QUATERNARY DIVISION. 
129 
rocky grounds. Poughkeepsie, Hyde-Park, Rhinebeck, Fishkill, Hudson, Claverack, Kinder- 
hook, Pine-Plains, Troy, Lansingburgh, Scaghticoke, Cambridge, Salem, Granville, Argyle 
and Fort-Edward, on the left side of the valley of the Hudson ; and Paltz, Kingston, Hurley, 
Saugerties, Catskill, Athens, Coxsackie, Albany, Schenectady, Schoharie, Middleburgh, Ball- 
ston and Saratoga on the right side of the valley, are among the principal towns and villages 
situated on or near this formation. 
The gravel beds of this formation occupy a large area in the valleys of Pawlet and Poultney 
rivers, in the townships of Hampton, Granville and Whitehall; in the valley of the west 
branch of Wood creek in Fort-Ann ; in the valleys of Black creek. White creek, and Batten 
kill in Salem and Jackson ; and in the valleys of the Owl kill and Little White creek in the 
townships of Cambridge, Jackson and White-Creek in Washington county. This formation 
of gravel may be seen well developed at Cambridge and Salem in Washington county. It 
also occupies some space in the valleys of the Hoosick, Wallamsack, Little Hoosick, Tom- 
hannock and Kinderhook creeks in the townships of Hoosick, Petersburgh, Berlin, Pitts- 
town and Stephentown, in Rensselaer county. 
The same kind of gravel beds occur in the valleys of Wappinger’s and Lebanon creeks, 
Fishkill and Sprout creeks, Ancram creek, Croton river, and in the valleys of all the larger 
creeks in the hilly and mountainous regions of the First Geological District. These gravel 
beds are generally highly productive and good soils, except in the instance that has been men¬ 
tioned on the Batten kill, where the gravel and pebbles were of granular quartz. 
(c). Range, extent, elevation, thickness and terraces. 
The quaternary division, the subject of this article, has been already alluded to as very 
extensive, not only in New-York, but in Vermont, Massachusetts,* Connecticut, Rhode-Island,t 
Maine,j; Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan; and in the valleys of all the main streams in the 
Western States. It is believed to be the same formation that constitutes the “ second and 
third bottoms,” in many of the valleys of the Western and Southern States. Prof. Emmons 
has described its extent on Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence river,§ and Prof. Vanuxem 
in the central part of the State of New-York.|| This formation is not continuous, but forms 
patches more or less extensive, through the valley of Lake Champlain and the Hudson river, 
in the First Geological District. Beginning on the north, the following localities may be 
mentioned, where patches of this formation occur. 
Along the shore of Lake Champlain, from the north line of Putnam southwardly about four 
miles, is a belt of the quaternary formation, mostly clay ; but in some places, sand and gravel 
* Hitchcock’s Geological Report of Massachusetts, 1833, pp. 173, 178. 
t Jackson’s Geological Report of Rhode-lsland, 1839, pp. 129, 130. 
% Jackson’s Geological Report of Maine; Cleaveland’s Mineralogy ; Hayden’s Geological Essays. 
^ New-York Geological Report, 1837, p. 107; 1838, pp, 233, 239. 
II Prof. Vanuxem. Final Report on Geology of New-York, pp. 212, 220. 
Geol. 1st Dist. 17 
