INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, PHILADELPHIA. 1? 



quantities of dead fish strewn over the shore. The same burden rested 

 on the long line of oyster reef which extends not very far from this point 

 into the bay, where thousands upon thousands of carcasses were heaped 

 up in continuous banks, upon which the gorged turkey-buzzards were 

 lazily attempting to recover from their revels. The air was actually foul 

 with the odor of decomposition. A reef rock, of Miocene or early 

 Pliocene age, I was unable to determine which, with numerous impres- 

 sions or casts of corals, some of them identical with the forms found at 

 Whittaker's, juts out on White Beach, where it has been largely honey- 

 combed through the wash of the water, and in places is rendered soft and 

 friable; in other spots, again, it is tough and very resisting. Among the 

 numerous molluscan remains there were few that were retained in any- 

 thing like a perfect state of preservation, and scarcely one that permitted of 

 specific determination. Indeed, I only indicate with doubt the occurrence 

 of Pcctc n Jcffcrsonius, P. Madisonius, and Venus alvcata. In a somewhat 

 different rock, but without doubt belonging to the same series, we found 

 abundant casts of a large oyster, not unlikely Ostrea Virginica, associated 

 with similar remains of the clam (Venus Mortonif), cockle (Cardinal 

 magnum f) and a Pcrna. A small stream empties into the bay near 

 this point, exposing heavy beds of rock on either bank to a thickness of 

 some eight to ten, or twelve feet. I found a few casts of gasteropods in 

 these deposits, and a few fragments of scallops, apparently Pecten Madi- 

 sonius, but the fossils were not numerous, and barely determinable. The 

 difficulty of wading in the stream, too, prevented me from penetrating 

 veiy far. A short distance from this point we were conducted to a 

 locality where the carapace of a large fossil turtle, measuring nearly three 

 feet across, was embedded in the roadway, of which it formed a part. 

 The time-honored passage of vehicles over it had completely crushed the 

 carapace, breaking in the top, but the outline was still clearly defined in 

 its entire circumference. I secured two large fragments, from which I 

 had hoped to determine the specimen on my return, but, unfortunately, 

 they were left behind at one of our packing stations. 



Mr. Brock, who, in company with the cook, had during the absence of 

 the remainder of the party explored a portion of North Creek, another 

 tributary of the bay, reported the existence of a highly fossiliferous 

 stratum exposed on the banks of that stream at an elevation of some ten 

 to twelve feet. This stratum, which is underlaid by a white friable lime- 

 stone, was traced for a distance of about three-quarters of a mile, but it is 

 said to extend very much further. It is much to be regretted that want 

 of time did not permit us to make a more extended exploration of this 

 very interesting locality, and to definitely determine the different ages of 

 the deposits occurring here. The shell bed is either Pliocene or Post- 

 Pliocene, but the very limited number of fossils that were brought to me 



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