ALLUVIAL DIVISION. 
7 
own coast, and on the Hudson, where they would otherwise be periodically inundated by the 
spring tides. 
The soils along the Hudson, and its tributaries, are more or less clayey, and large quanti¬ 
ties of the muddy alluvions are brought into it and deposited. Almost every creek entering 
the Hudson has its delta. These alluvions are numerous and highly important, both in a 
scientific and economical point of view. They are sensibly increasing in height and area in 
many localities, and will, at some future time, make valuable and productive lands. Many of 
them are now employed for hay and pasturage, and others are rapidly becoming adapted for 
such uses. 
The materials of the Hudson river alluvions are almost entirely composed of ooze, sand 
and fine silt, mixed with the remains of organic matter. These alluvions are formed where- 
ever eddies occur, caused by a change of the general direction of the current, by islands, 
bars, shoals, or even small obstacles, like sunken logs, trees and rocks. The current, sweep¬ 
ing by these obstacles, circles around in an eddy, and the materials in suspension settle to 
the bottom. Small obstacles, as logs or rocks, are known to have thus served as the nuclei 
of islands. Such deposits, when covered by a depth of a few feet of water, support a great 
growth of aquatic plants, which entangle much of the sedimentary matter of the water, and 
by their own decay serve to increase the accumulating deposit. The shoal, on reaching the 
surface, supports a heavier growth of vegetable matter, which serves to increase the deposit 
in a sensible degree. One who has not examined the dense mass of vegetation on some of 
these alluvions, can scarcely appreciate the effects of this cause. 
There are two islands of alluvial ooze opposite the upper part of Stuyvesant’s ; the larger 
one is nearly three miles long. An alluvial flat a mile and a half long, and on which a light¬ 
house is erected, extends from Kinderhook new steamboat landing to above the lower end of 
the large island just mentioned : it may be considered the delta of the creek, at the mouth of 
which it is located. 
A marsh of fluviatile alluvion extends from Great Nutten or Neuten hook to Stockport land¬ 
ing. Great and Little Nutten hooks were once islands, which are now connected with the 
main land by the marsh. This marsh may be considered as the delta of the small creek 
which has its mouth between Great and Little Nutten hooks, and which has also received 
large accessions from the detrital matter brought into the Hudson by Kinderhook creek, and 
swept up by the tide. The mouth of Kinderhook creek is so located, that a delta of any 
magnitude cannot be formed there. The tidal currents sweep past it, and always press upon 
the shore of the Hudson both above and below. A small marsh, and two or three small bars 
are formed at and in the mouth of this creek ; but most of its alluvion is swept down, or up 
the river, and deposited in situations more or less remote. 
Opposite Hudson, there is an island of alluvial ooze of a mile or more in length; a canal 
has been cut across it, through which the ferry boats pass from Hudson to Athens. 
A large marsh of ooze between Hudson and Merino mountain, is the proper delta of the 
creek which empties into the small bay below Hudson. From the north end of Merino moun¬ 
tain to the lower end of Rogers’ island, is an extensive marsh of several hundred acres of 
