﻿382 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Apr. 10, 



The oldest inhabitants of New Jersey, whose lives have been ex- 

 tended to upwards of eighty years, maintain that within a period of 

 sixty years the sea has risen upwards of four feet, or, what is equi- 

 valent thereto, the coast has fallen to that depth. Marshes that 

 were formerly mowed for their grass are now submerged ; the sea has 

 encroached upon the land, even over the sites of ancient habitations. 

 There are tracts where trees are seen growing upon fallen forests, 

 which have been buried in sand and peat. Timber of excellent de- 

 scription is dug out of the present marshes. The amount of depression 

 along this coast is variously estimated as being from 5 to 12 feet. 



From these, and other facts which might be quoted, it appears 

 that there are marine Cretaceous deposits, and over them Pleistocene 

 deposits with freshwater shells and Mastodon bones, and apparently 

 an old forest buried in sand, with the remains of another growing 

 over it — these two being under the sea in some places and therefore 

 proving submergence of a land-surface, — and that this submergence 

 is still going on, according to the testimony of the inhabitants and 

 the submergence of habitations. 



In the harbour of Nantucket, there is a submarine forest. In 

 dredging the estuary, Lieutenant Prescott found trunks and roots of 

 the cedar, oak, maple, and beech, some of them standing upright and 

 still attached to the soil on which they flourished. Excepting the 

 cedar, all the woods are still sound. The trees are partially buried 

 in sand, and are eight feet below the level of the lowest tide. 



A similar submarine forest exists at Holme's Hole, on Martha's 

 Vineyard. On the west side of the harbour, stumps of trees are 

 found standing upon a level surface beneath the water ; another 

 woody tract occurs near the south-west extremity of the Vineyard, 

 and on the north side of Cape Cod, opposite Yarmouth : the latter 

 extends more than three miles into Barnstable Bay. At Portland a 

 similar sinking of the land has been clearly made out. In none of 

 these instances is there any accounting for the facts, but by actual 

 subsidence. No indications of elevation were observed in this 

 quarter. 



New Brunswick. — Proceeding in a northerly direction, we arrive 

 at the River Schoodiac, or St. Croix, the dividing-line between the 

 United States and the British Province of New Brunswick. Instead 

 of submergence, an elevation of the land is here clear and distinct. 

 It extends in a northerly direction upwards of twenty miles, and 

 probably to a still greater distance along the coast in the direction 

 of the Bay of Fundy. The greatest elevation is near the centre of 

 this area, which has been but little raised at its edges. The solid 

 rocks beneath the modern marl-beds are chiefly red sandstone, 

 syenite, and granite, with intrusions of trap-rocks. 



At St. Andrew's, St. Stephen's, Lubec, Eastport, and numerous 

 sites in the adjacent districts, there are extensive deposits of sand, 

 marl, and marly clay, containing relics of shells and sea-weeds which 

 still inhabit the present shores ; and the former are so numerous, that 

 they have contributed sufficient lime to some of the strata to render 

 them valuable for fertilizing-purposes. At first these marl-beds were 



