556 PROCEEDINGS OF M W YORK MEETING. 



The discovery by Mr. White of undoubted C eta ous foBsil plants has settled that 

 question so far as the particular strata from which these plants were found arc con- 

 cerned. In :ill his recent papers, including the one read before the Society on Thurs- 

 day last (pp. MS 152), Professor Shaler has insisted that all except the very base of 

 the Gay Bead section is Tertiary ami even Mi ne <>r Pliocene. 



I do nol pretend that the entire section at Say Head and Nashaquitsa cliff is n< 



ly Creta* us. The plants were found in the Gay Eead section near the middle, 



and it ie very possible that, considering the extent of the beds and the length <»f the 

 pection, the overlying strata may be Tertiary, even Miocene. But if there is a great 

 thickness lying above these beds, so there is a great thickness lying beneath them, and 

 therefore the section must extend far down into the Cretaceous. It would Beem then 

 that Mr. White's investigations during one short Beason have done more to settle the 

 age of these beds than all that has boon done before. 



I gladly testify to the indefatigable zeal with which Mr. White pursued his inves- 

 tigations against the greatest difficulties and discouragements. It required much 

 careful thought and labor to ascertain in what particular manner the plants were 



pr rved ; but after this had been- fully settled he was very successful in finding 



then, although they were not abundant; and he persisted until his collection 

 amounted to live barrels of very excellent material, which is being elaborated at the 

 National Museum. 



Mr. F. J. II. Mkrrill: It is seldom that an opportunity is afforded for determin- 

 ing the true stratigraphy of the Gay Head section. The speaker visited it in 1884 and 

 concluded as a result of his examination that the beds wen- extensively repeated by 

 faulting; but on visiting the locality in 1887, with Professor N. S. Shaler. he found 

 the aspect of the section bo much altered by landslides that he was unable to show the 

 evidence upon which he had based hig conclusion. Subsequent exposures have again 

 revealed the truth as reported by Professor Shaler at this meeting (ante, pp. II". 162). 

 During his Bret visit the writer found a number of clay-ironstone nodules enclosing 

 fragmentary leaf-prints, which were considered by \>v. Newberry t" be of Cretaceous 

 age, but the impressions were poorly preserved and their nidus in the section was 

 uncertain, bo that m> decisive value could he attached to them. Although the Creta- 

 ceous leaf-prints reported by Mr. White were undoubtedly in place, they do nol prove 

 th« Cretaceous age of the whole (Jay head section. They are from the lower half of 

 the series. The greensand beds, which are in the upper half, contain Miocene Tertiary 

 fossils, shark teeth of the genera Charcarodon and Oxyrhina, bivalve casts, probably 

 of Tellina biplicaia, Say, and fragments of crustaceans. This greensand deposit is 

 apparently secondary, having been derived iv.nu some pre-existing bed and ro-doposited 

 under conditions of disturbance and violence abnormal t.> greensand beds. The crus- 

 tacean fragments in particular have been much rolled and wave-worn. <»n this 

 evidence we may conclude that the greensand beds were laid down not earlier than 

 the close of the M iocene. 



i e opinion of the writer that the Gay Head strata were p< L-Pliocene was chiefly 

 based on the evidence of a stratum of post-Pliocene sand, which is the uppermost 

 member throughout the section, being repeated frequently by faults and at one point 

 containing fragments of Venu» mercenaria and other Quaternary shells. A- 1 1 1 i - bed 

 i- apparently conformable to those beneath it, the writer concluded that a considerable 

 portion of th« Gaj head leries, if not the whole of it. was laid down in post- Pliocene 

 time. It may be, however, that future investigation will demonstrate tin. presence <>f 

 Crel I tiary. and Quaternary strata at Gay lead. 



At the close of this discussion the Society took a shorl re© 



