512 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1<»04. 



there were no maps and absolutely no railroads. A geological map in 

 black and white was, however, prepared of the region north of Calais 

 and the 45th parallel, and also one of the eastern portion of the State 

 included between St. George and Belfast. 



The fossiliferous rocks were noted as mostly Paleozoic and probably 

 all lying below the Carboniferous series. The red sandstone of Perry, 

 the problematic horizon of which had been discussed by Jackson and 

 others, as previously noted in these pages, was regarded as u indis- 

 putably Devonian," this statement being based upon expressed opin- 

 ions of Jackson, Rogers, Newberry, and Dawson. It was noted that 

 the fossiliferous marine clays, which were regarded as of the same age 

 as the similar deposits along the St. Lawrence and the Champlain val- 

 leys and referable to the Terrace period, sometimes underlay a coarse 

 deposit referable to the unmodihed drift. Without committing him- 

 self definitely on this point, Hitchcock suggested the possibility, there- 

 fore, of a recurrence of the drift agencies — that is, a period of second 

 drift. This, so far as the present writer has information, is the first 

 suggestion by an American of such a possibility. It seems, however, 

 to have been quite lost sight of. (See also remarks of Edward Hitch- 

 cock, p. 462.) 



The drift period itself, according to Hitchcock's view, was inaugu- 

 rated by depression of this portion of the continent amounting to at 

 least 5,00(1 feet below that of to-day. Subsequently the continent rose 

 again gradually to its present altitude. It was during this period of 

 depression and elevation that the drift deposits were formed through 

 the conjoined agency of icebergs and glaciers. The various forms of 

 modified drift he thought to have been produced largely by the aid of 

 rivers and moving currents of water. These views were those very 

 generally held at that date, though, naturally, they have been some- 

 what modified since. 



The quartz rock in the vicinity of Rockland, Thomaston, and Cam- 

 den was regarded as belonging to the Taconic period of Emmons, and 

 the associated limestones were looked upon as contemporaneous with 

 the Stockbridge limestones of Emmons or, what is the same thing, the 

 ^Eolian limestones of the elder Hitchcock. 



Dr. J. S. Newberry, in Notes on the Surface Geology of the Basin 

 of the Great Lakes, after a review of the surface conditions as he saw 

 them, came to the conclusion that at a period corresponding in cli- 

 mate, if not in time, with the Glacial epoch of the Old 

 N Jf^ ry * s « ie ^-> World, the lake region in common with all the north- 



on Cilaciation, 1862. » 



ern portion of the American Continent was raised 

 .several thousand feet above the level of the sea. This was the "gla- 

 cial period," during which the surface of the country was planed 

 down and the deep fiords along the Atlantic coast formed. This was 

 followed by a period of depression, when all the basin of the Great 



