SOILS OP THE SASSAFRAS SERIES. 9 



It is certain that the Delaware River carried a large amount of 

 material from the glaciated area around its headwaters to its sub- 

 merged lower course, thus contributing glacial material to the marine 

 and estuarine sediments which were being formed along the coast 

 line. 



The Susquehanna River was also affected by glaciation along its 

 upper courses and carried glacial material in some volume to be con- 

 tributed to the deposits near its mouth. 



While the rivers farther to the south had no direct connection 

 with the glaciated area, yet conditions of erosion and transportation 

 were so affected that large amounts of the fine-earth materials from 

 the Appalachian and Piedmont sections were carried seaward and 

 deposited through the Chesapeake Bay region. With these finer 

 sediments small amounts of coarse material in the form of gravel 

 and large blocks of stone were transported and deposited. The lat- 

 ter constitute the only direct evidence of the changed climatic con- 

 ditions since they were evidently carried within or upon floating 

 masses of ice of Considerable size. 



To the west and south of the mouth of the Hudson River the land 

 area which now constitutes the surface of the Coastal Plain was 

 formed at different stages of submergence and emergence, chiefly 

 in the form of successive terraces. It is probable that each of the 

 different terraces represents a period of submergence of the land 

 area followed by emergence. In general the oldest terrace at pres- 

 ent occupies the highest elevation and each younger terrace is found 

 at successively lower elevations. 



The different terraces are developed to very unequal extents in 

 the different portions of the North Atlantic Coastal Plain from south- 

 ern New Jersey to tidewater Virginia. 



In New Jersey the terrace-form development of the later Coastal 

 Plain deposits is generally indistinct except in the case of the latest 

 and lowest terrace. This has b^een called the Cape May formation 

 by the New Jersey Geological Survey. 1 It fringes the Atlantic 

 coast in a narrow border rising from sea level to about 50 feet in 

 elevation. Its chief development is found from Cape May north- 

 ward along the Delaware Bay and River to the vicinity of Trenton, 

 N. J., where its deposits merge with those brought down by the 

 river from the glaciated region to the north. From this circum- 

 stance it can be correlated with the latest glaciation of the more 

 northern region. 



Along the water front the elevation of this terrace varies from 

 marshy stretches at tide level to low cliffs of 5 to 10 feet in height. 

 The land surface of the main portion of the terrace is nearly level 



1 See N. J. Geol. Survey Ann. Kept. 1898, and Trenton and Philadelphia Folios, U. S. 

 Geological Survey. 



63555°— Bull. 159—15 2 



