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Physical Geography of Netv Jersey. By Rollin D. Salisbury; 

 with an appendix by Cornelius Clarkson Vermeule. 

 Being Vol. IV of the Final Report of the State Geologist. 

 8vo, pp. xvi -f- 170 + 200. Trenton, 1898. 



New Jersey has set a good example for her sister states in the 

 character and quality of the physiographic work set forth in this vol- 

 ume. Other states have made an enviable record in other lines of geo- 

 logic work, but this is the first complete treatment of the physiography 

 of a state we have had in America; and it is all the more notable for 

 having as its author a specialist in physiography of the highest ability. 



The plan of the work is, first, a plain statement of the facts of 

 topography in detail, in the three natural topographic regions of the 

 state, and second, the history of the topography. 



The State of New Jersey, as a whole, is a part of the Atlantic slope, 

 and though it is only 166 miles long, by about 40 miles wide, it 

 includes portions of all the natural sub-provinces of this slope, i. <?., 

 the coastal plain, the Piedmont plateau, and the Appalachian zone. 

 Professor Salisbury shows that to this series another term should be 

 added for the area under consideration, the series then reading from 

 northwest to southeast; (1) Appalachian zone, of folded strata; (2) the 

 highland area, of crystalline schists; (3) the piedmont plain, of Triassic 

 rocks; (4) the coastal plain, of Cretaceous and younger strata, this last 

 division covering a little more than the southern half of the state. 



The members of this series all have their boundaries practically 

 parallel with the Atlantic Coast, and as they differ widely in the nature 

 of the materials from which they are built, the structure furnishes the 

 natural basis for the division into zones, the topography being of the 

 greatest importance in the interpretation of the geology. These four 

 successive zones have a general slope to the southeast, directly across 

 the structural boundaries, the inner or Appalachian zone having an 

 average altitude of over 1500 feet, while the outer or coastal plain 

 nowhere rises above 400 feet, by far the larger part of it being below 

 100 feet. 



The Appalachian zone consists of early elastics, much folded, the 

 axis of folding being northeast and southwest. Erosion has hollowed 

 out broad valleys in the softer materials, and has left the harder beds 

 standing up as long ridge-like mountains. 



The second or Highlands area, made up of crystalline schists, does 



