PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
NATURAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 
OF 
STATEN 
ISLAND. 
Vou. VII: No. 17. 
May rath, 1goo. 
The regular meeting of the Association 
was held at the residence of Mr. Alexander 
Perry, New Brighton. In the absence of 
the president Mr. E. C. Delavan was 
elected chairman pro tem. 
The secretary reported that Mr. Walter 
C. Kerr had been recently elected a mem- 
ber of the commission to establish Silver 
Lake Park, so that the Association is now 
represented by two members on the com- 
mission. The secretary also briefly re- 
viewed the progress of the park movement 
en the Island and the part which the 
Association has taken-in it, from the time 
of Mr. Kerr’s preliminary presentation of 
the subject at the meeting of the Asso- 
ciation, June 8th, 1895, up to the reorgani- 
zation ofthe Silver Lake Park Commission, 
in accordance with the recently amended 
Silver Lake Park act. (Chapter 653, 
Laws of 1900. ) 
The foliowing paper by Mr. L. P. 
Gratacap was read: 
ARE THE KREISCHERVILLE CLAYS ALL, 
CRETACEOUS IN AGE? 
An inspection of the clay deposits at 
Kreischerville, and between that place 
and Rossville, especially in the neighbor- 
hood of the picturesque community col- 
loquially referred to as ‘‘Africa,’’ near 
the road from Pleasant Plains, reveals 
their separate and fossetted character. 
They suggest a continuous sheet of the 
clay deposits which has been sheared off, 
leaving here and there, quite disconnected 
pits or depressions filled with clay. Asif 
in some general progressive movement, 
whether by ice or floods, the irregular 
superficial covering had been displaced, 
and the deeper seated pockets which, 
from consolidation or their low position 
resisted removal, were left behind. 
This pocket character of the clay beds 
is quite striking. Subsequent drift de- 
posits, or even Quaternary alluvial forma- 
tions, have covered them and they remain 
isolated incidentsin the topography of that 
section, although they may, below the 
surface, have deep seated connexions. 
Ou this hypothesis they represent the 
stocks of former elevated knobs or ridges. 
The region has been a flood plain or 
shore in Quaternary days, Heavy 
blankets of sand prevail in “Sandy 
Ground” and around Rossville, and sand 
covers-in some of the clay pits. It is 
doubtful if all of the clay pits in this 
vicinity can be referred to the Cretaceous. 
The angular white sand, slightly 
micaceous, which forms the upper beds at 
some of the kaolin (?) pits might be 
reasonably regarded as more recent, and 
it is not clear that even the underlying 
clay may not be referred to the same 
period. 
As the observer is carried by the rail- 
road from Elizabethport to Perth Amboy 
he is impressed with the ridgy character 
of Staten Island, rising conspicuously 
above the levels of Seawarren and East 
Rahway and Maurers, where clay beds of 
Cretaceous age occur, and the suggestion 
is forcibly made that Raritan Bay, and 
the deep sinus northward occupies a fold 
ora slight synclinal trough with Staten 
