QUATERNARY DIVISION. 
157 
quaternary had covered it, but the example cannot with certainty be referred to that part of the 
quaternary period of which we are now speaking ; for it may belong to the elevation that took 
place after the drift period, and preceding the elevation by which the quaternary deposits 
were raised to their present level. 
The locality and example referred to above, was observed by myself in Copake or Ancram, 
near the north end of Winchell’s mountain, and not far from the base of Mount Washington, on 
the road from Copake to Boston corners. Professors Merrick and Cassels* were present with 
me, and I called their attention to this, as an important fact for them to observe, in conse¬ 
quence of the kind of evidence thus afforded of the relative periods of time during which the 
rocks were disturbed in position. Prof. Merrick, a few days afterwards, in his explorations, 
discovered several more localities near each other, about half a mile west of Long pond in 
Clinton, where the same facts were observed. I quote his report to me. 
“ An interesting phenomenon may be seen in the rocks about one-half mile west of Long 
pond in Clinton. The parts of the rock have changed their relative position since they were 
worn down by the diluvial action. In twa different places, at but a short distance from each 
other, one part of the rock has been raised, or the other part settled from two to three inches, 
the strata being nearly vertical. Five or six similar dislocations, of from half an inch to one 
inch, occur in the immediate vicinity. 
“ Of the dislocation of the rocks since the effects of the diluvial action upon it, there can 
be no doubt, as the scratches or furrows upon the elevated and depressed parts precisely cor¬ 
respond, and are carried on the latter entirely up to the former, the elevated ridge of which 
is unmarked or broken” (unbroken ?). “ These dislocations are exposed for twenty-five or 
thirty feet; and it should be remarked, that they do not occur in the vicinity of a ledge,! or 
upon the side of a hill, but upon a level surface upon the summit.” 
Recapitulation of the Results. 
1. It is considered evident that a vast inland sea once occupied what may be called the 
Basin of the St. Lawrence and Hudson valleys, since the period of the drift deposits. 
2. The materials deposited from the waters in that area during a considerable period of 
time, are such as we might expect in such a body of water, with a moderate flow through its 
channels of communication with the ocean, and having the general contour of its bottom and 
shores the same or nearly the same as we now find the topographical features of the country 
to be. 
3. The water level has changed in this area; and as the ocean maintains its equilibrium, 
this vast tract of country has been elevated in mass with little relative change of height, but 
to an absolute height of three hundred to one thousand feet above its former level. 
4. This elevation has probably been effected in a short time, and caused strong currents to 
* These gentlemen were assistants on the geological survey . 
+ Ledge, is here used in the sense in which it is often employed in New-England, to mean a cliff or steep hillside of rocks. 
