448 RECORDS. 



SECTION OF GEOLOGY. 



January 17, 1898. 



Professor Kemp in the chair, fifteen persons present. 



The first paper was by Mr. Arthur HoUick, entitled Fur- 

 ther Notes on Block Island Geology and Botany. The 

 speaker gave a summary of his work done on Block Island in 

 July, 1897, and particularly of his success in tracing eastward 

 from Long Island the Amboy clays which had previously been 

 determined by paleontological evidence on Staten Island, Long 

 Island and Martha's Vineyard. Something like fifteen species 

 of Middle Cretaceous flora, nine of them typical of the Amboy 

 clays, have been found. 



Mr. Hollick then classified the existing flora of the Island 

 physiographically into that of the hills, peat bogs, sand dunes 

 and beaches, salt marshes and salt water. In the course of his 

 work he has added to the already published lists something 

 like twenty-four new species, although it is not considered that 

 this by any means completes the list of possible species that might 

 be found in the springtime. The flora as a whole is distinctly 

 that of a morainal country, and its nearest analogue is that of 

 Montauk Point. 



Mr. Hollick then offered some suggestions to account for the 

 present peculiar flora of the island, and particularly for the ab- 

 sence of certain species that would be expected, and showed 

 that two elements are to be taken into consideration, the geolog- 

 ical and the human. Block Island is the only part of the ter- 

 minal moraine along the New England coast which does not 

 have accompanying the moraine a certain amount of plain land 

 which would naturally allow a variety in the flora. It is pre- 

 sumable that Block Island also has been practically separated 

 from the rest of the continent by a deep channel of more than 

 twenty fathoms for a considerable time, and that even before 

 the last depression of the land the island was connected with 

 the mainland merely by a small peninsula. Hence the diversity 

 of the flora as compared with the continent, because of the 

 length of separation. 



