366 A. E. Verrill—Post-pliocene fossils of Sankoty Head. 
depth, as estimated by Desor and Cabot, of forty-two feet; the 
foot of peat mentioned by them is wanting at this exact locality, 
(though present a few hundred feet farther south,) leaving the drift 
covered by five or six feet of dune-sand, more or less intermixed 
with loam below. 
and Cabot, nor of any unconformability between this bed and the 
underlying clays; but, on the contrary, every appearance that the 
latter belong to the same continuous series as the former. 
It is worthy of note that the fossils of this locality lie above the 
clays, instead of in the clays, as in most of the New England 
localities of post-pliocene marine shells.” 
Mr. Rathburn informs me that in the lower shell-bed the 
shells are extremely abundant and mostly entire, but generally 
break in pieces when the matrix is removed, and that when 
first taken out they appear to be soft, but harden on exposure 
to the air. The matrix is a coarse yellowish ferruginous sand 
with small pebbles, and the shells have a rusty stain. None of 
the specimens give any evidence of having been worn by the 
waves, and many of the most delicate, like Oumingia tllinoides, 
A: us tener, etc., are entire, and sometimes have the valves stl 1 
united. This is the case, also, with some of the oysters. A 
large proportion of the quohog-clams (Venus mercenaria) are 
broken into angular fragments with sharp edges and angles. I 
have ascertained by an examination of large numbers of spec! 
mens, both entire and broken, that the breaking is due wholly 
to lines of fracture developed in the shell by drying or weath- 
Be * I must here e: indebtedne: iam J. , Esq. of New York, 
| wotely gave mth ulimit sania of his wrkmen and nailed © 
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