210 
DISTRIBUTION OF SOILS. 
the earth in the clays of Noah. The record of such a catastrophe is contained in two re¬ 
markable phenomena: first,, the presence of immense rocks, generally called boulders , in 
places where they could not have been put by any human means; and secondly, by the 
occurrence of marks or scorings upon the surfaces of rocks, which could not be made by 
causes such as are now in operation. 
Transportation of boulders. The occurrence of rocks in the soil or upon it, or upon other 
naked rocks, of a kind different from any in the immediate vicinity, is a phenomenon that 
arrested the attention of the earliest observers. For example, detached masses of granite and 
gneiss were found resting upon limestone or slate, or upon recent sedimentary rocks ; or, on 
the contrary, detached sedimentary rocks were found reposing upon granite or gneiss, the 
general phenomenon consisting in the presence of a loose rock at a distance from its known 
parent bed. The importance and interest of this phenomenon is increased, when we take 
into consideration the great distance which the fragment has sometimes travelled, a distance 
which is often susceptible of determination by direct proof. Where the boulder consists of 
a particular kind of granite, or of a peculiar variety of rock, it may often be referred to a 
distant locality of rocks identical with it in constitution. In proof of this assertion, we may 
state that hypersthene rock lias been found in fragments on the Catskill range, and in Orange 
county and elsewhere; but this peculiar rock is known to exist in situ nowhere in this 
State, except in Essex county, where it forms the nucleus of the Adirondack mountains. 
In this case, then, the inference is, that by some means or other, the boulders of hyper¬ 
sthene rock, found in Orange county, were brought from Essex ; and what strengthens this 
inference, is the fact that they are strewed along in this direction to the very mountains 
themselves, that is, they may be traced to their beds. This single fact is illustrative of this 
part of the subject, namely, that all boulders or loose stones, occurring far away from their 
parent beds, have suffered transportation. 
We may extend this subject farther. If the soil is sufficiently examined, it will often 
be found composed of materials different from any in the vicinity. Thus, mica in glim¬ 
mering scales is seen among the soil of an argillaceous slate, or of a limestone district: 
hence the inference that the soil has been brought from a distance ; and as the soil and the 
boulders are mixed together, we can scarcely avoid the conclusion that they have been 
transported together, perhaps in mass and from one district. All these facts, however, 
may be kept apart from hypothesis, and it may be that in the facts alone is comprised all 
that need be said upon the subject. 
There is another circumstance which it is here necessary to inquire into, namely, the 
direction in which the soil and boulders have been carried. On this point, we refer to 
what has just been said concerning the boulders of hypersthene found in Orange county: 
these are located nearly south from the mountains of Essex county, where they originated ; 
and we may say, for once, that this instance represents, in general, the direction in which 
all the boulders and soil of the northern hemisphere have been transferred. We must, it 
is true, admit of some variation in the direction of these movements; but it is remarkable 
