14 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [ocr. 23, 
observers shows that both the tertiary and quaternary forma- 
tions are also represented.* This fact is to be expected if we 
suppose the material which now forms the island to have been 
largely derived from the strata which formerly occupied the 
present basin of the Sound to the north. In fact the almost en- 
tire absence of tertiary fossils throughout Long Island has al- 
ways been more or less of a puzzle, unless we suppose that the 
cretaceous belt of New Jersey, which averages about 18 miles 
in width, continued in about the same width for a considerable 
distance eastward, in which case it would have occupied prac- 
tically the whole of the area of the coastal plain subject to 
glacial erosion north of Long Island, and the tertiary strata 
would have been south of the limit of furthest ice advancement, 
and therefore not only not subject to erosion, but their former 
outcrops covered with the debris of the moraine at the present 
time. 
As there seems to be undoubted evidence of both cretaceous 
and post-cretaceous fossils on Martha’s Vineyard we must con- 
clude that the cretaceous belt became narrower from Long 
Island eastward, and that tertiary and later strata as well were 
subject to erosion in the area north of Martha’s Vineyard. 
PART I€. 
The portion of the island personally investigated was from 
Vineyard Haven to Gay Head, and the paleontological material 
collected consists of mollusks in a poor state of preservation, 
and dicotyledonous plant remains in excellent condition. I 
also found a bone which I took to be a section of the vertebral 
column of a Zeuglodon, but it was unfortunately lost before my 
return home, and was therefore merely subjected to a hasty 
examination in the field. 
This latter specimen and the plant remains were collected on 
the side or at the base of the Gay Head escarpment. The plant 
remains consist of leaves, fruits, seeds and other fragments, 
* Hitchcock, Edward. Final Rept. on the Geol. of Mass., II, ('841) 422-434, Pl. 
XIX. Figs. 1-19. [Cretaceous aad Tertiary flora and 
fauna. ] 
Lyell, Charles. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. London, IV. No. 92. Review in Am. 
Journ. Sci. X LVL. (1844) 318-320. [Tertiary fauna. ] 
Shaler, N.S. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. XVI. No. 5 (1889) 89-97. [Cretaceous fauna. ] 
Merrill, Fredk. J. H. Discussion of David White’s paper on “ Cretaceous Plants 
from Martha’s Vineyard,’ Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. I. 
(1890) 554-555. [Tertiary and Quaternary fauna. ] 
White, David. See above reference and also Am. Journ. Sci. X X XIX. (1890) 
93-101. [Cretaceous flora. ] 
The above references contain definite facts in regard to the paleontological 
proofof the ages of the strata. Referencesin regard to stratigraphy and gen- 
eral geology, etc., will be given further on. 
