Travels in North America: With Geological Observations on the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia, Volume 1J. Murray, 1845 - 272 pagina's |
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Travels in North America: With Geological Observations on the ..., Volume 1 Charles Lyell Volledige weergave - 1845 |
Travels in North America: With Geological Observations on the ..., Volume 1 Sir Charles Lyell Volledige weergave - 1845 |
Travels in North America: With Geological Observations on the ..., Volume 1 Sir Charles Lyell Volledige weergave - 1845 |
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Populaire passages
Pagina 143 - It is one enormous quagmire, soft and muddy, except where the surface is rendered partially firm by a covering of vegetables and their matted roots ; yet, strange to say, instead of being lower than the level of the surrounding country, it is actually higher than nearly all the firm and dry land which encompasses it, and, to make the anomaly complete, in spite of its semi-fluid character, it is higher in the interior than towards its margin.
Pagina 243 - Munificent bequests and donations for public purposes, whether charitable or educational, form a striking feature in the modern history of the United States, and especially of New England. Not only is it common for rich capitalists to leave by will a portion of then* fortune towards the endowment of national institutions, but individuals during their lifetime make magnificent grants of money for the same objects.
Pagina 148 - ... There is no beach, for the bank sinks perpendicularly, so that if the waters are lowered several feet, it makes no alteration in the breadth of the lake. Much timber has been cut down and carried out from the swamp by means of canals, which are perfectly straight for long distances, with the trees on each side arching over, and almost joining their branches across, so that they throw a dark shade on the water, which of itself looks black, being coloured as before mentioned. When the boats emerge...
Pagina 145 - ... to have acquired its present configuration. Some small ridges, however, of land must have existed in the original plain or basin, for these now rise like low islands in various places above the general surface. But the streams to the westward do not bring down liquid mire, and are not charged with any sediment. The soil of the swamp is formed of vegetable matter, usually without any admixture of earthly particles.
Pagina 143 - ... Dismal," and is no less than forty miles in length from north to south, and twenty-five miles in its greatest width from east to west, the northern half being situated in Virginia, the southern in North Carolina. I observed that the water was obviously in motion in several places, and the morass...
Pagina 31 - Fall, is 1 800 feet, or more than a third of a mile, broad, the island in the midst somewhat less in width, and the American Fall about 600 feet wide. The deep narrow chasm below the great cataract is from 200 to 400 yards wide, and 300 feet deep; and here in seven miles the river descends 100 feet, at the...
Pagina 147 - Here, however, there is. an extensive lake of an oval form, seven miles long and more than five wide, the depth, where greatest, fifteen feet; and its bottom consisting of mud like the swamp, but sometimes with a pure white sand, a foot deep, covering the mud. The water is transparent, though tinged of a pale brown colour, like that of our peat-mosses, and contains abundance of fish.
Pagina 164 - ... marshes. Thus at Beauly, I found upright stumps of trees of the pine, cedar and ilex, covered with live oysters and barnacles, and exposed at low tides; the deposit in which they were buried having been recently washed away from around them by the waves.
Pagina 90 - Appalachian coal field, there is an intimate connection between the extent to which the coal has parted with its gaseous contents, and the amount of disturbance which the strata have undergone. The coincidence of these phenomena may be attributed partly to the greater facility afforded for the escape of volatile matter...
Pagina 148 - ... a low level region bordering the sea, and capable of spreading itself indefinitely over the adjacent country, helps us greatly to conceive the manner in which the coal of the ancient Carboniferous rocks may have been formed. The heat, perhaps, may not have been excessive when the...