Geology and Mineralogy. 155 



spoken of as attendant and consequent results, sustaining by 

 their positions this view of their origin. But the absence of 

 bowlders from the bottoms of the valleys and their occurrence 

 over the higher hill tops throughout the island, appear to the 

 writer to be facts that bear against the above view. Moreover it 

 seems to be hardly possible that the broad mass of the glacier, 

 by pushing against the soft gravel and clay deposits could have 

 been able to excavate such long localized channels, " walled in 

 by high ridges " that are only ridges of unconsolidated material, 

 making five such bays in a distance of only fifty miles. The won- 

 der has been to the writer that the glacier left the soft deposits 

 of so great depth — mostly over 1 00 feet, on the northern border of 

 the island. May it not be that the glacier near its terminus had 

 much less motion and therefore less abrading power than 

 farther north, and that the depressions leading into and including 

 these bays, and also the great Peconic Bay, are to a large extent 

 results of erosion by running water before the glacier had deeply 

 covered the land; perhaps from erosion by the rains that pre- 

 vailed in the earlier part of the Glacial era, before the ice had 

 reached so far south. The direction of movement in the glacier, 

 judging from that over the higher part of western Connecticut 

 was about S. 30°-35° E., while the trends of the five larger bays 

 are, commencing with the western, (1) S. 11^° E., (2) S. 57° E., 

 (3) S. 10° E., (4) S. 27° E., and (5) S. 26° E. for inner prolonga- 

 tion and S. 40°-50° E. for the main part of the bay. 



The flexing of the clay beds may well have been accomplished 

 by the advancing front of the glacier. The occurrence of lake 

 depressions is well known to be another common feature in Long 

 Island and the islands of similar geological features to the east- 

 ward ; and it is a query whether the pressure of the overlying 

 mass of ice added to that of the upper deposits may not in some 

 places have forced the softened clay from beneath in a shoreward 

 direction where was the only chance for escape, and thus have 

 produced flexures and the basin-like depressions. For these clays 

 of the bluffs are now constantly moving, from the pressure of 

 the overlying gravel deposits aided by the outflow of the water 

 of springs, thus causing fissurings and sinkings of the surface, 

 great downslips of the gravel formations, the outflowing of the 

 clays and thinning of the clay -beds, and making the coast region 

 bad for the accurate study of the stratigraphy. 



In these questionings of some of Mr. Merrill's conclusions, the 

 writer has desired to suggest sources of doubt in order that they 

 may be before future investigators. His own studies of Long 

 Island have not been sufficient to settle the doubtful points. Bor- 

 ings in the soft material could be easily made and they would 

 give positive facts, if not succeeding in tracing out in all cases 

 Zhe lower limit of the drift. j. d. d. 



2. Mount Taylor and the Zuni Plateau ; by Capt. C. E. 

 Dutton. 198 pp., roy. 8vo., with many illustrations. From the 

 6th Ann. Rep. of the Director of the U. S. Geol. Survey.— The 



