40 
GEOLOGY OF THE FIRST DISTRICT. 
sudden thaw, accompanied by incessant torrents of rain, which appeared to spread over an immense 
extent of country. The consequences were such as might be expected; the snow, which was more than 
five feet deep, was quickly melted, every stream as suddenly became a river, and every river threatened 
to become an ocean. The Connecticut river was very soon raised almost to a level with its banks; and 
the ice, which was two feet and a half thick, was borne away by the current; and whenever it was im¬ 
peded in its progress by an island, or the narrowing of the river, it was broken up, and immense masses 
raised in the air, until their elevated positions preponderating over their floating foundations, they 
were left to fall upon the surrounding ice, with a report equal in some instances to that of small pieces of 
ordnance. 
This scene was extended for miles to the north and south; and while thousands were contemplating 
the noble spectacle, the ice, being very solid, and hurried on by a powerful current, became obstructed 
at the straits near Middletown, and the whole force of the river for a short time was impeded; the water 
set back and upwards; enormous masses of ice were hurried over the banks of the river into the creeks 
and larger streams to a considerable distance into the meadows and low grounds; when on a sudden, in 
consequence of the pressure from above, the obstruction at the straits gave way, and this threatening 
appearance vanished in a short time; the water fell to its natural state, and left huge masses of transpa¬ 
rent ice in the meadows and intervales, to be removed only by the powerful influence of a summer’s 
sun. When this was accomplished during the following season, large pieces of rock and heaps of 
rolled pebbles were left exposed to view on an alluvial surface, on which before a stone could not be found 
for its weight in gold.* 
The alluvial flats along the Hudson, in many places, have boulders and angular masses of 
rock scattered over their surfaces, that have been brought by the floating ice in the spring, and 
deposited as the ice thawed. The meadows between Hudson and Catskill may be given as 
examples. 
Transport hy ice up the hanks of streams above water level. 
“On the breaking up of the ice of the Hudson, on the fourth of March, 1822, many cakes loaded 
with gravel lodged on the shore at Troy near the sloop lock. Other cakes of thick strong ice came 
continually crashing against and sliding over those already there, driven onwards by the swollen river, 
and pushing each other up the river bank; so that when the ice had thawed, several hundred cartloads 
of gravel were left at a level thirty-four feet higher than the greatest height of the water at the time of 
its deposit.” f 
Similar facts, but less striking, may be observed at every breaking up of the ice, where 
the current forces the ice against the shore. 
Hayden, Geol. Essays, p. 87, 89. 
+ Eaton, Am. Jour. Science, Vol. 5, p. 22. 
