1132 MISSIONARY TOUR THROUGH THE

rrom the appearance of the rocks, and fragments of rocks where the town is built, it is, I think, demonstrably evident, that the waters of the Mohawk, in passing over that fall, w^ere 80 or 90 feet higher in some early period than they are now. Y« Rocks even an hundred feet perpendicular above y^ present high water mark, are worn in the same manner as those over which y^ river passes. The rocks are not only worn by the descent of the water, but in the flat rocks are many round holes worn by the whirling of stones -- some even 5 feet deep and 20 inches over. If these etiects were produced by the water, as I have no doubt they were, then it follows as a necessary consequence, that the flats above, and all the low lands for considerable extent of country, were covered with water, and that here was a lake -- but the water having lowered its bed, laid the lands above dry.

28*''-- About the middle of the afternoon I left the Little Falls, and turned 8 miles North in the town of Fairfield. Fairfield is, in general, on high land ; a little part of it, thro' which I passed is broken ground. It is, however, taken together, an excellent township. Ic is worthy of remark, that these highlands, in this part of tl.e world, which at a distance appear to be mountains, w^hen jou ajiproacli them, dwindle into mere gradual and gentle ascents ; and there is but a mere trifle of unprofitable land to be found in the country. Tliere is a great similarity in the nature of the soil -- it is a loam with a little sand -- mingled with a considerable quantity of white clay.