AMERICAN GEOLOGISTS AND NATURALISTS. 21 



the domains of truth ; and should man be true to his permanent in- 

 terests, error finally will cease to have existence. 



Sio"ned, Henry D. Rogers, 



Lardner Vanuxem, 

 Richard C. Taylor, 

 Ebenezer Emmons, 

 T. A. Conrad. 



Mr. Vanuxem read a paper " On the the Ancient Oyster Shell 

 Deposites observed near the Atlantic coast of the United States." 



Among the unsettled subjects of geology in our country, is the 

 origin of the deposits of oyster shells, ( Ostrea Virginica,) observed 

 in many parts of the Atlantic seaboard, of which a few only of those 

 near South Amboy have come under our notice. But the greater 

 number of those of the largest dimensions are in the waters of 

 the Chesapeake. Some of these southern deposits of shells are 

 enormous, covering, it is said, acres of ground, adding no small 

 weight to the truth of that belief that considers them in situ, as 

 ancient oyster beds, raised from their original position by the uplift- 

 ing of our coast, of which the fact of their generally holding, if not a 

 real, an apparent similarity of level, would seem to be ample confu-- 

 mation. This theory of their being in place, is highly satisfactory, 

 being in accordance with the less modern deposits beneath them, 

 adding one more to the number of elevating movements to which 

 our coast has been subjected, thus mutually confirming each other, 

 making the certainty of these movements sure. 



When the nature of their origin was advanced by Mr. Conrad, I 

 confessed a decided bias ; for I knew not the facts upon which Mr. 

 Ducatel, the geologist of Maryland, maintained the opposite one. 

 None were known to me adverse to the views of Mr. Conrad, for 

 the history of our country afforded no light that could be recollected, 

 either as to the origin of these oyster shell deposits, or to any extra- 

 ordinary manifestation of gastronomic power in the aborigines, in 

 respect of this article of diet, which would lead me to infer their 

 existence, and which the magnitude of some of the deposits re- 

 quired. 



The eastern shore of Maryland presents many deposits of these 

 oyster shells, until recently, unused and little examined, so far as 

 knowledge has been received this way. Now, as many of the 

 planters in that section of the country are waking from the deep 

 slumber of the past, and turning their attention to the all-important 

 subject of improving their lands by the use of lime, a few of these 

 deposits have become the subject of investigation, furnishing facts, 

 which, were the same discovered elsewhere, would settle the ques- 

 tion of their origin, and in favor of the Maryland geologist. 



At the mouth of Pickawaxent Creek, about eighty miles below 

 Washington, there is an extensive deposit of oyster shells, at which 

 an estabUshment has been formed, which, in a few months has 



