CAPE COD GEOLOGY 



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BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE GEOLOGY OF BLOCK ISLAND 



Block Island was included in an official survey made in 1839 by Dr. C. T. 

 Jackson. 1 Numerous references to the geological features of the island are 

 made in the writings of geologists who have investigated either the Cretaceous 

 clays or the terminal moraine, particularly during the last quarter of the nine- 

 teenth century. 



A few references to the literature dealing with the island may be found in 

 a report on the geology of Rhode Island published by the Providence Franklin 

 Society in 1887. This work cited no publication earlier than Jackson's report 

 of 1840. 



Bibliography of Block Island 

 1840. Jackson, C. T. Report on the geological and agricultural survey of the State of Rhode 

 Island, 312 pp., map, Providence. Notice by B. Silliman, Jr., in Am. Jour. Sci. and 

 Arts, 40, pp. 182-194 (1841). 



Gives the results of a survey of Block Island made in 1839. Describes the topog- 

 raphy and geology. Compares the granite of the boulders to the granite in the region 

 about Kingston and infers that the boulders were derived from that region. Calls the 

 boulders and the soil in which they are embedded " diluvial" and the underlying beds 

 "Tertiary." Finds that this underlying formation consists of alternate beds of clay 

 and white sand. Notes that bog iron is mixed with gravel at the south end of the 

 island and at Clay Head, where the beds are folded and dip to the northwest. De- 

 precates the former ruinous practice, sanctioned by the town of New Shoreham, of 

 selling cobblestones from the shore for paving the streets of New York and the 

 consequent loss of land on the south coast. 

 1843. Mather, W. W. Geology of New York, Part I, comprising the geology of the first 

 geological district, 653 pp., ills., map, Albany. 



Thinks that Long Island was once connected with Block Island. 

 1875. Dana, J. D. On southern New England during the melting of the great glacier: Am. 

 Jour. Sci., 3d ser., 10, pp. 409-438. 



States that Block Island and other islands off the south coast of New England are 

 composed largely of unconsolidated preglacial beds, which are in places upturned and 

 folded. Regards these beds as probably Tertiary. 

 1881. Wadswokth, M. E. A microscopical study of the iron ore or peridotite of Iron Hill 

 mine, Cumberland, R. I.: Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoology, Harvard Coll., 7, pp. 183-187; 

 Science, 2, pp. 368-370. Abstracts in Harvard Univ. Bull. 19, p. 219; Proc. Boston 

 Soc. Nat. Hist., 21, pp. 194-197 (1882). 



Includes chemical analyses of the rock and a petrographic description. 

 1887. Providence Franklin Society. Report on the geology of Rhode Island, 130 pp., ills., 

 Providence. Includes a paper by C. T. Jackson entitled "Catalogue of rocks, min- 

 erals, and soils collected during the geological survey of Rhode Island in the summer 

 of 1839." 



Cites most of the references here given to the bibliography of the geology of Block 



Island. 



1 C. T. Jackson, Report on the geological and agricultural survey of the State of Rhode Island . . . 

 in 1839. Providence, 1840. Contains a geological map of Rhode Island, 



