26 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [nOV. 24 



Dr. N. L. Britton read a paper entitled : 

 notes on the glacial and pre-glacial drifts of new jersey and 



staten island. 



(Illustrated with specimens and lantern views.) 



The terminal moraine of eastern North America extends from 

 the Southeast corner of Cape Cod, across Nantucket, Martha's 

 Vineyard and Block Island, and runs through the centre of Long 

 Island for its whole length ; it crosses New York Bay at the 

 Narrows, follows a curved line across Staten Island, meets 

 New Jersey at Perth Amljoy, and takes a smuoiis course across 

 that State to Belvidere on the Delaware River, where it enters 

 Pennsylvania. Further west than this point it is unnecessary 

 to trace it in the present paper. 



The river valleys, particularly those of the Delaware and 

 Raritan. which head in the glaciated region north of the line 

 above traced and terminate south of it, have served as channels 

 , for the further distribution of the Glacial Drift, while along the 

 coasts the action of the sea during the periods of depression 

 has given us extensive areas of stratified, modified Drift. 



The material known as the Yellow or Pre-Glacial Drift, to 

 which attention is directed in the present communication, is 

 distributed along the Atlantic Border, from the coasts of the 

 Southern States northward to the moraine, which it underlies 

 unconformal)ly, and by which its extreme northern limit for 

 the country east of New York is concealed and at present 

 undeterminable. Its inland distribution is not extensive, and is 

 apparently determined by the altitude of the country above the 

 sea. It is found in southeastern Pennsylvania and covers the 

 entire State of Delaware, so far as I can ascertain. All south- 

 ern New Jersey is overspread by it, and the tops of hills in 

 that region are commonly capped with the pre-glacial gravel. 

 Some of these hills attain elevations of thi-ee to four hundred 

 feet. Their presence is due to the erosion of the surrounding 

 country. 



The contact of the two drifts is observable in but few locali- 

 ties. Their relation was first definitely made known by Pro- 

 fessors Cook and Smock, of the New Jersey Geological Sur- 

 vey,* during their study of the Plastic Clay Series in Middlesex 



* Report on Clays, 1878, p. 120, etc. ; see also Ann. Rep. State Geologist, 

 1880, p. 88. 



