THE PLEISTOCENE FORMATIONS OF SANKATY 

 HEAD, NANTUCKET 1 



J. HOWARD WILSON 



Columbia University 



HISTORICAL 



The fossiliferous beds at Sankaty Head have been a subject of 

 interest since first reported by Messrs. Desor and Cabot in 1849. 

 The section has been referred to by Professor Shaler 2 as "one of the 

 most important on the New England coast." The beds have been 

 visited and studied by a number of well-known scientists, among 

 whom were Professor A. Hyatt, Mr. C. H. Merriam, and Mr. Sander- 

 son Smith, in 1875; Mr. S. H. Scudder and Mr. Richard Rathbun, 

 a short time afterward; and, still later, Dr. F. J. H, Merrill and 

 Dr. Arthur Hollick. While these investigators have added to the 

 number of species reported from these beds by Messrs Desor and 

 Cabot, they have differed somewhat in their descriptions of the beds, 

 and in their interpretations of the phenomena presented. 



The section, when first seen by Messrs. Desor and Cabot, seems, 

 from their description, to have presented very much the appearance 

 shown in Fig. 1, the lower clay forming twenty feet of the lower part 

 of the section and being overlain, apparently unconformably, by 

 the lower sands and gravels. The section at this time was freshly 

 exposed by the cutting of the waves, but for a considerable period 

 of years this cutting has been prevented by the northward extension 

 of the Siasconset apron beach. The face of the bluff at Sankaty 

 Head is now thickly covered with talus, composed of the drift material 

 above the fossiliferous beds, and is in places overgrown with bunches 

 of beech grass (Fig. 2). 



1 Presented to the Faculty of Pure Science in Columbia University as a Thesis 

 for the Degree of A.M. 



2 Bulletin No. 53, U. S. Geological Survey, p. 30. 



7i3 



