162 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



For the movement of such fine materials, but little power on the part 

 of transporting agents would be required. It may have been, in part, the 

 work of wind, even though no direct aeolian deposits have been observed 

 among the sediments, and thus, as far as present evidence goes, water 

 was the final agent of deposition. The Lockatong sediments were origi- 

 nally very fine muds, which would remain suspended in water a long time 

 before settling, doing so only when the waters became very quiet, or 

 where the moisture dried up. Everything points to the liypothesis that 

 drainage was far from active in the region of Lockatong deposition. 



The Stockton beds represent large quantities of bowldery gravels, full of 

 fresh feldspars, distributed over a wide area which must have been covered 

 with abundant standing water, in which the deltas spread out from the 

 shores of the basin toward its center. The Lockatong deposition appears 

 to have been accomplished under a continuation of these conditions. The 

 results were much the same, except that the later sediments were of the 

 finest type, being muds instead of pebble beds. The change in the depo- 

 sition must have been due to a weakening of the streams, probably on 

 account of degradation of the highlands by nonnal erosion. The torren- 

 tial periods of the Stockton gradually ceased, although tliey appear to 

 have persisted for some time in decreasing strength on the borders of the 

 basin. We may imagine that the fine muds of the Lockatong drifted in 

 and filled up the deeper portions of the basin, which were not already 

 occupied by the rather poorly distributed deltas of the Stockton. Ac- 

 cording to this arrangement, the Lockatong beds would naturally collect 

 in the central part of the basin, and might contain much re-worked ma- 

 terial from the Stockton along the shores, as well as detrital materials 

 coming directly from the older rocks. What sort of material occupied 

 the east and west sides of the Lockatong trough cannot now be deter- 

 mined, as the eastern border has been removed by erosion and the western 

 is buried under the Brunswick series. To the north and south the beds 

 are apparently replaced by the Brunswick and perhaps the Stockton. 

 Whether, during a portion of the time of Lockatong deposition, erosion 

 was actually taking place elsewhere upon the Triassic sediments, is not 

 plain. If this were true, an erosion interval should be indicated between 

 the Stockton and the Brunswick beds to the north and south ; in ^ew 

 Jersey, this contact is hidden beneath later deposits, and even in Penn- 

 sylvania, the same condition seems to obtain, although the actual rela- 

 tions are not well known. After the close of the Lockatong deposition, 

 the coarse sediments gradually reappeared, giving rise to sandy shales and 

 sandstones. This increased coarseness of sediments shows a renewal of 

 erosional activity which strongly suggests the beginning of an erosion 



