The History of Orange County New York

by Unknown

To illustrate: a surface now polished must have been a surface when the glacier did that work. There are glacial polishings very near Newburgh at the river surface and they also are found on the top of the Palisades, a trap rock thrown up from below in a molten state at some remote period of the earth's history. How long ago cannot be told, but this can be confidently said, the catastrophe of the Palisades antedated their being polished by the ice of the Great Glacier. The polished slate rocks at the surface of the present river show that the river valley then existed and that the Palisades were then, also, a geological feature of the region, as the footprints of the same artisan is left on both.

Our subject was attracted by the size and numbers of these blue stone boulders about Newburgh, and persevered in an attempt to ascertain from whence they came until success finally crowned his efforts with the sure conclusion that their source was the Marlborough Mountains, and that the explanation of their being found in groups was that they came from the precipitous cliffs of the mountains from which they were detached by the action of frost and gravity, and falling upon the ice were slowly transported by it until the ice melted and dropped its burden at the places where now found. The same natural forces continuing to act, at long intervals the falls from the cliffs would recur, the rocks take up their journey in the moving ice and find their resting place where the ice melted, and the direction and distance of these groups from the source would afford some clue to the movements of the glacier itself.

Some of these boulders are found as far south as Central Valley, and some high up on the slopes of the Cornwall Highlands, as high even as one thousand feet. Two professional geologists have gone over this ground with Mr. Weed and confirmed his conclusions. The basement walls of the Imperial Flats in South street and the stone wall built by B. Franklin Clark on the east side of the highway to Woodlawn Cemetery are of big boulder origin. Specimens of other drift rocks have been found near Newburgh and traced to their source as far north as fifty miles.

A more interesting subject, however, to Mr. Weed, is the Aurora Borealis. In the cold winter of 1837, a chum of his brother was visiting at the house and in the early part of the evening had started for home, but almost immediately came running back and in a terrified manner declared "Granny Theall's barn is on fire!" The entire household rushed to the door and confronted a scene that was indeed alarming. The landscape was covered with snow, the snow was as red as blood and the air filled with flames. The brother and his chum ran for half a mile toward Granny Theall's barn to find when it came into view that it was not the barn but the world that was on fire, at least that was the impression of most of the persons who saw this extraordinary display of the Aurora Borealis, the flames seemed so real and the danger so imminent. It made such an impression on Mr. Weed that ever since he has been a student and observer of the phenomenon.

During the sun spot maximum of 1868-1873 the Aurora occurred so frequently that in May, 1871, he resolved to keep a close nightly watch and record of his observations, and this he kept up for seven years.

In the first four months of observation forty-four Auroras were seen by Mr. Weed. The whole number of days on which Auroras were seen in the whole United States other than Newburgh was sixty-eight, and the largest number reported from any one place was twenty-five, from Duluth; followed by seventeen from Chicago, sixteen from Marquette, fifteen from Boston, fourteen from Grand Haven, fourteen from Oswego, twelve from Davenport, ten from Buffalo, ten from Burlington, nine from Detroit, eight from Rochester, nine from St. Paul, seven from Mount Washington, six from Cleveland, six from Milwaukee, six from Toledo, three from Indianapolis, New London and Portland, Me., each, two from New York, and one each from Cape May, Cheyenne, Escanala, Leavenworth, San Francisco, St. Louis, Washington, D. C, and Wilmington.

Special attention is called to the number reported at New York, only sixty miles south of Newburgh, due in part no doubt to the artificial lights of the great city.

One hundred years ago auroras were regarded as most abundant near the poles, and as very rare in our latitude, but we now know that they are most brilliant and probably most numerous in the medial zones between the poles and the equator, that is in the zones of the earth having the greatest diurnal range of temperature, say, in the temperate zones on their polar sides.

Mr. Weed has been led by his observations to believe that the phenomenon is purely meteorological. In support of this view he has witnessed many a time the aurora on the top of the clouds, and in one instance on the top of a detached rain-cloud going southeast, the existence of which was brought to his attention by the rain falling upon him. It was then noticed that the cloud was surmounted by a fine display of auroral streamers physically connected with it and directed toward the coronal point.

The three features, cloud, rain and streamers, kept on together to the horizon, affording the best possible conditions for establishing their physical connection. In connection with this there occurred another remarkable appearance and standing alone among his many cloud observations.