1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 223 



entertained in certain quarters, that the evidence is still incom- 

 plete*. 



Before describing- the lattr discoveries, however, it has been 

 thought advisable to give the following brief review of the 

 observations which preceded them : 



The earliest attempt at a diflerentiation of the later forma- 

 tions in the eastern United States, upon anything like a modern 

 basis, was made about 1825, and may be said to have bepun 

 with the studies of Lardner Vanuxem and S. G. INIorton. The 

 latter, in a paper read before the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Sciencesf, divides the coast plain into Secondary, 

 Tertiary and Alluvial, and speaks of Manhattan and Long 

 Islands, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket as being included 

 within the Tertiary (the equivalent of the tertiary as we recog- 

 nize it to-day). They were also the first to note the equivalence 

 of the New Jersey strata with the cretaceous of the old world — 

 a conclusion which was arrived at by the study and comparison 

 of the fossil faunas. 



In 1841, Sir Chas. Lyell visited this country, and in his sub- 

 sequent contributions;]; he describes his visit to New Jersey and 

 acknowledges the correctness of Morton's conclusions in com- 

 paring certain of the strata there with the European cretacecuf--. 

 These papers, incomplete as they appear to us now, marked an 

 epoch in our knowledge of the foimations in question. The 

 previous observations and speculations in regard to the age and 

 structure of the strata composing the eastern bolder of our 

 continent were exceedingly crude and chaotic, such as those of 

 Samuel L. Mitchill§, in the early years of the present century, 

 from which I had occasion to quote in a former paper]', and the 

 same author subsequently furthur discusses the geology of the 

 north shore of Long Island, in a communication to Archibald 



*Bull. No. 82, U. S. G. S. Correlation Papers-Cretaceoua. C. A. White. 

 1891. 



p. 85. " Several persons havo written upon, or referred to, tlie discovery of 

 cretaceous fossils upon Long Island: but a lar^e proportion of these reportett 

 discoveries lack confirmation. Beyond the identification by Prof. Newlterry of 

 a few species of fossil plants which have been obtained at dillereut localities 

 along and near the north shore of the western portion of the island, the 

 evidence of the existence of cretaf'oous deposits there is mostly or entirely eou- 

 lined to the known or assumed trend of the cretaceous outcrop whicrh has just 

 been mentioned, and to lithological similarity of certain deposits there to those 

 of portions of the non-marine division of the Now .Jersey cretaceous section. 



t "Geological Observations on the Secondary, Tertiary and Alluvial I'unna- 

 tions of the Atlantic Coast of the United States of America." (Jouru. Acad. 

 Nat. Sci. Phil. vi. Part i. 59-71 (1827).) 



t " Notes on the Cretaceous Strata of Now Jersey and Other Parts of tL« 

 United States bordering the Atlantic." (Am. Jouru. Sci. xlvii. 213-214 (1844) and 

 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. London, i. 55-00 (1845).) 



§ Med. Ilepos. iii. 2d Ed. 325-.3.35 and v. 212-215 (1805. 1802). 



ILTrans. N . Y, Acad. Sci. xii. 189-202 (1893). 



