126 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [jAN. 18, 



Considered as a whole the specimens are not verj- satisfactory. 

 They consist of poorly pi-eserved molluscs, fragments of crusta- 

 ceans, fruit, leaves and branches of trees, and masses of lignite. 

 The mingling of land and marine life is what would naturally 

 h^ expected in strata whose lithologic characters show a transi- 

 tion from the fresh or brackish water deposits of the plastic clays 

 below, to the purely marine deposits of the greensand marls 

 above. 



The molluscs and crustaceans occur in ferruginous concretions, 

 as do some of the plant remains, but a number of the latter, 

 mostly leaves, were found in layers. When first uncovered these 

 showed a film of carbonaceous matter, but it cracked and dis- 

 integrated upon exposure to the air, leaving nothing but a faint 

 impression behind. In the concretions the impressions are more 

 clearh^ defined. Some of the concretions, especially those con- 

 taining the crustaceans, were found in place in the strata ; others, 

 lying scattered along the beach, had evidently resulted from the 

 hardening of pieces of clay marl broken from the face of the 

 bluff, the included ferrous sulphate becoming oxidized into 

 limonite, thus changing them from soft, greenish-colored cla\' 

 marl masses into hard, reddish-brown, shaly fragments. This 

 process of change may be seen in every stage of its development 

 by examining the beach material. Pyrite in the form of nodules 

 usually accompanies the lignite masses and as incrustations 

 around cones, branches, and otlier coarse fragments of vegeta- 

 tion, doubtless due to the action of the carbon upon the ferrous 

 sulphate. Upon the occasion of my last visit these nodules 

 were in such abundance as to form the bulk of the beach shingle, 

 but this was evidentl}- due to recent extensive washing out by 

 the extra high tide and would not permanently remain such a 

 prominent feature, as thej^ decompose more or less rapidly upon 

 exposure to the atmosphere and become broken up. Tbe per- 

 centage of iron in the strata, in the form of sulphate and sul- 

 phide must be very high. The water which issues from the bluff 

 is thoroughly impregnated with it, and, as it flows over the beach, 

 a coating of limonite is formed whicli frequently cements the sand 

 and gravel into a firm conglomerate, often including pieces of 

 drift wood and the leaves and twigs of vegetation living in the 

 vicinity. 



Only on rare occasions is a sheer face to the bluff exposed, as 

 it is being constantly undermined and broken down by wave ac- 

 tion, so that the lower portion is nearly alwaj^s masked by land- 

 slips from above. Such was the case this year and we had to be 

 contented with collections made from the displaced and broken 

 masses and loose concretions. In the summer of 1894, however, 



