ta occur with great regularity, a layer occasionally thinning out and disappearing. This result was to be expected, if the rocks have been deposited in any thing like basin-shaped depressions, surrounded in part by high land, and receiving depositions from the contents of large streams poured into them. Strata, limited by the extent of country washed, and the basin of deposite, and the power of the streams by which the deposition is made, would be formed. These might in various cases become thinner at the remoter points of deposition, till finally they should disappear. The mode of formation offers an easy explanation of some part of the phenomena.

The position of the rocks, the veins and beds of ores, the dykes, the dislocation of the strata in some places, the organic remains all concur to show the unity of structure, the identity of causes, and the uniformity of operations. The differences which occasionally occur, exhibit, like exceptions, the generality of the principle.

The quantity of petrifactions already examined, is vast. Layers of hundreds on hundreds of feet in thickness exhibit the abundance of life in the ages long since past. Who has stood on the rocks at Lockport, teeming with shells, or on those at Glenn's Falls, on the Hudson, or cast his eyes on the banks of the Genesee for two hundred feet in height, to mention no more, and not wondered at the period when, and manner in which, they could have been produced and deposited and converted into rock? Many new species of old genera have been already examined, as well as known species; and many more are yet to be named. About ninety specimens of podiaria, testacea, polypharia, and fucoides, are given by Mr. Conrad. While a large number of these are judged to be new, many are identical with those of Europe, and designate the plan of the strata in which they are found. The range of petrifactions is wide, and many more are yet to be developed. Fucoides, or plants resembling sea-weeds, form a considerable mass of vegetable remains. The sandstone at Rochester and other places, abounds with them. They occur chiefly between the layers of the rock, though they are sometimes found in the midst of solid blocks. In a few places many square feet of Fucoides Harlani are laid bare, and you stand on the petrified flora of a world of which so few and so enduring monuments remain. In other places, remains of the ancient flora are spread before you under other forms, and other species appear in the calciferous slate. At the falls of the Genesee, at Rochester, the blasting of rocks has exposed many; and at the rapids,

just above the city, a new and very different species has been thrown out. This fucoides appears to be many feet in length, spread over a large surface in waving or circuitous lines, sometimes half an inch or more in diameter, coarse, but tangible and palpable. The same fucoides is found in rocks near Utica, and abounds in the flag stones of that city.

Dykes.-Dykes are exhibited on a grand scale in Essex county. They consist of four varieties: 1. Greenstone; 2. Compact amphibole, or hornblende; 3. Sienite; 4. Reddish porphyry. They extend a great distance, in a course from east to west. At Avalanche lake, the dyke is "eighty feet wide, and cuts through Mount McMartin, nearly in its centre;" the mountain being some thousand feet high.

The dykes in the state on Juniper island, in Lake Champlain, show the power of the cause acting from below. Two perpendicular dykes have been cut horizontally by another dyke, which displaces and deranges the strata.-Emmons.

The dip or inclination of the rocks in the northern and eastern part of the state, and on the east side of the ridge at Little Falls on the Mohawk, is towards the east, and extends into Massachusetts and Vermont. It affects all the rocks east of the Hudson, nearly to Connecticut river. The sections of Professor Hitchcock, in the geology of Massachusetts, show that the granite and primitive rocks have heaved up the others in different directions, depending upon the extent of the power below. It is evident that the uplifts which have taken place in the valley of the Mohawk, have shaped the direction of the strata to the east for many miles, raising the rocks to the west, and causing them to dip to the east. This accounts for the well known dip of several rocks in the states adjoining on the east- —a great fact which has been the puzzle of so many geologists. It had even been supposed that the strata on the western part of Massachusetts had been raised, and then sunk several hundred feet, so as to change the supraposition, and render a solution of the difficulty not an easy matter. Due examination commonly leads to clear and consistent views of nature; so consistent has the God of providence ever been in respect to his works.

The inclination of the mica slate of Massachusetts is in many places the same on both sides of the granite or gneiss, having evidently taken that position from the action of the upheaving power. Similar to this is the position of the rocks alluded to along the east line of this state, and in the adjoining part of New England. No one can have traversed these rocks from east to

west, and noticed their anomalous and unexpected position, and not have been delighted to find that the primary range in New York had controlled the inclination of the strata on the west part of New England.

New Minerals.-Four minerals, supposed to be new, have been found in the second geological district. They have been named, for convenience, Terenite, Rensselaerite, Chiltonite, and Empyrchroite, from its beautiful phosphorescence.

Mountains.-The elevation of the mountains in the north. part of the state, is found greatly to exceed all former estimates. Mount Marcy has an altitude of five thousand four hundred and sixty-seven feet; mount McIntyre of five thousand one hundred and eighty-three feet; Dix's peak of five thousand two hundred feet; and Dial mountain of four thousand nine hundred feet. The sources of the Hudson and Ausable rivers are in a meadow having an elevation of four thousand seven hundred and sixtyseven feet. Mount Washington in New Hampshire is seven hundred and sixty-seven feet higher than any in Essex county; yet the group of mountains in this county is stated to be higher than that of the White mountains.

BOWLDERS.

Bowlders of various rocks are scattered over a considerable portion of the state, and are widely spread over our country as well as Europe. They form an important part of the erratic group of some authors. In the state of Illinois they are called lost rocks.

The granitic rocks of the north eastern part of the state have been transported as bowlders even across Lake Champlain, and are found in Vermont. The graywacke of the middle and eastern part is found in large bowlders in the valley of the Housatonic in the western part of Massachusetts. Bowlders, evidently derived from rocks towards the source of the Hudson, are scattered far south along its banks. Limestone, as it is easily worn down by the action of water and friction, is much less common as a bowlder than many other rocks. Along the Mohawk, we notice bowlders of quartz rock, which seem to have been removed to only a moderate distance.

In the middle and western part of the state, bowlders of granite, gneiss, mica slate, hornblende rock, quartz rock, rounded and worn down masses, are very common; sometimes limestone also, and serpentine and graywacke occur with them.

Most of these have manifestly been removed from some region at the north, and have crossed Lake Ontario, and often been carried up the more elevated ranges at the southern part of the state. Beautiful granitic bowlders, often abounding in opalescent feldspar, sometimes containing massive garnet, are spread widely over this part of the state. They vary greatly in magnitude, from a few pounds in weight to that of hundreds, and often tons. In the vicinity of Genesee river, some are eight feet long, six feet broad, and four to six feet deep. More than half way up the pinnacle near Rochester, is a bowlder of greywacke of greater dimensions than those just mentioned. These bowlders are often buried some feet deep in the sand, gravel, or earth, as well as lying on the surface. They have most probably been removed from the range of primary rocks which extend from Lakes Superior and Huron, eastward through Canada, towards the Atlantic, above the St. Lawrence.

Along the southern shore of Lake Ontario, the sandstone seems to have been violently torn up by the rushing of the waters from the north, and the associated limestones participated in the convulsion. Hence they were carried miles to the south, mingled with the sand and gravel, and bowlders of the older rocks. The geodiferous limestone, which occurs in several places near Rochester, was sundered into huge masses, and transported to the south for a short distance; smaller ones were borne farther; some have been found over the range of hills at the south. They are abundant near the rapids of the Genesee, above Rochester, and some must weigh many tons.

The mingling of all these bowlders with each other, and the burying of many of them in the beds of sand and gravel, or depositing them on these beds, point at once to one and the same great convulsion of waters which swept the bowlders of the older rocks, and tore up the deep foundations of the sandstone and limestone, and bore onward the commingled and promis

cuous mass.

While all this is clear to the geologist, it seems a very questionable matter to the general inquirer. The same evidence which has convinced him, will convince any one; it has ever done it. The conclusion is certain. Bowlders of granite and gneiss have been transported from the Alps upon the valley and around the shores of Lake Geneva, and across the valley upon the Jura mountains in France, to an elevation of two thousand feet. These have attracted great attention, and been often visited by philosophers. The largest of them, measured by Playfair in

1817, lying above Neufchatel, is "sixty-two feet long, thirtytwo feet wide, and seventeen feet high." Bowlders are a common occurrence over the world. The rush of waters seems generally to have been from the north. From the supporting power of water, most rocks would lose nearly half their weight, and might be borne along by a strong current. It is stated by Lyell, that in a storm in 1818, a mass of granite, nine feet long and six feet broad, was carried by the sea in a storm up a declivity on the Shetland Isles one hundred and fifty feet. Here is a power, mighty enough to effect all the changes which the bowlders have undergone.

We would gladly follow the geologists in their discoveries. Enough has been presented to satisfy the most doubting that they have been neither idle in mind nor inactive in body. Equally clear is the fact, that the results have richly repaid their efforts, and spread before the public a volume of valuable knowledge. We have ventured to point out a few places in which we conceive they may have erred, or have adopted conclusions without sufficient evidence. That we have thus freely expressed our opinion that they have occasionally erred, only makes it the more necessary that we should declare our general satisfaction with the published results of their labors.

3. The moral bearing of Geological discoveries.

We have already noticed some of the great conclusions upon which geologists are unanimous. These have a great value in their moral bearing, because they involve the superintending and controlling power of benevolent mind over matter; and this too, amidst the great changes and overturnings of the very foundations of the globe, which it is the province of geology to ascertain and unfold. Fate or chance is equally the foe of moral impressions and moral susceptibilities. Fate cuts off the hold upon moral influence: its adamantine chain binds the soul, and renders the immortal as well as the mortal part of man the prey of an unintelligent and malevolent powerfor that is malevolent power in the extreme, which, without reason or end, crushes mind. Chance makes ridiculous or absurd all moral principle and moral action, with which it sports as with the senseless atoms that it whirls without reason or object through the vacuities of space. General results lead us back to the operation of a great cause, and give stability to na