MARL AND FEAT. 205 



contribution of vast ninnbcrs of streams of all grades of magnitude, meandering and in- 

 osculating in a (liousand ariiitrary waj's, but all finally merging in the great deep of 

 unfathomable exi.stence. 



The marl and peat beds rest upon a diluvial stratum, that seems to have been formed 

 immediately after the Champlain tertiary ; and, at first view, they seem to be but insigni- 

 ficant formations. They are not, however, so very insignificant, if the presence of fossils 

 can impart importance to a formation ; for in these beds, the remains of extinct elephants, 

 mastodons or mammoths, and the gigantic beaver and deer, arc deposited. Though these 

 formations arc never very extensive, or spread widely over a coimtry continuously, yet 

 they are numerous : they make up in number, what they lack in breadth. They occupy 

 shallow basin-form depressions, which were once submerged by small bodies of fresh 

 water. The marl formation itself is a white calcareous earth, which is never consolidated. 

 There is no regularity in the depth of this earth : it varies from one or two feet, to sixty. 

 Peat, a peculiar vegetable product, usually overlies it, though it is not always present : 

 the order is never reversed ; the marl never rests on the peat, but the latter often exists 

 independently of the former. 



It is scarcely necessary that we should attempt to descrilie the localities where these 

 materials exist. It is suflSeient to remark, in this place, that they are numerous in all the 

 counties bordering the Hudson river, and the Erie and Champlain canals. Peat beds 

 occur by themselves in most of the highland marshes, and marl occasionally in high 

 primary districts at a distance from calcareous rocks. 



The fossils of these formations have been alluded to, and it is only recently that they 

 have assumed the interest to which they are entitled. Formerly there were too few of them 

 known to attract much attention, and their position was not sufliciently well determined to 

 enable geologists to found upon their existence an opinion as it regards the period of their 

 extinction. The obscurity in which this question was shrouded, has been partially re- 

 moved by the determination of the relative position of the beds in which the fossils have 

 been found. The beds are situated uniformly in the following order: 1. Diluvial gravel 

 and boulders ; 2. Fine sediment of blue clay ; 3. Marl; 4. Peat. The two inferior beds 

 are below the fossils; and the marl, which is the thinnest deposit, is the principal reposi- 

 tory of the remains of quadrupeds. The following animals have been found in this forma- 

 tion : The elephant ; the mastodon or mammoth ; two species of deer ; an animal closely 

 allied to the beaver, first discovered in Ohio, but since found in the Cayuga marshes in 

 this State ; the ox ; the horse ; and the sheep, or an animal belonging the family. All 

 the species found in this deposit are extinct ; although the freshwater mollusca, which 

 abound in them, arc still living in all our freshwater bays. 



From the preceding facts, it is obvious that these animals have become extinct since the 

 drift period, an inference which is warranted from the uniform position of the marl and 

 peat beds. This inference is sustained by the state of the bones, which still contain gela- 

 tine or other organic matter : they are not fossilized, as all the older remains usually are. 



