224 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [May 22 
Bruce, dated July 4, 1811*, in which he criticises, William 
Maclure’s geological map of the United States} in so far as it 
relates to this region, and amends his former conclusions in 
regard to the ‘‘ primitive’’ character of the rocks, regarding 
them all as ‘‘alluvial,’’ except ‘‘the strata of granite and 
eneiss which occur at and near Hurlgate.’’ He is largely led 
to these later conclusions by the discovery of clam, oyster and 
periwinkle shells and “ carbonated wood’’ many feet below the 
surface in Brooklyn, New Utrecht, Flatbush, Newtown and Bush- 
wick, in or below the Drift as we know it to-day. He continues: 
‘‘T say nothing of the wood discovered sixty feet deep, a little 
to the eastward of Westbury Meeting-house ; nor of the bark, 
and other parts of a tree, raised from the depth of forty feet at 
Eastwoods ; because both these places are situated to the south 
of the barrier ridge, and are within the district allowed by all 
to be alluvial.” 
On July 15, 1823, John Finch read a paper before the Academy 
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, entitled ‘‘ Geological Essay 
on the Tertiary Formation in America’’{, in which he refers the 
Staten Island, Long Isiand, Raritan and Gay Head clays to the 
tertiary. 
Shortly after this fatlosred the researches of Vanuxem and 
Morton, previously mentioned, which really mark the begin- 
ning of our modern conceptions of the true relationships of the 
strata, 
In 1887 and 1838, in the first reports of the geological survey 
of New York§, mention is made of the clays and sands on Staten 
and Long Islands, but with only vague allusions to their prob- 
able geological relations—the deposit on Staten Island being 
supposed to be ‘‘similar in its general character to that of 
Cheesequake and Matavan Point, on the New Jersey shore, and 
it appears to have a similar geological position,’’ while in regard 
to Long Island the contorted condition of the clay strata and 
the large amount of lignite contained in them are mentioned, 
and also that ‘‘they have the external characters of potters’ 
clay,’’ but they also are referred to the tertiary. 
In the final report, published in 1848]|, Mr. Mather arrives at 
* Am. Min. Journ. i. 129-133 (1814). 
+ Trans. Am. Phil. Soe. vi. 411-428 (1809). 
+ Am. Journ. Sci. vii, 31-43 (1824). 
§ Assembly Document No. 161. Communication from the Governor [W. L. 
Marcy] relative to the geological survey of the State. First Ann. Rept. 1st Geol, 
Dist. Wm. M. Mather (Feb. 11, 1837), and Assembly Document No. 200, Second 
Rept. Mos (Feb. 20, 1838). 
| Nat. Hist. N.Y. Part iv. Geology, Part i. comprising the Geology of the 
First Geological District. 
