122 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [March, 



fan deposits, as recently summed up by Trowbridge," to the present 

 occurrences shows the improbability of their having had such an 

 origin; the majority of the pebbles are too well rounded and as- 

 sorted. In fact, the stratification is quite definite, and the pebbles 

 have apparently been transported and deposited by some agent 

 which did not disturb the soft red mud now forming the cement 

 of the conglomerate. 



The possible glacial-moraine origin of similar Triassic conglomer- 

 ate deposits in other regions has been advanced, in some form or 

 other, by various writers. W. M. Fontaine^^ discussed it elaborately 

 and found no difficulty in reconciling the (supposed) deposition 

 of the bulk of the strata in a ''mild, equable and moist climate" 

 in the lovi^lands, with the collection of "unUmited supplies of snow" 

 and ''its discharge in the form of glaciers" on the "lofty mountain 

 belt of the Appalachians." And many others had come to agree 

 \vith this view. I. C. Russell, ^^ after reviewing the evidence, stated 

 that " the absence of glacial records seems to warrant the conclusion 

 that glaciers did not enter the basins in which the Newark rocks 

 were deposited. It does not follow, however, that the Appalachians 

 were not occupied by local glaciers. The suggestion that those 

 mountains were higher in the Newark period than now and were 

 covered with perennial snow, while the adjacent lowlands enjoyed 

 a mild climate, seems an attractive and very possible hypothesis, 

 but definite evidence as to its verity has not been obtained. The 

 proof that the climate of the Atlantic slope during the Newark period 

 resembled that of Italy at the present day, with glaciers on the 

 neighboring mountains, must be looked for in the drainage and 

 sculpturing of the mountains, and the character and distribution 

 of the debris washed from them. A period of long decay preceding 

 the birth of the Appalachian glaciers would have prepared land to 

 furnish abundant debris when the faciUties for transportation 

 were augmented." 



In late years the idea that the red color of sediments is connected 

 with their deposition in more or less arid climates, has gradually 

 been gaining ground, and as other evidence appeared to favor 



" The Terrestrial Deposits of Owens Valley, California, Jour. Geol., XIX, 

 706-747, 1911. 



'^ Notes on the Mesozoic strata of Virginia, Amer. Jour. Sci., [3] XVII, pp. 

 236, 237, 1879. 



1^ Correlation papers — The Newark System, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv. No. 85, 

 pp. 50-53, 1892. 



