Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/295

Rh this new paſſage gave vent. There are ſtill remaining, and daily diſcovered, innumerable inſtances of ſuch a deluge on both ſides of the river, after it paſſed the hills above the falls of Trenton, and reached the champaign. On the New-Jerſey ſide, which is flatter than the Pennſylvania ſide, all the country below Croſwick hills ſeems to have been overflowed to the diſtance of from ten to fifteen miles back from the river, and to have acquired a new ſoil by the earth and clay brought down and mixed with the native ſand. The ſpot on which Philadelphia ſtands evidently appears to be made ground. The different ſtrata through which they paſs in digging to water, the acorns, leaves, and ſometimes branches, which are found about twenty feet below the ſurface, all ſeem to demonſtrate this. I am informed that at Yorktown in Virginia, in the bank of the river, there are different ſtrata of ſhells and earth, one above another, which ſeem to point out that the country there has undergone ſeveral changes; that the ſea has, for a ſucceſſion of ages, occupied the place where dry land now appears: and that the ground has been ſuddenly raiſed at various periods. What a change would it make in the country below, ſhould the mountains at Niagara, by any accident, be cleft aſunder, and a paſſage ſuddenly opened to drain off the waters of Erie and the upper lakes! While ruminating on theſe ſubjects, I have ofted been hurried away by fancy, and led to imagine, that what is now the bay of Mexico, was once a champaign country; and that from the point or cape of Florida, there was a continued range of mountains through Cuba, Hiſpaniola,