28 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [nOV. 24, 



sandstone, or conglomerate,-^— the " Brown Sandstone Forma- 

 tion " of the older Rogers* in part. Associated with the sands 

 and gravels are locally distributed angular or slightly rounded 

 masses of a white, granular quartzite. Th( se are generally flat, 

 and reach a thickness of a foot or more, some of them weigh- 

 ing not less than one hundred pounds. Tliey resemble some of 

 the Oneida sandstone of the Kittatinny Mountains. They occur 

 scattered over the surface of the country around Woodbridge, 

 N. J., and elsewhere on both sides of the Raritan River, and I 

 have aiso seen them in the southern part of the State. Wh' ther 

 or not these slabs of sandstone are a part of the Pre-glacial 

 Drift, or of subsequent deposition, I am as yet una1:)le to 

 determine. 



A peculiar and hitherto unexplained feature of the Pre- 

 glacial Drift is the presence of palaeozoic fossils in many of 

 the pebbles. I have found these in numerous localities, and 

 proper search would doubtless reveal them throughout tlie 

 entire extent of the formation. Many of them are contained 

 in pebbles of lower specific gravity than quartz, reminding 

 one strongly of a silicious limestone from which tlie calcare- 

 ous matter has been leached. Prof. R. P. Whitfield has 

 examined and determined some of the species represented in 

 the collections of the New Jersey Survey ,t and many others can 

 now be added to his list. They are Upper Silurian and 

 Devonian : corals, crinoid stems, bryozoan?, brachiopods, lamelH- 

 branchs, cephalopods, and a single fish-tooth are recorded. The 

 original source of these fossils is an unsolved problem. 



The thickness of the Pre-glacial Drift is apparently greatest 

 over and near the Plastic Clay Series, and here also is it 

 coarsest ; it is a most irregularly distributed deposit, however. 

 Its greatest depth may be safely placed at not less than forty- 

 five feet, while at points within gun-shot of a great thickness 

 there will be little or none. 



For a detailed description of the pre-glacial deposits of Long 

 Island I would refer to Mr. Merrill's paper of last Monday 

 evening, noting only the presence of the formation over all the 

 island south of the moraine, and also its occurrence in the form 



* Rep. on Geology of New Jersey, 1857. 



t New Jersey Geol. Surv., Hep. on Clay, 1878, and Ann. Rep. State Geol., 

 1880, p. 92. 



