1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 227 



fossil leaves and fruit from these strata — a discovery the impor- 

 tance of which we can only appreciate fully in the light of 

 investigations made within the past few years, inasmuch as some 

 of these can now be identified with well-recognized cretaceous 

 species subsequently found in New Jersey, Stateu Island, Long 

 Island and Martha's Vineyard itself. Prominent among Prof. 

 Hitchcock's specimens from the latter locality are certain " pear- 

 shaped seeds,'' in regard to which he says : " It seems to me 

 very obvious that these remains must be the seed vessels of 

 coniferous plants'' — an observation which shows a very acute 

 appreciation of their probable affinities, as the same objects 

 have been found abundantly throughout the localities mentioned 

 and have been considered as Dammara or possibly Eucalyptus 

 by more recent investigators, as will be noticed more fully 

 further on. 



In 1849, there appeared an article by M. E. Desor and E. C. 

 Cabot, " On the Tertiary and more recent Deposits in the 

 Island of Nantucket,"* in which they refer to the resemblance 

 between the clay at Sankaty, Nantucket, Truro on Cape Cod 

 and Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard, which are all referred to 

 as probably Tertiary and the conclusion is reached that " Thus 

 the Tertiary cliffs of Gay Head should no longer be looked 

 upon as an isolated fact, but the cliffs of Sancati may be con- 

 sidered as the opposite outcrop of a large tertiary basin, 

 underlying the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard 

 . and extending to the south below Long Island and to the 

 north as far as Truro." 



In August, 1859, William Stimpson visited Martha's Vineyard 

 and confirmed Prof. Hitchcock's conclusion in regard to the 

 cretaceous age of certain of the strataj, having collected both 

 animal and vegetable i-emains. The notice in regard to this 

 excursion is, however, very meagre. 



At the meeting of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural 

 Sciences on June 2, 1868, E. D. Cope gave an account of his 

 discovery of the fresh-water origin of sands and clays in west 

 New Jersey, on the Delaware River above Camden, which he 

 found to contain leaves of dicotyledonous trees, ctenoid fish 

 scales and numerous uniouidai'l. 



The prosecution of the New Jersey Geological Survey, under 

 Geo. H. Cook, from 18G5 to 1887, with its various reports and 

 maps, gave not only exact descriptions of the cretaceous strata 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. London, v. 34n-H44 (1849). 



t •' Cretaceous Strata at Gay Head. Mass." (Am. Jouru. Sei. xxix, 145 (i860). 



t Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil. xx. 167-158 (1868). 



