PEEVIOUS DESCRIPTIONS AND STUDIES. 17 



The reasons for believing that the principal mass of this formation is older than the Tertiary will be seen 

 in tracing the equivalency of these beds to those of New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia, where it 

 is considered as established that the corresponding strata belong to the upper secondary of the epoch of the 

 Cretaceous and greensand formations. 



Up to this time, while the general relationsliips betv/een the strata of the main- 

 land coastal plain and those of the islands were recognized, this recognition was 

 based upon lithologic resemblances and stratigraphic position only, and, in the 

 absence of any paleontologic evidence, conclusions were not entirely satisfactory or 

 convincing and more or less controversy and discussion ensued. 



At about this period, however, the first discoveries of fossils on the islands began 

 to be made, but their importance was not appreciated. The discoveries were not 

 followed up, and they received but little more than passing attention. Probably 

 the earliest record in this connection is b}^ Edward Hitchcock " in his descriptions of 

 and discussion concerning the fossil animal and vegetable remains found at Gay Head. 

 Of special significance are the fossil fruit and leaves, to some of which reference is 

 made in this monograph.* The Gay Head section is included by the author under 

 "Eocene or older Tertiary strata." 



On December 19, 1842, at a meeting of the New York Lyceum of Natural His- 

 tory, a specimen of Exogyra was shown, to which the following reference may be 

 foimd in the minutes of that meeting: "Doctor Jay exhibited a fossil Exogyra, found 

 60 feet below the surface, in digging a well in the city of Brooklyn. Referred to 

 Messrs. Jay and W. C. Redfield to report upon the authenticity of the locality and 

 other matters respecting the geological relations of the fossil." This discoverv was 

 again mentioned at the Albany meeting of the Association of American Geologists 

 and Naturalists, in 1843, by Mr. Redfield, who said:'-' "This is believed to be the 

 first authentic memorial of the Cretaceous formation found in the State of New 

 York." It may also be found mentioned by Issachar Cozzens, jr., on pp. 51, 52 of 

 his "Geological History of Manhattan or New York Island, etc.," published in 1843 

 where he says in his discussion of the New Jersey marl: "It is more than probable 

 that this member of the Cretaceous Group underlies Long Island and may be a con- 

 tinuation of the great range wliich begins at the south, in Virginia, and runs through 

 New Jersey to the Neversink Hills, at which place it is last seen above the surface." 

 Accompanying this discussion is a theoretical geological section (pi. 3) , drawn in the 

 exaggerated manner characteristic of that time, which is exceedingly interesting 

 when viewed in the light of what we now know in regard to the structure of Long 

 Island. 



In 1849 a paper was published by M. E. Desor and E. C. Cabot under the title 

 "On the Tertiary and More Recent Deposits in the Island of Nantucket," <* in which 

 the authors refer to the resemblance between the clays of Truro, Cape Cod; Sankaty 

 Head, Nantucket, and Gay Plead, Marthas Vineyard, all of which are regarded as 

 probably Tertiary in age and as extending to the south beneath Long Island. 



a Final Rept. Geol. Mass., vol. 2, 1841, pp. 429-433. 



tiDammara borealis Heer, p. 37, PI. II, figs. 12, 21. Magnolia aurimlataJ^evrh., p. 68, PI. XX, flg. 8. 



c Abstr. Proc. 4th sess., Assn. Am. Geol. and Nat.: Am. Jour. Sci., vol. 45, 1843, p. 156. 



"J Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. London, vol. 5, 1849, pp. 340-344. 



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