356 Geology of Long Island. 



The Tertiary strata of Long Island cannot as yet be identified 

 with much more certainty than the Cretaceous. From their 

 character and position we may surmise that the brown and 

 red plastic clays of Huntington, Gardiner's Island and else- 

 where, belong to the age in question, but we have no palaeon- 

 tological evidence except from the shark's tooth found on Lit- 

 tle Neck, which would identify the bed in which it occurred 

 as Eocene or Miocene. The stratified sands and gravels however, 

 which overlie the supposed Cretaceous and Tertiary beds, and in 

 turn are overlain unconformably by surface drift and till, we 

 may accept as Post-pliocene, from the analogy of their composi- 

 tion, structure and position to the deposits of Gardiner's Island 

 and Sankaty Head, of which the fossils determine the age beyond 

 question ; unfortunately, however, there is no unconformability, 

 to show where the Tertiary ends and the Quaternary begins. 



At various times and places, fossil shells and lignite have been 

 found on Long Island. J append a synopsis of a list of these 

 compiled by Elias Lewis, Jr., from Mather's Report and from 

 other sources : 



