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MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE, GENERAL INFORMATION,
EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND THE ARTS.

CONDUCTED BY

GANSEVOORT - LANSING
COLLECTION

ALFRED B. STREET,

ASSISTED BY

S. S. RANDALL, Esq., PROF. JAMES HALL, AND OTHERS.

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This number of the NORTHERN LIGHT may be obtained at the different Bookstores, and at JONES' Depot, Museum Building, where subscriptions will be received. The above places will also be furnished with the future Nos. on the 1st and 15th of each month.

TRAVELLING AGENTS.

JOHN H. ALLEN,

THOMAS S. EASTERLY.

ALBANY:

PUBLISHED SEMI-MONTHLY BY C. WENDELL, AGENT FOR THE ALBANY ASSOCIATION OF
PRACTICAL PRINTERS, NO. 3 NORTH PEARL-STREET.

One Sheet Periodical.

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be given to induce men to look and think for themselves it would be better for our race; but where everything is done to our hand, and where nature has been so avish in the grand and beautiful, there is little inducement for us, particularly if disinclined to action, to exert either our mental or physical energies.

In presenting the accompanying sketch of Trenton | have lost their effect of novelty. If more reasons could Falls, we need not remind our readers that this spot is one of the most lovely and romantic in the State of New-York. This has been often told them, and if they have not visited it, they may at some future time. To give any account of this place merely from its beautiful scenery or from its historical associations, is not our object. This has often been done, and if its attractions in this way are not well known we should despair of making them so by our humble efforts. In truth, we believe that the historical narrative, the science, beauties and fashionable promenades of many of our watering places and other resorts for recreation and enjoyment of leisure, have been so often trumpeted that they

Perhaps there is no kind of scenery better fitted to call into action the intellectual powers than the numerous cascades which everywhere intersect our country. Scarcely a river of any magnitude but is graced by one or more falls worthy of admiration, and when we view such mighty streams as the Niagara plunging over a precipice of such height, and rushing with impetuous

rooted at the time is incredible. Sach, doubtless, with the constant wearing action of the stream, have been the prime causes in the production of these gorges and their beautiful cascades, of which that of Trenton is one.

fury through a deep chasm of seven miles in length, the most striking examples exists in the bursting of the and bounded by perpendicular walls, we are prepared Lebanon reservoir, when, in the passage of the water, to believe that the agency of the stream has had much the bed and sides of the chasm were both widened and to do in the production of the channel. When, how-deepened, and the fragments of stone thus removed, ever, we reflect upon the slow manner in which this is with loose materials of similar kind, covered five acres accomplished, we are again induced to doubt, and fancy of ground to the depth of several feet. This moreover calls in aid some tremendous convulsion of nature was caused by the passage of the stream along the diswhich has effected all this in a short space of time.tance only of a single mile. The number of trees upThis precludes the necessity of thinking by what quiet and constant means this has been produced, and of all the causes operating, or the consequences following the excavation of such a gorge. For it must be borne in mind that no chasm of this kind is made unless the materials are removed and transported to some other place, necessarily filling up a space equal, at least, to that made by their removal. Then again the immense lapse of time which would thus be required, carries us back to periods beyond that which we are accustomed to consider as the beginning of the world; and hence the necessity of more rapid action to meet our preconceived opinions.

But this digression is taking us from our subject, though at some future time perhaps we may present the readers of the Northern Light with some farther illustrations upon the cascades of our country.

In the examination of this chasm, all the variations in force and intensity of the current are still perceptible, and by farther investigations one is enabled to trace these operations backward to a time when but a shallow channel existed, and when the present falls had no existence. Again, the observer may carry forward in his mind this process, which will go on in nature till the present falls are obliterated, or their places so far changed that they would not be recognized.

Such are some of the points which should arrest the attention of man as a thinking being, while he is indulging his love of the beautiful scenery with which The gorge in which the stream at TRENTON FALLS such places present him. A single glance at these flows, is made in a nearly stratified rock, the layers of cliffs and the overhanging trees with a few roots still which are distinctly seen in the engraving. In this clinging to the fissures, will convince him of the truth gorge, of varying depths, the river is precipitated over of the opinion that the gorges have been produced by five successive falls, exposing to view the edges of the the slow action here described. These trees never berocky layers which bound it on either side. There can gan their existence in this situation or sent forth their remain no question in the mind of an observer, that roots into the air. They have grown upon the surface this gorge throughout its entire length is the result of above, and the gradually crumbling cliff has left them the wearing action of the stream. The beds and side exposed in this way, and eventually those still farther of the channel, where the latter are not worn by from the margin will be bared of the earth and rock weathering, present the smoothed and undulating out-now surrounding their roots, and left naked and overline caused by the action of a current; the fragments and pebbles urged by the force of the stream along the bottom have deepened its bed, and the freezing of water in the numerous fissures and crevices of the rock, has loosened innumerable fragments and often huge masses, which are thrown down and carried onward by the rapid current.

hanging the rocky cliff.

Here we come to the investigation of another set of phenomena, for if we look at the successive layers of limestone, we find them filled with shells and other or

In contemplating the time necessary for the production of these falls and chasm, we are carried back an inconceivable period; but how incomprehensible does this become when we consider the time necessary for the production of these immense masses of rock; for these too had begun and ended before the Again, during sudden freshets the accumulating wa-falls were produced, or even before dry land appeared. ters in the more even country above, carry into the stream logs and fallen trees, and perchance the wreck of some mill or cottage-all these accumulating in the narrow channel, often form, for a time, almost a per-ganic remains of a kind which lived in an ocean. And fect dam. The water thus rapidly accumulating above, rises to a great height, until its pressure forces the dam, and with it perhaps some fragments of the rock. The mass then moves on to some narrow point or till new materials are added, when it again makes a more formidable stand, forming an almost immoveable barrier, and remaining till the water has risen to a greater height, when the whole mass is moved off, and with it often great numbers of rocky fragments from the sides and bed of the channel. This process is repeated time after time, until the stream opens into a broader channel. Here the heavy materials are thrown down and the lighter ones are carried onward.

without at present going into a detail of the proof by which this is substantiated, we find that the mass has been deposited layer after layer, as fine mud, like that carried down by our rivers to the ocean. This mud has covered up the shells and other living things whose remains we now find thus imbedded, and after continuing in this way for a long period the process has ceased and the whole become a solid rock. Although these elementary principles are well understood, we nevertheless see the importance of their application; for by this means we are enabled to discover what has been the nature and condition of the bottom of the sea at successive intervals. At one time shells of a pe This is no fancy picture, for it can be demonstrated culiar form are abundant, while, perhaps, only a few a hundred times every year by actual facts, and one of feet above or below, this kind is very rare while another

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We have here representations of some of the more common forms of fossils found at this place, the collection of which may occupy the mind, employ the time, and add interest to the visit as well as vigor to the physical nature. Habits of close observation cannot be too strongly urged, particularly upon young persons, and if parents who visit such places desire their children to become good observers in all their intercourse with men and things, they cannot begin by giving a better lesson than to direct their attention to these little shells imbedded in the rocks, or to the kind of plants which grow upon the rocky margins of this stream. For it cannot be denied that a good observer of nature in one department is good in others, for his observing powers have been cultivated; and this cannot have been done to any considerable extent without inducing reflection and improving the judgment.

departments will become popular, we desire to see it introduced in such a manner that it may in some measure form a part of the reading which is derived from magazines and journals, particularly where the professed object is to teach. This can scarcely be done in a more effectual way than by introducing figures and descriptions, and connecting these objects with some place or well known locality. Neither does the interest end here, for the same kind of fossils may meet the traveller at distant points and they there come up before him almost in the light of friends or acquaintantances, reviving associations of place, of companions, and all the pleasant circumstances with which we may have been surrounded when these objects first met our eye. A pebble from the shore of the ocean reminds us of all its grandeur and magnificence-a plant plucked from the mountain top or from a barren island in the Believing that the study of Natural History in all its ocean, is a faithful remembrancer for all future time.

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