4 The Pleistocene Deposits of Sankoty 



section and the occurrence of the fossils. Their conclusions were 

 based upon an insufficient knowledge of the region and are later 

 referred to by Merill as "some stratigraphical generalizations 

 which were entirely imaginary." They supposed a Tertiary basin 

 underlying Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, the deposits at Gay 

 Head marking one side of the basin, those at Sankoty Head mark- 

 ing the other. Among other points a distinction is made between 

 the lower bed in which bivalves were "found in their natural posi- 

 tion, both valves together, showing that the animals died in the 



place in which they lived " The shells in the two beds 



are spoken of as being the same, although those of the upper bed 

 were "bleached and more or less worn" therefore "exposed to the 

 action of the waves before they were buried." A list of seventeen 

 species is given with a brief note as to their abundance. 



For over twenty-five years the work of Desor and Cabot was not 

 added to or confirmed. In the summer of 1875, however, with the 

 establishment of the U. S. Fish Commission at Woods Hole, activ- 

 ity was again manifested. A party consisting of Prof. Alpheus 

 Hyatt, Mr. Sanderson Smith, Mr. C. H. Merriam and others 

 visited the cliff and collected fossils. It was visited later by Mr. 



5. H. Scudder of Cambridge who made an extensive excavation to 

 expose the fossiliferous beds. Mr. Richard Rathbun also visited 

 the locality for the Commission and collected largely, keeping dis- 

 tinct the fossils of the upper and lower beds. Mr. Scudder exhib- 

 ited his collection at the meeting of the Boston Society on October 



6, 1875, and gave an account of them and of the cliff. With Prof. 

 A. E. Verrill, he also published a paper in the American Journal 

 of Science in November of the same year. Mr. Scudder in this 

 paper gives an account of the section, while Prof. Verrill limits 

 himself mainly to the fossils. In Prof. Verrill's list are given 

 sixty-three species and varieties, with the bed in which each occurs, 

 distinguished for the first time. He also makes certain biological 

 deductions as a result of this study of the two beds, showing that 

 the animals of the lower bed were of a decidedly southern char- 

 acter while the upper bed contains a more northern assemblage. 

 This seems to indicate a change in conditions between the deposi- 

 tion of these two layers. 



Until 1889 no further work appeared upon these deposits. At 

 that time Prof. S baler's paper on the Geology of Nantucket was 



