forwards. The section, Plate VIII., is a correct representation of the cliff 
of Lake Erie, in Portland, Chautauque county, as it appeared in October, 1840. The section 
is explained upon the plate. The two upper strata are of the ordinary character of the deep 
loam and clayey gravel deposits along the lake shore. The rocky strata below have been 
uplifted, broken and contorted ; the fragments intermingled with clay and gravel, and the same 
pressed beneath the strata, which otherwise appear to be in place. At some points the strata 
are completely broken up, and the fragments separated; in other places, they are simply 
shattered, without being otherwise much disturbed. In such cases they appear as if they had 
been subjected to violent oscillation, like ice when the water is agitated by wind ; they are 
broken into short fragments, as seen in the whole of the central part of the section. Be¬ 
tween e and/, the clay, gravel and fragments are folded and contorted, as if violently pressed 
forward from the north. It appears as if the whole mass above the shelf 1, 2, 3, had been 
uplifted and moved onward by some powerful force, which at the same time pressed the 
finer materials into all the interstices. 
In several places where the strata are slightly separated, and the spaces filled with frag¬ 
ments, the surfaces are scored and striated precisely in the manner before described. It seems 
impossible that any other agent than what is here perceptible should have had access to these 
places, or aided in producing the result. The broken fragments insinuated between the layers, 
and the movement of the whole upper portion with its load of gravel and clay, seems sufficient 
to have produced the phenomena in question ; and if in this case such causes are adequate to 
these results, why may not the same, under other conditions, produce the like, or more 
extended effects ? The efficiency of the force cannot be doubted. In this instance, it only 
requires that a longer continued operation should have broken up the whole of these lifted 
strata, to have left a tolerably even surface, scored and striated like all the strata surfaces 
