The Geology of Hingham. 



15 



Formations. 



Life. 



Yorktowu Period. 

 (Miocene.) 



Sumter Period. 

 (Pliocene.) 



Quaternary Age. 

 Glacial Period. 



Champlain Period. 



Animals : 



Whales, dolphins, seals, 

 walruses, bones of ta- 

 pir-like animals, and of 

 new species of horses 

 and of hogs, rhinoce- 

 roses of several genera, 

 wolves, lions, beavers, 

 etc. 



Animals : 



Of Birds : eagles, cranes, 



and cormorants. 

 Of .Mammals elephants, 

 camels, rhinoceroses, 

 deer, tigers, horses, 

 and the jirst of the 

 mastodons found in 

 American deposits. 



All the Orders of Insects 

 the remains of which are 

 found in the Mesozoic de- 

 posits are also represented 

 in the Caenozoic. Great 

 numbers of species have 

 been preserved to us in 

 amber, a fossil gum of the 

 Tertiary Age. 



Entire destruction of life 

 over the glaciated North 

 which extended in the 

 eastern part of the 

 United States as far 

 south as Pennsylvania. 



Animal life : read under 

 next period. 



The animal life of the two 

 earlier periods of the 

 Quaternary Age was of 

 remarkable character, 

 especially as shown by 

 the remains of the Mam- 

 mals found both in 

 Europe and America. 

 These show 

 species were 



that the 

 of enor- 

 mous size compared with 



General Remarks. 



During this period, and culminating 

 at its close, there is evidence of 

 great disturbances over a large 

 portion of the continent. By 

 great volcanic action, extensive 

 regions of the Pacific slope were 

 overflowed by igneous rocks to 

 the depth of thousands of feet, 

 and the Rocky Mountains raided 

 to their present elevation. Their 

 uprise during the Tertiary Age, 

 according to Dana, could not 

 have been less than 11,000 feet. 

 The height at which the deposits 

 of the Miocene Period are found 

 on the southeast and southern 

 coast, being several hundred feet, 

 shows the extent of the move- 

 ments. 



The phosphatic beds of South Caro- 

 'ina are of this period. 



A period generally regarded as one 

 of extreme cold, but there is rea- 

 son to think the degree of this 

 has been exaggerated. Ice cov- 

 ered Eastern North America to 

 the height of from 2,000 to 6,000 

 feet. 



The period of the passing away of 

 the ice, and of great floods ; a 

 period, too, of considerable de- 

 pression of the surface and of 

 extensive alluvial deposits. 



