230 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [May 22 
Nantucket*. Cretaceous and tertiary deposits are recognized 
upon the former, by means of the fossils, but only tertiary and 
later on the latter. The author also discusses at some length 
the stratigraphy of each island and the probable changes which 
have preceded their present condition. 
In 1889, Prof. Shaler published a paper ‘“ On the Occurrence 
of Fossils of the Cretaceous Age on the Island of Martha’s 
Vineyard, Mass.,’+ in which he discusses the probable origin of 
the fossils and the dislocation of the beds. The fauna only is 
described, no flora. 
In 1889, David White visited Gardiner’s Island, Block Island, 
Center Island and Martha’s Vineyard, and collected a large 
amount of cretaceous material, especially plants{, which I was . 
kindly permitted to examine during the past winter, and was 
thus enabled to idenitfy a large number of the species with those 
which I had previously collected on Long Island and had become 
familiar with from the cretaceous of Staten Island and New 
Jersey. These discoveries proved to be of the highest impor- 
tance, as we were thus enabled to trace the continuity of the 
cretaceous strata from New Jersey through Staten and Long 
Islands to Martha’s Vineyard, and to demonstrate beyond ques- 
tion that the theory of Mather and subsequent observers in 
regard to the eastward extension of the cretaceous formation 
was correct, and that the geological maps of the region should 
not only show the north shore of Long Island, but also part of 
Martha’s Vineyard as cretaceous§, and emphasized the proba- 
bility that certain limited areas of the New England coast could 
also be referred to that horizon. 
The Long Island material upon which this paper is based 
consists entirely of fossil plants, no animal remains which could 
be even provisionally referred to the cretaceous having come 
under my observation. Fortunately, however, many of these 
plant remains are in such a perfect state of preservation that 
they may be readily identified with well known cretaceous 
species, and the age of the strata in which they occur or from 
which they have been derived can no longer be questioned. 
The total number of species represented in the specimens 
* Bull. No. 53, U. 8. G.S. (1889). 
+ Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. xvi. No. 5, 89-97 (1889). 
+ Am. Journ. Sei. xxxix. 93-101 (1890), and Bull. Geol. Soc, Am. i. 554, 555 (1890), 
with comments by Lester F. Ward, J. 8. Newberry and F. J. H. Merrill. 
§ The two most recently published geological maps of the United States are 
ist, by W. J. McGee, in 5th Ann- Rept. U.S. G.8. (1884), and, 2d, by C. H. Hitch- 
cock, for the Am. Inst. Mining Eng. (1886). In each of these the north shore of 
Long Island is recognized as cretaceous, but Martha’s Vineyard is designated 
as tertiary and quaternary only. 
