DRIFT DIVISION. 
207 
The Hon. W. Thompson, speaking of scratched rocks in Sullivan county (N. Y.), says: 
“ I have examined this part of the State -with considerable care, and have found that in 
more than fifty places where I have seen the solid strata, the grooves and furrows are from 
one inch to one quarter of an inch deep, and from a quarter of an inch to three or four 
inches wide; and in many places they run due north, and in every direction from north to 
twenty-five degrees south of east. I have found them also in the bottoms of cellars, of exca¬ 
vations made in digging wells, and where the earth has been removed by making roads, and 
in many instances where I have uncovered the solid rock for the purpose of observing the 
efi’ects of diluvial action. 
“ I have never been able to find any grooves or furrows on the west side of the hills and 
ridges in the county. It very rarely happens that any traces can be found on the red argil¬ 
laceous sandstone; it is not sufficiently solid to sustain the force of heavy bodies moving in 
contact with it, although in some instances the grooves appear from fifteen to twenty feet, and 
then the strata are rough and broken; but the traces are mostly on the solid puddingstone, 
and the common grey sandstone.* In those cases where the old red sandstone appears, if the 
slope or side of the hill faces the north, I have seen three or four instances in which the fur¬ 
rows run in that direction for half a mile ; and on meeting a ridge of rocks in the low grounds, 
the furrows turned due east, and after passing the obstruction, again turned northeast or east. 
Not a mile from ihe same place, on descending from the high ground, the furrows run east, 
tallying with the face of the hill. 
“ On the high lands west of Shongham, and where there could be no obstruction for seventy 
or eighty miles, I examined ten or twelve different places in which the furrows were deep and 
distinct, and found them to run from ten to twelve degrees north of east, and they continued 
down the mountain in the same direction, a considerable distance. At no great distance to the 
south, the furrows tended twenty-five degrees south of east, leading to a low opening in 
Shongham mountains.”! 
Mr. Appleton, speaking of the smoothed and grooved surfaces of rocks which have not been 
exposed to the action of atmospheric agents, remarks : “I have noticed this in every part of 
New-England, and of so marked and diversified a character as to leave no doubt in my own 
mind of its universality, but it may not be every where so obvious. Our hills show their 
hard primitive faces wherever a new turnpike requires the removal of the natural soil to any 
extent, and this hardness of surface withstands for a long time the action of the weather. It 
is not, however, to be inferred that these indications are confined to primitive rocks ; they are 
nowhere more striking or more beautiful than on the puddingstones in this vicinity” (Boston).J 
Boulders and pebbles with scratched surfaces have very often been seen while engaged in 
the geological survey of New-York, and several examples have been mentioned. The best 
observations recorded on this subject are by Mr. Peter Dobson.§ He says, “ I have dug up 
a great number of boulders of red sandstone of the conglomerate kind, in erecting a cotton 
manufactory; and it was not uncommon to find them worn smooth on the underside, as if done 
* These rocks both belong to the Catskill or Old Red Sandstone division, 
t American Journal of Science, Vol. 23, pp. 243, 247. J Id. Vol. 11, p. 102. 
§ Id. Vol. 10, p. 217. 
