216 
DISTRIBUTION OF SOILS. 
menon, is a different thing from the investigation of the manner in which that phenomenon 
was really produced. There is a simplicity in the operations of nature, which it is well to 
heed. The hypothesis which we have framed, is based upon two or three facts, the prin¬ 
cipal one of which is the submergence of the northern part of our hemisphere. This 
submergence is proved by the discovery of the marine formation which occupies the valley 
of Lake Champlain, and which maybe traced far south into the vallies of the Hudson and 
the St. Lawrence rivers, while another branch extends eastward to the Gulf of St. Law¬ 
rence. So also in the vallies and upon the coast of the State of Maine, a marine formation 
is found to exist. This formation was deposited after the period of diluvial action, inas¬ 
much as it reposes upon the scored rocks, and also upon the drift in many places where it 
was left on the cessation of its transport. It is a formation that indicates a state of quiet 
after one of turbulence ; for the fossils are entire, though extremely thin, and the valves 
often remain attached together, which could not well have happened in such shells as the 
Terebratula psittacea, if they had not been deposited during a period of quiet. The thick¬ 
ness of this formation is about one hundred feet; and it is now found to be three or four 
hundred feet above the level of the sea, preserving at this height the character of a deposit 
from an ocean in quietude. 
Our hypothesis connects the transportation of the soils and scoring of the rocks, and the 
submergence of this continent, as antecedent and consequent. We might add*to the former 
the simultaneous uplift of a continent to the north, which, displacing suddenly the waters 
there existing, would give them a southward movement, with a force capable of trans¬ 
porting all the moveable materials found in their way. A mighty rush of the waters 
would thus be produced, which would be competent to tear up the exposed strata, and 
bear the ruins along in constantly accumulating masses. 
It is no part of our business here to attempt to offer an explanation of the causes of a 
submergence. That such a change has occurred in the condition of our continent, is a 
position that is borne out by many facts ; not only by the existence of the marine forma¬ 
tions of the Champlain and St. Lawrence vallies, but by the condition of all sedimentary 
rocks, each of which was deposited at the bottom of a sea that has long since retired, and 
now covers lands that formerly existed as continents or islands. 
On considering the relations of the period of submergence above spoken of, we are in¬ 
clined to place it in juxtaposition to that of the diluvial action, for the reason that the 
marine deposit is found either upon the drift, which is the product of the diluvial period, or 
else immediately upon the scored surface itself, which is one of the consequences of the 
same period. This scratched surface, where the removal of the superincumbent materials 
has been recently made, is as fresh as if it were made yesterday; but where it has been 
exposed for a few years to the action of the waters of the lake, those of Lake Champlain, 
the grooves are obliterated. It is then proved that these surfaces could not have been long 
exposed to abrading action, before they were covered and defended by a deposit. 
We do not propose to enter into farther attempts to explain the phenomena of the trans- 
