PALAEONTOLOGY : EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS. 49 



to Highland light, two miles. Fair bicycle roads. By boat, from Commer- 

 cial wharf, Atlantic avenue, to Provincetown ; fare, round trip, $1.50 

 (see daily papers). Thence drive to Highland light, seven miles. Roads 

 sandy and hilly. Arrangements can be made for a carriage or barge for 

 the whole trip. 



About half a mile south of Highland light the cliff has a 

 height of about one hundred and fifty feet, and consists of sand 

 and gravel, the pebbles being of all sizes up to a foot in diame- 

 ter, mostly rounded, but a part of them angular. Among the 

 pebbles and boulders fallen on the beach are found frequently 

 pieces of rock containing shells and fragments of shells, as well 

 as vestiges of lignite and other organic remains. Professor 

 Crosby has identified the following Eocene species from col- 

 lections made by Mr. Upham : 



Venericardia planicosta,V. ])arva?, V. alticosta ? , Ostrea, three 

 species, including 0. divaricata (?) or young of 0. sellceformis , 

 and 0. virginiana, Amonia tellinokles?, Plicatula filamentosa, 

 Camptonectes calvatus, Axinoma staminea, Striarca centenaria, 

 Cardium sp., Yoldia sp., Corbula sp., Natica, sp., other gastro- 

 pods, spines of Cidaris, and a coral resembling Galaxea. Crosby 

 thinks that these fossilifeaous pebbles indicate that Eocene beds 

 are somewhere in place under Massachusetts bay. Similar frag- 

 ments were obtained by Verrill from the Grand Bank and 

 George's Bank. 



POST-PLIOCENE FOSSILS. 



1. SANKATY HEAD, NANTUCKET. 



Route. — By steamer, from New Bedford, Wood's Holl or Cottage city 

 (see Gay Head) to Nantucket, thence by Nantucket railway to Siasconsett. 

 Short drive or walk to Sankaty Head. 



Four different sections of the beds at Sankaty Head have been 

 published. These are : in 1847 by Messrs. Desor and Cabot, in 

 1874 by Mr. S. H. Scudder, in 1889 by Prof. N. S. Shaler, and in 

 1895 by Mr. Frederick J. H. Merrill. These sections differ some- 

 what among themselves, due probably in a large degree to the 

 erosional changes which have occurred during the intervals be- 

 tween successive observations. 1 



i A complete resume of the earlier papers is given by Shaler in his Geology of 

 Nantucket, Bull. 53, U. 8. Geol. Survey, which should he taken into the field. 



