GEOLOGICAL LITERATURE OF THE VIRGINIA 

 COASTAL PLAIN 



1783 



Lincoln, Gen. Benj. An account of several strata of earth and shells 

 on the banks of York Eiver, in Virginia. 



Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci., vol. i, pt. ii, pp. 372-373, 1783. 



This is the earliest known reference to the geology of the Coastal Plain of Virginia 

 and for that reason the article is quoted in its entirety. "That this earth, since Its 

 formation, has met with great changes, and that the shores, now covered with the tallest 

 cedars and most luxuriant plants, were once washed by the ocean, none can dpny. The 

 land between James-river in Virginia, is very level ; Its surface being about forty feet 

 above high-water mark. It appears to have arrived to Its present height at different 

 periods, far distant each from the other, by means of the ocean : for, near York-town, 

 where the banks are perpendicular, you can first see a stratum of earth, about five feet 

 high, intermixed with small shells, which has the appearance of a mixture of clay and 

 sand. On that lies, horizontally, a stratum of white shells, the cockle, the clam, and 

 others, an inch or two thick ; then a body of earth, similar to the first mentioned, eighteen 

 inches thick ; and on that lies another thin body of small shells, then a third body of 

 earth, about the same thickness as the last ; and on that lies another body of white shells, 

 of various kinds, about three feet thick, with very little sand, or earth, mixed with them. 

 On these lies a body of oyster-shells, about six feet thick ; then a body of earth to the 

 surface. The oyster-shells are so united by a very strong cement, that they fall only 

 when undermined, and then in largo bodies, from one to twenty tons weight. They have 

 the appearance of large rocks on the shores and are wasted by the frequent washing of 

 the sea. All these different strata seem to be perfectly horizontal. 



"After riding about seven miles from York-toitn, near the center between the two 

 rivers, I discovered, at a place from which a large body of earth had been removed to 

 a mlll-dam, nearly the same appearance as in the bank first mentioned. 



"What they call their stone, with which they buifd in York-town is nothing more than 

 shells, united by a strong cement, which seems to be petrified in a degree, but is appar- 

 ently affected by the weather." 



1799 



Latrobe, B. Henry. Memoir on the Sand-hills of Cape Henry in 



Virginia. 



Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc, vol. iv, pp. 439-444, Phila., 1799. 



The aqueous origin of the Coastal Plain is advocated in the following statements : 

 "That the whole of this extensive country, from the falls of the coast, is factitious, and 

 of Neptunian origin, appears far from being hypothetical ; and the fossil teeth and bones 

 (shark's teeth, fish vertebrae, etc.) which accompany this memoir, and which with many 

 hundred more, were dug out of a well at Richmond, from the depth of 71 feet, prove 

 that the deposition of the superstrata Is not of a date suflBciently removed to have destroyed 

 the soft and almost cartilaginous part of the joints, or to have injured the enamel of 

 the teeth. The Neptunian theory of geogeny, has now very generally taken the place of 

 the old volcanic system, and, as far as conjecture and hypothesis can forward science, it Is 

 certainly more generally applicable." 



