ORGANIC REMAINS IN THE ALLUVION OF N. Y. CITY. 389 



But, above all, the fossil remains in the loose and de- 

 tached masses,, scattered over the city of New- York, 

 (and rapidly disappearing from sight, as houses and other 

 buildings are erected,) resemble in every particular the 

 Ibssii relicks along the Wallkill. The specimens brought 

 to the New-York Institution by the Rev. Mr. Schaeffer, 

 pastor of the Lutheran church, by John Macomb, Esq. 

 Street Commissioner, and by Mr. D. Bruce, are docu- 

 ments of the most instructive and important nature on 

 this subject. Had they not been found in the city of 

 New- York, a mineralogist, on examining them, would 

 pronounce them to be productions of the .county of 

 Orange, or of Dutchess. 



As parcels of this copious deposite, on the break- 

 ing of the mountain barrier, may be reckoned the 

 islands, with their shoals, in the bay. Governor's Island, 

 Oyster Island, and Bedlow's Island, with Sandy Hook, and 

 the spits and bars in its vicinity, ought all to be con-* 

 sidered in connexion with that grand catastrophe. 



Some of the minerals and fossils seem to have been left 

 by the way. A superb specimen brought by James Smith, 

 .Esq. from Mount Pleasant, or Singsing, in Westchester 

 county, presents marine shells of the same character and 

 species with those already described. 



To the same gentleman I am indebted for the very sin- 

 gular fact, that the sandstone at Nyack, in the county of 

 Rockland, scarcely more than thirty miles north of the 

 city, overlays a stratum of loose loam containing the 

 bones of mammiferous quadrupeds, or land animals. Mr. 

 Smith's polite disposition and zeal for science induced 

 him, in 1815, to accompany me to the quarry of Mr. 

 William Palmer, where, on breaking up the sandstone, 



