336 STUART WELLER 



by constant lithologic characters, yielding fossils, usually in abun- 

 dance, wherever they are well exposed. There is scarcely a formation 

 in the entire Cretaceous series of New Jersey which is more sharply 

 marked, both lithologically and faunally, than the Merchantville 

 clay. The base of the formation constitutes an easily recognizable 

 and perfectly natural geologic horizon, the beds below being char- 

 acterized by the great heterogeneity of their lithologic characters, 

 while the beds above are just as strongly characterized by the con- 

 stancy of their lithologic characters. 



The heterogeneous assemblage of sands and clays beneath the 

 Merchantville have been called the Raritan formation, and the fossil- 

 iferous clays at Cliffwood which are interbedded with sands and are 

 lithologically allied to the subjacent beds, must certainly be consid- 

 ered as a lens-like body included in the Raritan. The Raritan beds 

 for the most part give evidence of a non-marine origin, but there 

 must have been marine conditions present along the Atlantic border 

 at no great distance during the entire period of their deposition. The 

 non-marine, perhaps estuarian conditions of Raritan time were sup- 

 planted in Merchantville time by more uniform marine conditions, 

 but, previous to the initiation of marine conditions in the area entirely 

 across New Jersey, we find evidence here in the Cliffwood clays of a 

 slight transgression of the sea from the direction where marine condi- 

 tions had continuously existed, and the occupation of a small area 

 where non-marine sediments had previously been deposited. 



This occurrence at Cliffwood of marine fossils in the Raritan is 

 not the only case of the kind in New Jersey, although it is the most 

 notable one. Whitfield 1 mentions the occurrence of Turritella 

 encrinoides, a not uncommon species in the Cliffwood beds as well as 

 in some of the higher formations, in the clays at Sayersville, which are 

 near the very base of the Raritan; and the slab mentioned by him, 

 bearing many examples of this species, is now preserved in the collec- 

 tions of the Geological Survey of New Jersey. Other specimens of 

 marine fossils from near the same locality have recently been acquired 

 by Mr. J. M. Manley, of New Brunswick, N. J. It is altogether 

 possible, and indeed most probable, that faunas more or less closely 

 allied to those of the higher formations were living, throughout the 



1 Paleontology of New Jersey, Vol. II, p. 144. 



