1895. ] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. . 
marine cretaceous molluscs have been found at the southeast 
corner of Staten Island,* we should have to picture the former 
northern limit of the marl belt as curving northward so as to in- 
clude the Narrows, thence diagonally across New York Bay 
almost, if not quite, to the East River, and thence into the basin 
of Long Island Sound and around the southeastern coast of 
New England. The evidence of its existence so far to the north 
in the vicinity of New York is somewhat of a surprise, and indi- 
cates that the clay belt here must have been very narrow if not 
entirely absent in places. Taken in connection with what we 
previously knew in regard to the occurrence of marine cre- 
taceous strata eastward we should infer that the clay belt 
widened out in the Sound region and pinched out finally some- 
where around the southeastern New England coast. 
Yellow Gravel.—The extension of the Yellow Gravel forma- 
tion from New Jersey through Staten Island, Long Island and 
eastward has always been a subject of interest to me, aside from 
any attempt to differentiate it into more than one horizon. 
Under this general name I am satisfied that the formation cov- 
ered the entire coastal plain region, including Long Island, 
Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, in pre-glacial times. The 
difficulty of identifying it at different parts of this region, and 
of differentiating it from other superficial gravels is often con- 
siderable, especially as it is so frequently involved with the 
gravels of the moraine. This matter was discussed by me in 
connection with explorations made on the north shore of Long 
Island,} where the characteristic silicified calcareous pebbles, 
containing palzozoic fossils, were found as far east as Lloyd’s 
Neck. Subsequently I explored the gravels of the plain region, 
south of the moraine, with the result that similar fossils were 
found in abundance as far east as Mineola—probably as abund- 
antly as in northern New Jersey. Continuing eastward they 
became more and more rare; the last finds being made in the 
vicinity of Brentwood. At Lake Ronkonkoma I failed to find 
any, and from thence further east the gravel was entirely 
quartzose and granitic, although manifestly representing the 
same formation. 
Distribution of Cretaceous material in the moraine.—In the 
paper last quoted, attention was called to the well-known fact 
that there are two branches to the moraine on Long Island from 
Port Jefferson eastward. The northern or more recent one, 
* The Paleontology of the Cretaceous Formation on Staten Island. Trans. N. Y. 
Acad. Sci. XI. (1892), 96-104. 
+Some Further Notes on the Geology of the North Shore of Long Island. Trans. 
N. Y. Acad. Sci., XIIL. (1894), 122-129. 
