58 Geology of Hudson County, New Jersey. 



the salt-marshes eastward of Bergen Hill, is well illustrated by 

 by Paulus Hook, Harsimiis and Pavonia. Beneath this region, 

 especially along its eastern margin, are the reefs of gneiss that 

 at one time formed low islands separated from Bergen Hill by a 

 deep riyer-channel ; around this nucleus the debris transported 

 from the west by the glaciers, was accumulated and probably 

 filled deej)ly if not completely the channel of the river. When 

 the glaciers retreated, and the floods from the melting ice came 

 down the Hudson, much of this material was removed, some to 

 distant places and other portions re-deposited as stratified drift. 

 At this time the old channel between Bergen Hill and Paulus 

 Hook was re-excavated, and the Hudson fl.owed to the sea with 

 a greater flood than at present, having Bergen Hill for its west- 

 ern shore. This western portion was not a main channel, how- 

 ever, as it rejoined the principal stream at the mouth of Mill 

 Creek, and did not flow over the upland area now occupied by 

 Lafayette. While the waters flowed through this course, the 

 sand along the shore was thrown on the beach and was carried 

 inland by the wind, forming sand-dunes spread over the drift 

 beneath. In time, as the Hudson decreased in volume, the 

 western channel w^as silted ujd with river mud so as to form 

 salt meadows on which grasses and swamp-loving plants took 

 root and formed by their decay the peat and peat-mud. 



Soils of Peat and Mnd. — Skirting the main upland of Hudson 

 County on the west, are the salt marshes known as the Newark 

 Meadows ; these were formed by the filling in of this portion 

 of the estuary of Newark Bay by silt and mud brought in by the 

 waters. The depth of this accumulation is from ten to fifteen 

 or perhaps twenty feet ; the true rock -bottom, however, lies far 

 below, as is shown by the deep wells in the meadows south of 

 Snake Hill.* In some of these, no rock was reached at a 

 depth of 200 feet ; north of Snake Hill the surface of the 

 peat and mud was once covered with a vigorous growth of cedar 

 trees, the stumps and prostrate trunks of which now cover the 

 marsh. 



On the eastern side of Bergen Hill, the salt meadows again 



* Vide Table No. 1. 



