THE GREENSANDS OF NEW JERSEY. I 73 



who was sent out in 1749 under the auspices of the Royal Acad- 

 emy of Sciences to make a study of the various branches of nat- 

 ural history in America, presents many interesting observations 

 concerning the deposits under consideration. He spent much of 

 his time in New Jersey. 



In 1777, Dr. Johann David Schoepf ' of Germany, visited Amer- 

 ica in order to study the geological features of the eastern portion 

 of the continent. His observations and comparisons of the coastal 

 plain formations, especially of New Jersey, mark considerable 

 advance over those of Kalm. The importance of his investiga- 

 tions have not been very generally recognized by later writers, 

 but he showed a remarkably keen insight into the geology of 

 eastern America which was lacking on the part of some of his 

 successors. 



The first attempt at a correlation of the deposits of New Jer- 

 sey with the geological column then established in Europe was 

 made by William Maclure^ in 1809, in his "Observations upon the 

 Geology of the United States." In this publication the coastal 

 deposits of New Jersey are collectively referred to the "Alluvial 

 formation," the fourth of the main divisions of geological strata 

 proposed by Werner. The work was subsequently revised and 

 enlarged, appearing in book form in 1817.2 



Professor John Finch was the first to propose a division in the 

 coastal plain deposits of New Jersey. In his " Geological Essay 

 on the Tertiary Formations in America" he states that what has 

 been called the "Alluvial formation" by earlier writers "is identi- 

 cal and contemporaneous with the newer Secondary and Tertiary 

 formations" of other portions of the globe. 



A few years subsequent to this, Professor Lardner Vanuxem'^ 

 through his friend Dr. S. G. Morton, presented the criteria for a- 



^Beitrage zur mineralogischen Kenntniss des ostlichen Theils von Nord Amerika 

 iind seiner Gebiirge. 8vo, 1787, 194 pp. Erlangen. 



^Amer. Phil. Soc. Trans. Vol. 6, 1809, pp. 411-428. Translation in Journal de 

 Physique, Vol. 69, 1809, pp. 204-213 and Vol. 72, 181 1, pp. 137-165. 



3 Philadelphia, 8vo, 130 pp. Also in Amer. Phil. Soc. Trans, new series, Vol. i, 

 1817 pp. 1-92; and Leonard's Zeitschrift, Band i, 1826, pp. 124-138. 

 -^Amer. Jour. Sci. Vol. 7, 1824, pp. 31-43- 



