CHAPTER V. 



ANCIENT GLACIERS IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. 



New England. 



In North America all the indubitable signs of glacial 

 action are found over the entire area of New England, the 

 southern coast being bordered by a double line of terminal 

 moraines. The outermost of these appears in Nantucket, 

 Martha's Vineyard, No Man's Land, Block Island, and 

 through the entire length of Long Island — from Montauk 

 Point, through the centre of the island, to Brooklyn, 

 N. Y., and thence across Staten Island to Perth Amboy in 

 New Jersey. The interior line is nearly parallel with the 

 outer, and, beginning at the east end of Cape Cod, runs 

 in a westerly direction to Falmouth, and thence south- 

 westerly through Wood's Holl, and the Elizabeth Islands 

 — these being, indeed, but the unsubmerged portions of 

 the moraine. On the mainland this interior line reap- 

 pears near Point Judith, on the south shore of Rhode 

 Island, and, running slightly south of west, serves to give 

 character to the scenery at Watch Hill, and thence crops 

 out in the Sound as Fisher and Plum Islands, and farther 

 west forms the northern shore of Long Island to Port Jef- 

 ferson. 



In these accumulations bordering the southern shore 

 of New England, the characteristic marks of glacial action 

 can readily be detected even by the casual observer, and 

 prolonged examination will amply confirm the first im- 

 pression. The material of which they are composed is, 



