680 GEOLOGY 



several areas are mostly elongate in a northeast-southwest direction. 

 The principal areas are: (1) About the Bay of Fundy; (2) in the 

 Connecticut River valley; (3) from the Hudson River to Virginia; 

 and (4) disconnected areas in Virginia and North Carolina. The 

 beds of these several areas have been grouped under the name 

 Newark 1 (Newark, N. J.). 



The rocks of the Newark series 2 include all the common varieties 

 of fragmental rocks, some of which are developed in unusual phases. 

 Sandstones and shales predominate, but there are abundant con- 

 glomerates, some breccias, and, locally, limestone and coal. 



The conglomerates. Conglomerate lies at the base of the system 

 in many places, and is made up chiefly of material from the under- 

 lying crystalline schist. But the conglomerates are not simply 

 basal. Some of them represent the border phase of beds which 

 grade laterally into sandstone, and even into shale. The chief 

 constituent of the conglomerate is quartz, the most resistant part 

 of the underlying terranes; but quartzite and crystalline schist 

 appear in the conglomerate, and locally limestone is its principal 

 constituent. 



The exceptional coarseness of the conglomerate in some places 

 has been thought to call for unusual conditions of origin. It lias 

 been conjectured that it was formed at a time when glaciers existed 

 in the region. It should be noted, however, that this suggestion 

 was based on the supposed demand for some exceptional agent of 

 transportation, rather than on any direct evidence of glacial ion. 

 In general, the materials of the conglomerate are too well assorted 

 to be the immediate product of glaciation, and the stones and 

 bowlders do not bear the marks of ice. These points would lose 

 much of their force if the conglomerate were deposited by glacial 

 drainage; but in the absence of all certain evidence of glacial or 

 glacio-fluvial origin, it seems more prudent to regard the conglom- 

 erate as a formation of terrestrial or shallow-water origin. 



The sandstone and shale. Sandstone and shale make up the 



1 For an account of the Newark series see Russrll, Bull. 85, CJ, B, Geol 

 Surv., 1892. Full bibliography to date of publioat ion. 



2 The Connecticut valley and New York- Virginia an>as :.n- 1><-1 known. 

 and the descriptions of the' formations here given apply especially to them. 



