RECORDS. 681 



which covered a superficial area of about 3,600 square feet. 

 A small pool of water accumulated towards the center in time 

 of rain and dried out during drought. The margin was a quak- 

 ing bog of peat and sedges. It occupied a morainal basin, 

 located about 1,200 feet from the southern edge of the moraine 

 and about 120 feet above tidal level. 



During the summer of 1899, in the course of certain improve- 

 ments in the development of the cemetery, the swamp was 

 drained and the bog muck was dug out, so that at the present 

 time the morainal basin is entirely free of water and mud. 



The organic remains, animal and vegetable, brought to light 

 during the progress of this work, show that the basin was the site 

 of a Quaternary pond. The surface deposit was of fine peat and 

 a coarse peat, composed of various kinds of swamp vegetation. 

 Below this was a fine organic mud, containing trunks and 

 branches of trees, to a depth of about five or six feet. Below 

 this was a black, sandy silt, distinctly stratified, and containing 

 numerous cones and small twigs of white spruce \Picea Cana- 

 densis (Mill.) B. S. P.] , a tree of northern range, which does not 

 now extend further south than northern New England and the 

 Adirondacks. Below the cones, at a depth of about 23 feet, 

 was found a Mastodon's molar. 



The maximum depth of the entire deposit was about 25 feet and 

 bore every indication of having been laid down in still water, in 

 a continuous and unbroken series of layers ; and, inasmuch as 

 it was in a morainal basin, it must all have been post-morainal in 

 age. 



A considerable amount of charred wood was also found in 

 connection with the cones, presumably indicating the presence of 

 man. The probabilities are that a pond was formed in the 

 morainal depression immediately after the recession of the ice 

 sheet, and that this pond was a receptacle for silt, dust and de- 

 caying vegetation ever since, the accumulations finally filling it 

 up and converting it into a swamp with a little pool of casual 

 water in the middle. 



Professor Dean, referring to Dr. Rollick's paper, spoke of the 

 occurrence of the remains of the mastodon on Manhattan Island. 



Annals N. Y. Acad. Sci., XII, Aug. 2, 1900 — 43. 



