(399) 



the island proper the surface is comparatively level and un- 

 dulating and the shore line is low, with a limited area of salt 

 marsh in the vicinity of Poucha Pond, and smaller ones at 

 other points, in connection with little tidal inlets. 



2. Geology. 



If the recently transported sands of the beaches are disre- 

 garded the island may be said to be composed of reassorted 

 drift, with occasional boulders and a very limited amount of 

 till. Inasmuch as the island is located approximately five 

 miles south of the frontal moraine of Martha's Vineyard and 

 is more or less out of the line of its apparent trend at Vineyard 

 Haven, which is the nearest point at which it is now exposed, 

 the presence of this small area of till is somewhat difficult to 

 understand. There is, however, an unmistakable exposure 

 along the low western shore of Cape Poge Bay and another 

 on Cape Poge, which exposures may perhaps represent the 

 sloping southern edge of the moraine, which evidently once 

 extended in a southeasterly direction from Vineyard Haven 

 to Nantucket. I was unable, however, to determine the re- 

 lations of these exposures to the reassorted material of the 

 nearby hills. 



These hills in general may be described as kame-like, both 

 in appearance and in composition. They are rounded accu- 

 mulations of sand, gravel and cobble stones, with some 

 bowlders, and were evidently formed by water action. In 

 many places the sand and gravel is cemented together by 

 limonite, forming hard lenses or strata, and ferruginous con- 

 cretions and shaly fragments are abundantly represented, 

 especially on the shores and in the bluffs fronting on and 

 adjacent to Edgartown Harbor. 



3. Paleontology. 



This ferruginous material was at once recognized as litho- 

 logically identical with that in which Cretaceous molluscs and 

 plants had been found on Martha's Vineyard and elsewhere, 

 and the mention by Shaler of the occurrence of obscure mol- 



