Here is a remarkable but not
uncommon instance of a great geological blank. On the east side of
this river the formations belong to the first or oldest series of
Primary or Crystalline rocks, while on the west side they are
all Triassic, the intermediate Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian and
Carboniferous formations being wanting. This state of things continues
all along the Atlantic coast to Georgia, the Cretaceous or Jurassic
taking the place of the Triassic farther south.
* * *
Like thine, O, be my course--nor turned aside,
While listening to the soundings of a land,
That like the ocean call invites me to its strand.
_Mrs. Seba Smith._
* * *
"Montrose to Cornwall. This celebrated passage of the Hudson through
the Highlands, is a gorge nearly 20 miles long from 3 miles south of
Peekskill to Fishkill, and is worn out of the Laurentian rocks far
below mean tide water. The hills on its sides rise in some instances
as much as 1,800 feet, and in many places the walls are very
precipitous. The rock is gneiss, of a kind that is not easily
disintegrated or eroded, nor is there any evidence of any convulsive
movement.
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