11 



New Jersey. " These operations," observes Mr. Mantell, "even 

 if carried on upon an extended scale, are manifestly unim- 

 portant as agents in any of those grand revolutions which con- 

 'stitute the principal objects of Geological enquiry." 



Diluvium. On the greater part of the earth's surface are 

 observed beds of sand and clay, with rolled pebbles of various 

 sizes, all bearing marks of the action of a violent current, which 

 has first comminuted and rounded the fragments of rocks, and 

 then strewn them promiscuously on all the other formations. 

 Thus we find the Diluvial beds lying directly on the Primitive, 

 Secondary, and Tertiary rocks ; forming what has been termed 

 the mantle of the earth's crust. The Diluvium frequently 

 encloses the remains of large quadrupeds, which appear to have 

 perished in the catastrophe to which these deposits owe their 

 origin. In the great Atlantic tract, now under consideration, 

 the Diluvium is well characterized and in many places very 

 extensive. To it are referred the bones and teeth of the Mas- 

 todon, found at Pemberton, N. J., and in other places farther 

 south: also the bones of the elephant exhumed in New Jersey, 

 North Carolina, &c., and those of the Megatherium, in .Geor- 

 gia. By some Geologists, these remains are considered to be 

 embraced in the Alluvial and not in the Diluvial deposits, and 

 Mr. Featherstonhaugh shews that, in reference to this country 

 at least, the facts are in favour of the former of these opinions. 



In the deposits above described, but little order or regularity 

 is perceptible ; their various contents are, for the most part, 

 indiscriminately mingled ; but those which form the subject of 

 the following remarks, will be found to present a certain and 

 constant order of superposition ; particular species will be seen 

 to occur in some of the strata, and to be wanting in others ; 

 and, by* comparing these remains, we are able to identify a 

 formation, wherever it occurs, and to refer it to its proper 

 place in the Geological scale. 



UPPER MARINE FORMATION. 



We adopt this formation as defined in the admirable work of 

 Conybeare and Phillips. Its existence in this country was first 

 suggested by Dr. Van Rensellaer, and it was afterwards more 

 specifically examined and illustrated by Dr. Morton, in the 

 Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences. 



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