Geological Notes in Connection with a Recent Lawsuit against 



the City 1 



By Arthur Hollick 



Those who are familiar with the region in the vicinity of the 

 Moravian Cemetery may recall the location and general appear- 

 ance of a certain plot of waste land lying south of the Todt Hill 

 Road and extending to the Richmond Road near the top of Red 

 Lane. The surface slopes down to the Richmond Road and is 

 deeply furrowed, partly by recent excavating operations and 

 partly by the action of the rains. It is not a very attractive look- 

 ing piece of property and its most prominent feature is a deep 

 gully, extending from road to road near the western end, which 

 has been eroded through the soft limonite iron ore forming the 

 surface and for some distance into the weathered soapstone 

 beneath. This gully has always been the natural outlet for a 

 large part of the storm water from the Todt Hill Road and the 

 land immediately adjoining. It presents practically the same 

 appearance today as it did when I can first remember it, for 

 the reason that erosion has produced but little appreciable effect 

 since the time when the relatively hard soapstone rock was 

 reached, which must have taken place prior to the date of my 

 earliest visit, some thirty years ago. It has been known for a 

 generation at least as a good collecting place for certain minerals, 

 especially limonite, both earthy and in the form of " shot ore," 

 talc, and chlorite. 



During the year 1896 I had occasion to make an examination 

 of the region and this gully in particular, while engaged in col- 

 lecting data for a geological map of the island, which was subse- 

 quently included in New York City Folio No. 83, Geologic Atlas 

 of the United States, issued by the United States Geological Sur- 



1 Presented December 19, 1908. 



144 



