DRIFT DIVISION. 
159 
My duties as an officer in the Army caused me to travel over some parts of the United 
States that I should not otherwise have seen. For several years, all the time that I could be 
spared from my duties as an instructor of mineralogy and geology at the United States Mili¬ 
tary Academy at West-Point, was spent in travelling to acquire a knowledge of the geology 
of the country, when I could raise funds enough for the purpose ; and since then, the various 
geological surveys on which I have been engaged for the Government, for different States, 
for mining and other companies, and for individuals, have brought under view the geological 
features of the largest portion of our country. These various causes have led me to travel 
in the States and Territories more than one hundred thousand miles, in examining its mine¬ 
ralogy and geology. 
Position of the Drift Deposits, geological. 
The drift deposits of the Hudson valley, and of the First Geological District generally, 
except Long and Staten islands, are found lying upon the naked rocks of all the formations 
that are consolidated. On Long and Staten islands, this forn^ation is observed in many places 
resting on the subjacent sand and clay beds, of a formation that is supposed to belong to the 
tertiary period. Over most of New-York, New-England, Ohio, and of the States and Ter¬ 
ritories northwest of Ohio, the drift deposits, so far as investigation has gone, are superposed 
on the rocks in place, which generally show smoothed and scratched surfaces, as if worn off 
by attrition, and the moving of rocky masses along their surfaces ; and this is more particu¬ 
larly the case on elevated grounds, than in the bottoms of deep valleys. 
The drift deposits of the period I am now describing, are often covered to a greater or less 
depth in the large valleys by depositions of clay, gravel and sand. These quaternary depo¬ 
sits are common in the valleys up to a.certain level, at which it has been shown that the water 
remained for a considerable period, when it formed the beaches and terraces around the lakes, 
and deposited the quaternary strata. The drift depositions occupy situations much higher in 
absolute level than the quaternary, and in the valleys also are found at lower levels, under¬ 
lying them. The drift deposits were undoubtedly transported by water, and this would show 
that the waters occupied a higher level, or that the present surface of the portion of our conti¬ 
nent now under consideration was relatively less elevated at the drift, than at the quaternary 
period. The following localities may be referred to, as a few of the numerous examples ob¬ 
served, where the order of superposition is manifest. 
1. One or two miles south of Negro point in Putnam, on Lake Champlain. The limestone rock is 
scratched and overlaid by a deposit of boulders, pebbles, gravel and clay; and this deposit is 
overlaid by the clay beds of the quaternary. 
2. Numerous examples may be seen around Newburgh bay, on the west shore, between Butter hill 
and Newburgh, where the drift bed, containing boulders and pebbles that are scratched, overlies 
the abraded and scratched slate rocks, and is itself overlaid by the clay beds of the quaternary. 
