THE LONG ISLAND COAST. 441 



of the period we are considering. An artesian well is being bored 

 on Barnum's Island, already mentioned, within two miles of the ocean. 

 The island is but a knoll of tillable upland, surrounded by meadows 

 and the waters of the bay. 



The boring has reached a depth of 368 feet, or about 358 feet below 



Jig. 2. Section prom Hills at Centre op the Island, near Wheatly, to the Ocean, 



showing Stratified Beds overlying the Unmodified Drift. 



Vertical section, one inch to five hundred feet. Horizontal section, one inch to three miles. 



tide-level, and is still in progress. We present below a statement 

 of the series of deposits penetrated. Our table is prepared from 

 the record of Theodore F. Carman, Esq., of Hempstead, Long Island, 

 engineer of the work, and from eighty specimens of the layers passed 

 through, furnished by that gentleman : 



1. *70 feet. Yellowish gravel and sand. 



2. 56 " Clay. Upper portions with decayed vegetation, wood, and lignite. 



3. 3 " Coarse gravel and sand. 



4. 46 " Sands, with clayey crusts and pyrites. 



5. 25 " Sands, with some lignite. 



0. 54 " Clayey sands. 



7. 94 " Fine sand, sandy clay, with much lignite in the more clayey portions. 



8. 4 " Fine sand. 



9. 1 " Very firm bed of lignite, in fine decayed vegetable matter and clay. 



10. 10 " Clay, with lignite. 



11. 3 " Clay, very fine, without lignite. 



12. 2 " Sandy clay. 

 Total, 368 



Our grouping of the deposits may suggest transitions more sharp 

 than the specimens warrant. About *70 feet of the surface is of yellow 

 or orange colored sand and gravel. Then occurs a bed of clay 56 

 feet thick, on the surface of which was found decayed vegetable mat- 

 ter having a strong odor of carbolic acid. Wood and lignite occurred 

 in this bed. Beneath was found a layer of coarse gravel and sand. 



None of the layers penetrated are of the unmodified drift. No 

 shells have been found, nor other remains of animal life, excepting a 

 very small fragment of a crinoidal stem which occurred in a thick 

 bed of coarse silicious sand 160 feet below the surface. This speci- 

 men, which is much water-worn, Prof. Dana suggests may be of cre- 

 taceous species, but it affords little or no evidence that the deposit in 

 which it was found is of Cretaceous age. The Silurian and Devonian 

 fossils, which occur frequently in the drift of Long Island, cannot be 

 considered as proof that the deposits are Silurian or Devonian. 



