132 
GEOLOGY OF THE SECOND DISTRICT. 
formation, this explanation might be more probable ; but those sands have been carried up 
several hundred feet in the ravines of the mountains of the north ; terraces at a lower level 
have also been formed extensively of this sand alone ; and frequently the boulders have been 
carried along and deposited in the midst of it, indicating at least the probability that the same 
rush of waters which denuded the tertiary, bore along also the loose rocks and other coarse 
materials then upon the surface, and de^DOsited them at a distance far to the south. It is, 
however, unquestionably true, that there is a slow and gradual transportation of loose materials 
from the higher to the lower levels, and that the mass assumes the form of terraces, and lies 
along the base of all the ancient hills ; they may be distinguished from the transported matter, 
as consisting of the debris of the hills and mountains directly above, and never containing 
those which belong to a distant section of the country. 
Facts in relation to this formation have been accumulating for many years. In 1835, I 
examined a deposit of marly clay of the same age as that of Champlain, in the vicinity of 
Lubec in Maine. I found that all its fossils were marine, and that they all belonged to species 
now living in the Atlantic, and some of which were species which have been found in the 
tertiary of Champlain. This was elevated only twenty-five or thirty feet above high water. 
This same formation occurs at numerous places along the coast. 
The valley of Champlain, and the St. Lawrence, however, furnish the most important 
deposits in this country. It is in fact continuous, though confined to a narrow belt, from the 
head of Lake Champlain to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and probably, admitting the clays of 
the Hudson to be of the same age, to the Atlantic on the south. It also appears on the River 
St. Lawrence at Ogdensburgh, in which there are saxicavas and tellinas, though few in com¬ 
parison with the same species on Lake Champlain. 
From these facts, it will be seen that the formation extends far and wide. It is not, however, 
thick at any place ; rarely appearing more than fifty feet, and upon the shore of Lake Cham¬ 
plain rarely more than twenty feet. Apparently, it is one hundred feet at a few localities 
upon the eastern or Vermont side of the lake. The thickness of the mass is not to be con¬ 
founded with the height at which the formation is found above the lake ; in this particular, 
I have already remarked in another place, that it occurs three hundred feet above its present 
level. 
An important fact not to be omitted under this head, is, that though this tertiary is compa¬ 
ratively thin, yet its limits are not confined to this country ; it is found in the north of Europe, 
distinctly characterized, particularly at Uddervalla in Sweden. Those shells in particular are 
mentioned by Mr. Lyell as abounding at this place, which are also equally abundant at Beau- 
port, viz. the Saxicava rugosa, Natica clausa, and Pecten islandicus. During the last summer, 
this distinguished geologist visited several of the localities of the Champlain tertiary, which 
has confirmed the views he had before entertained in relation to the identity of this formation 
with that at Uddervalla. This is an interesting and important coincidence ; one which esta¬ 
blishes a similarity in the condition of the two continents at the era of its deposit, as well as 
in regard to the changes which both have since undergone. 
