PLEISTOCENE MARINE SUBMERGENCE 9 



of consideration. No rational explanation of the high-level water 

 plane in the Hudson-Champlain valley is found except confluence 

 with the sea. In other words, the waters were estuarine; as long 

 ago recognized by Mather, Merrill, Ries, Davis and Darton. No 

 facts or serious arguments have ever been presented to meet the 

 evidence of marine submergence in the lower Hudson presented 

 long ago by these eminent geologists. After describing high-level 

 terraces in New Jersey, Staten island, Long Island and the lower 

 Hudson, which could have no other than oceanic relation (82, 

 pages 90-114) Woodworth postulated lake waters in the upper 

 Hudson and for the higher Champlain beaches. Veatch, Fuller 

 and Crosby have asserted that the land stood at or above its present 

 level when the ice sheet abandoned Long Island, but they do not 

 mention the abundant evidence of deep waters in the lower Hudson 

 district given in the writings of the men named above, including 

 Salisbury for later writings. It is unquestioned that we have 

 marine fossils up to 300 or 400 feet altitude in the Champlain 

 valley, and water-laid terraces up to 80 feet in the New York 

 regyon, facing the open sea. Hence the doubtful element would 

 seem to be only the status of the Hudson valley and the higher 

 Champlain features. Instead of further negative discussion let us 

 take up the positive side. 



EVIDENCE OF OCEAN-LEVEL WATERS 



I Character of the Valley Deposits 



The widespread and deep clays of the Connecticut, Hudson and 

 Champlain valleys, and in the Winooski and Lamoille valleys tribu- 

 tary to the Champlain, are clear proof of deep or at least quiet 

 waters. In the Champlain region the clays are very extensive and 

 carry marine fossils, but are not genetically different from those 

 of the Connecticut or Hudson. 



In the Hudson valley, one of the greatest brick-making districts 

 in America, the clays rest on till or glaciated rock. Their horizon- 

 tality and undisturbed character show that they have not been over- 

 ridden by any ice sheet, and are of Postwisconsin age. The infre- 

 quent crumpling observed is common in silt and clay beds, as an 

 effect of slumping. Their large content of lime and occasional 

 occurrence of large glacial boulders proves that the waters were 

 laving the receding ice front. 



The capping of sand and gravel over the clay beds is a necessary 

 effect of the shallowing waters, due to the land uplift; the land 



