500 I. C. Russell — Glacial Records in the Newark System. 



admitted by all who have studied the beds." As there is pos- 

 sibly not the unanimity of opinion among those who have stud- 

 ied the Newark system, that is suggested in the line quoted ; 

 it may be well to glance at the evidence on which those who 

 consider that the period referred to contains glacial deposits or 

 ended in a semi-glacial era, base their conclusions. 



In describing certain coarse deposits on th'e eastern border of 

 the Deep River area of Newark rocks in North Carolina, W. 

 C Kerr* suggested that they indicate a sub-Newark glaciation : 

 but these beds are considered as post-Newark by W. M. Fon- 

 taine, f A similar remark was made by N. S. Shaler and W. 

 M. Davis,J in reference to the origin of the coarse conglomer- 

 ate of the Newark system in the Connecticut valley. It has 

 also been stated by J. D. Dana§ that the Connecticut valley 

 had its violent floods during the Newark period, which may 

 have been enlarged by the waters and ice of a semi-glacial era. 

 But the most extended discussion of the possible glacial origin 

 of certain coarse deposits in the Newark system has been made 

 by W. M. Fontaine.f The arguments he advances are based 

 on the following considerations : 



First. The presence of coarse conglomerate and breccias. 

 Second. Absence of fossil mollusks, radiates, etc. Third. Un- 

 explained phenomena in the drainage and relief of the Appala- 

 chians, which are supposed to have been initiated by glaciers. 

 Fourth. Extinction of the fauna and great change in the flora 

 of the Atlantic border in the interval between the Newark and 

 Cretaceous periods. 



The evidence of glaciation according to Dana|| " consists in 

 thick deposits of stones and bowlders in which occur masses two 

 to four feet in diameter, and therefore such as only ice could 

 have handled and transported. They are situated along the 

 west side of the area in Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey 

 (where the dip of the Jura-Trias [Newark] beds is westward) 

 and on the eastern in Connecticut and Massachusetts (where 

 the dip is eastward).^ Fontaine has found in Virginia and 

 Maryland that they are the later heds of the formation." Ex- 

 posures of Newark rocks north of Amherst, Mass., containing 

 bowlders three to four feet in diameter are referred to, and 

 Edward Hitchcock's conclusion that they are " the upper beds " 

 of the series, cited. Coarse deposits near East Haven, Conn., 

 are also mentioned. 



* Rep. Geol. North Carolina, vol. i, 1875, p. 146. 



f This Journal, III, xvii, 1879, p. 34. 



% Illustrations of the Earth's surface, Glaciers. Boston, 1881, pp. 95, 96. 



§ This Journal, III, xvii, 1879, p. 330. 



|| This Journal, III, xl, 1890, p. 436. 



•ff Note in this Journal, III, xli, 1891. 



