10 



In making acknowledgments for kindnesses shown me while en- 

 gaged in this piece of work, I wish first of all to speak of the help, 

 in way of encouragement and suggestions, that my instructor, Dr. 

 L. C. Glenn, has at all times most cheerfully given me. He has 

 given me the use of his own geological library, and where a book 

 needed could be obtained neither from his library nor from that of 

 the University, he borrowed it for me from elsewhere. His own 

 collections of fossils and those of the University have been at my 

 disposal in making out lists and in preparing tables. In the discus- 

 sion of the Geographic and Stratigraphic relations of the Pleistocene 

 of the State, his observations and investigations have been of great 

 value. 



My thanks are due the University for financial assistance while 

 collecting fossils, and are most heartily given. I wish also to ac- 

 knowledge the kindness of Dr. W. H. Dall, of Washington, in 

 promptly identifying certain species sent him. 



I. HISTORICAL REVIEW. 



The Atlantic Coastal Plain of the United States has been an object 

 of interest and study to geologists since the time the pioneers of 

 American geology, Mitchell and McClure, first discriminated the 

 region and aroused in others the desire to investigate its problems. 

 It was due to investigations in this region and to efforts at inter- 

 preting the records of the ancient life in its strata that Conrad, 

 Tuomey, the Rogers brothers, Holmes and many others, in the 

 middle of the century just passed, gained their renown. Later Hil- 

 gard in the Gulf region, Cook in New Jersey, and others in the 

 region between and in New York and New England studied the 

 succession of strata as revealed by the fossil forms embedded in 

 them, and so impressed their ideas of classification and nomenclature 

 that these are still largely adhered to. In recent years McGee, Salis- 

 bury, Chamberlain, Dall, Shattuck and others have wrought in this 

 field so perseveringly and so thoroughly that it may be said that no 

 section of our country has been more thoroughly investigated than 

 has the Costal Plain. 



North Carolina has the honor of being the first State of the Union 

 to authorize, at its own expense, a survey of its territory "with the 

 desire of developing its resources and enlarging the boundaries of 

 human knowledge." South Carolina was the next to fall in line in 

 this commendable work. Whatever may have been its shortcomings 

 since, the State made a good start. By order of its legislature, Mr. 



