GEOLOGICAL AGE AND FORMATION. 31 



the Drift and the upland Alluvium, unless there are fossil 

 shells, trees, or other organic remains found in them. By 

 these means Cape Island, the farm near the light-house, and 

 the shell marl near Beesley's Point, which were mentioned 

 on p. 27, are easily distinguished as Alluvium. Some 

 other points, as Stipson's Island, on which organic remains 

 have not been found, can be recognized as being also Allu- 

 vium from the quality of their soil, and from the mud and 

 brackish water which are found a few feet beneath the 

 surface. There are numerous points of land on the edge of 

 the/as^ ground, hoth on the Bay-shore and on the sea-side, 

 which are probably Alluvium ; but the lack of other evi- 

 dence than the quality of the soil prevents the positive 

 decision of the question. These alluvial soils appear to 

 have been formed by the washing of the finer sand and 

 loam from the higher grounds, and the deposition- of 

 them in lower situations. 



§ The sand-beaches on the ocean and bay-shores, the 

 salt-marshes, and the cedar swamp-bottoms, are also 

 alluvial, and they are now in process of formation or 

 change. 



§ As these changes are of an important character, and 

 will aid in making intelligible the descriptions of the 

 formations above mentioned, they may be introduced here. 



Por many years past it has been a subject of remark 

 among the older inhabitants, that the tides came up on the 

 uplands higher than formerly, and that the salt grass was 

 killing out the fresh grass, or the timber which formerly 

 grew on the borders of the upland. Judge Goffe, of East 

 Creek, gives it as his opinion that fifty acres, part heavy 



