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our eastern coast; a time when the clays and sands of the Rari- 

 tan formation were being laid down and a long-continued series 

 of fresh or lacustrine deposits had culminated by a slow sinking 

 of the land, which presently substituted marine conditions. 

 The series of beds comprising the Cliffwood clays and Magothy 

 sands represents the results of this transition period. In one 

 locality clays were forming while close by sands were being 

 deposited. 



All through these beds we have abundant evidence that the 

 adjoining land supported a luxuriant vegetation, and that this 

 land was not far removed from the area of sedimentation ; pos- 

 sibly we have to do with a series of islands or inlets, which would 

 well explain the varying character of the deposits and the con- 

 tained plant remains. This evidence is furnished by the abun- 

 dance of sulphates and carbonates of iron, the dark color of the 

 clay due to carbonaceous matter, the layers of lignite intercalated 

 with the sand beds, and to thicker layers of lignite which are 

 everywhere present. Some of these lignite beds have all the 

 appearance of having been old swamp-bottoms. 



In mining the overlying and underlying clays, immense logs of 

 lignite are uncovered, lying as if overwhelmed by a sudden influx 

 of sediment. I have seen logs of this sort three or four feet in 

 diameter and what was left of them, ten feet or more in length, 

 and if the statements one hears about the pits are to be relied 

 upon, much larger remains arc often uncovered. 



Such a lignite bed in the pits of the Cliffwood Brick Company 

 has interested me exceedingly. It is situated on Whale Creek 

 about a mile southwest from Raritan Bay, in Monmouth County, 

 New Jersey. The lignite consists of matted vegetation but 

 slightly triturated, showing a mixed mass of partially decayed 

 leaves, bits of sticks and small stems, scales of cones and various 

 fruits and seeds, exactly such things as you would find at the 

 bottom of some woodland pool at the present time, (^nc never 

 tires of the fascination of breaking open these lignite masses, 

 exposing the faint impression, perhaps of a large leaf, or the 

 remains of what was a button-ball in the far-off days, or the 

 thousand and one evanescent promises of what was once definite 

 living matter. 



