lOI 



text combining so much physiology and mor[)hology witli other 

 branches of botanical science. The book has a great deal to 

 recommend its a(loi)ti()ii in llu)se colleges in which a text is used. 



C. L. Carey. 



The New England-Acadian Shore Line* 



The book treats of the development of the shore line, its re- 

 lation to rock structure, and especially to the geological and 

 physiographic history of the region. Of local interest is the 

 tracing of similarities between the Hudson River-Newark Bay 

 region, the Connecticut Valley and the Bay of Funday in all of 

 which trap ridges, cut across diagonally by faults, form one part 

 of the shore line. Glacial action, except by deposition, has had 

 slight effect on the coast line, deep narrow bays frequently re- 

 ferred to as fjords being drowned river valleys. The only ex- 

 amples of true fjords are in the Mount Desert Island embayment 

 and the drowned gorge of the Hudson in the Highlands. The 

 general conclusion is drawn that the shore line is extremely 

 youthful, only a few thousand years at, or near, the present level. 

 In the softest rocks the wave erosion has cut only a thousand 

 feet or so, while the amount of beach and bar building, even 

 when using material furnished by the glaciers, is comparatively 

 slight. The coast north of New York is one of recent sub- 

 mergence, reaching at least twelve hundred feet in the northern 

 part, while to the south it is one of emergence. There was 

 probably a long-enduring costal plain from New Jersey and 

 southward to beyond Newfoundland at least to the close of the 

 Tertiary period. This physiographic history seems to offer a 

 reasonable explanation of the facts described by Hollick and 

 Fernald of the occurrence of Pine Barren plants along the coast 

 as far north as Newfoundland. 



Of chief interest botanically are the chapters on costal marshes 

 and swamps. Three types of marshes are distinguished along 

 the Atlantic Coast, differing in the composition of the sub-soil, 

 peat or silt in various mixtures. While these different types are 

 somewhat unlike in appearance they have had similar histories. 



* Douglas Johnson, The New England-Acadian Shore Line, pages xx, 

 608, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1925. Price S8.50. 



