ANTIQUITY OF THE EXTRA-MORAINIC DRIFT. 177 



is well nigh impossible to find a piece which still preserves its original 

 surfaces that does not show glacial striae. Even tiny fragments but a 

 fraction of an inch in diameter arc found to be very generally marked. 



When the softness of these shale fragments is considered and their 

 association with numerous pebbles and cobbles and bowlders of hard 

 sandstone, quartzite, etc, is borne in mind, it seems impossible to attrib- 

 ute their deposition to water. They are much too soft to endure even a 

 limited amount of transportation by water without having their scorings 

 obliterated. Much less could they stand water transportation along with 

 hard materials, such as those with which they are associated, without 

 having every trace of glacial striation effaced. If any added evidence is 

 needed to prove their non-aqueous origin, that evidence is found in the 

 shape of the fragments and in their association with materials of all 

 grades of coarseness and fineness without trace of stratification. 



The chemical and physical condition of the material near Little York 

 is like that of the corresponding deposits near Oxford Furnace. The 

 decomposable rocks have yielded to the influence of weathering and 

 have lost their integrity. The clay is oxidized to the depth of the ex- 

 posure and is wholly wanting in calcareous material. If this was ever 

 present, it has been completely abstracted ; in short, every feature of the 

 material indicates age. On this ground alone it is impossible to think 

 of it as having any genetic connection with the moraine. Furthermore, 

 it is more than 100 feet higher than the moraine three miles or so north- 

 ward. It is therefore physically impossible for it to have been derived 

 therefrom by aqueous agencies. In the same vicinity bowlders like those 

 of the till-like clay which lias been identified up to elevations of 860 feet 

 exist up to heights of 1,000 feet and more. In other words, the bowlders 

 occur on the tops of the highest hills and ridges. Above Nf>0 feet thev 

 were not seen in association with clay, but this is believed to be because 

 of the absence of exposures. So far as surface indications afford criteria 

 for judgment, there is every reason to believe that the bowldery clay is 

 presenl on the highest lands in the vicinity, wherever they have not been 



subjected loa great degree of erosion. 



Near .Mount Bethel, a point five or six miles east of Oxford Furnace, 

 the same type of bowldery clay, containing striated material, was seen at 

 a height of about 960 feet. Like ( )xford Furnace, this is but two or three 



miles fr the moraine, but is several hundred feet above that pari of 



the moraine which is nearest to it. As at Little York, the material is 

 here wholly mist ra t i lied SO far as exposed, and it OCCUrS a1 the great e-t 



elevations where exposures were found, bowlders may he seen at the 

 surface on the tops of the highesl hills visited in the vicinity, fully 100 

 feel above tin 1 highest exposure of the bowldery clay -ecu. It i> alto- 



