1893. | NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. it 
the roots ; on which, to satisfy his hunger, he broiled the whale and the 
great fish of the sea, throwing out the refuse sufficient to cover several 
acres, * * * To facilitate the catching these fish, he threw many 
large stones, at proper distances into the sea, on which he might walk 
with greater ease to himself. * * * Ona time an offering was made 
to him of all the tobacco on Martha’s Vineyard, which having smoked, 
he knocked the snuff out of his pipe, which formed Nantucket. “When 
the Christian religion took place in the island, he told them as light had 
come among them, and he belonged to the kingdom of darkness, he 
must take his leave; which to their great sorrow he accordingly did; 
and has never been heard of since. Had this been a Grecian or Egyptian 
fable, how many volumes of explanations, resolutions, and comments, it 
would have given rise to !”’ r 
‘* We tarried on the island * * * examining the cliffs. * * * They 
appeared to be composed principally of clays, of all colours, and unectu- 
ous to the touch. The red, used as a paint, undoubtedly derives its 
colour from the calx of iron. The blue shoots out copperas in consider- 
able plenty, and we found hard, heavy pieces of matter, sparkling with 
small granulated particles of a white colour, imbedded therein. This, 
it is probable, will afford something of the metallick kind. * * * Small 
streams of water ran down the sides of the cliffs; * * * every one of 
these had more or less of the vitriolick taste. 
‘The bones of whales, sharks’ teeth, and petrified shell fish, are fre- 
quently picked up, scattered up and down the cliff, at a considerable 
distance above the surface of the water. 
“*The sea, it is said, has made considerable encroachments on this part 
of Gay Head. Within thirty years it has swept off fifteen or twenty rods. 
Had Neptune thus demolished part of Vesuvius or “tna up to their 
very craters and laid open all their secrets, how would the curious in 
Europe have flocked from all quarters to behold a scene so full of won- 
ders! But Gay Head is scarcely mentioned in America,’’ 
PART Ib. 
Reports upon and accounts of the geology of the island by 
subsequent observers are abundant, references to which will be 
given wherever occasion may arise in this paper, and such as 
are not quoted in the discussion will be appended at the end. 
One of the latest, and by far the most complete of these, is 
by Prof. N. 8S. Shaler,* to which special attention is now called, 
not only because it may be considered as containing the views 
most likely to carry with them the greatest weight of authority, 
but also because it was used as my guide and work of reference 
while on the island, and because it is indispensable to those who 
may wish an exhaustive and clear statement of the facts con- 
cerning the island’s geology, irrespective of any interpretation 
which may be deduced from them. 
It has already been noted that the earliest writers ascribed a 
volcanic origin to that part of the island in the vicinity of Gay 
* “ Report on the Geology of Martha’s Vineyard.’’—7th Ann. Rept. U.S. G.S. 
1885-86) 297-363, 
