218 
RELATIONS OF SOILS 
was faintly scored, and the surface taken from it presented an exact cast in relief. But it 
was particularly interesting to discover, on the same day, the same stratum four miles 
distant, in the same condition, only the striae and grooves were much deeper than those at 
the village of Plattsburgh. Of the extent of this smoothed surface, we have no means of 
determining. We had, however, observed the same thing a few years before, thirty miles 
south of Plattsburgh. An interesting fact in this discovery, is, that the rock above is the 
same as that below. There is no change in the lithological features of the rock : neither 
is there any in the fossils.. 
III. RELATIONS OF THE SOILS OF NEW-YORK TO THE ROCKS ON WHICH 
THEY REST. 
From what has been now said of drift and diluvial action, it may be inferred that the 
soils are so far removed from their parent rock, that the one upon which they now repose 
can not give us much light or information of their nature or composition. This is true to 
a certain extent; yet it is not so generally true in New-York, as in the New-England 
States. Here, as every attentive observer must see, is a series of rocks, in the midst of 
which there are many thick and heavy beds of slate and shale, and of slaty and shaly lime¬ 
stone, which are eminently disposed to undergo disintegration. Now we have no doubt of 
the statement we have already made in regard to the denudation of large areas ; still, such 
is their inability to resist the changes of the climate, that in a few years the exposed and 
naked surface would be covered again with soil. In all the great divisions of the New- 
York system, decomposable beds occupy no inconsiderable portion of its surface. Observa¬ 
tion fully sustains this view. A careful examination of the soil of the Onondaga-salt group 
shows that it is derived from the rocks beneath : it is filled with small angular fragments, 
where it is ploughed ; and these may be observed in all stages of decay, from lumps of the 
size of a walnut, to a fine pulverulent soil. The same is true of the Utica slate and the 
slates of the Trenton limestone, and of the Marcellus shales and the Niagara green slate 
or shale. Hence, though a most thorough removal of the whole soil of the early periods 
may have taken place, yet the rocks of this State are such that they would soon be covered 
again by their own debris ; but we by no means suppose that this remark applies to every 
part of the Union, or even to all parts of this State indiscriminately. 
But we do not wish to be misunderstood in these remarks. It is true, that for large 
areas, the soil is derived directly from the rock upon which it rests; still it is not identical 
in composition with the rock. The rocks, when pulverized, give quite a different analysis 
from that which results from the soil. This is an important fact, and could not have been 
known except by analysis and by experiment, though such a result is in accordance with 
