20 Quaternary Formations of Southern New Jersey. 



materials, some of them non-resistant, but all from the same 

 direction, and all from terranes known to have been crossed 

 by the ice of an early glacial epoch, favors the view here sug- 

 gested. On the other hand, the abundance of material derived 

 from the Coastal Plain formations south of the ice is to be 

 explained by the following facts : (a) The existing deposits are 

 some distance from the ice, the irregular edge of which prob- 

 ably extended from Manhattan on the east, to Riegelsville on 

 the Delaware; (b) the easily erodable nature of the Coastal 

 Plain formations, drainage from which flowed to the main de- 

 positing stream; and (c) the climate conditions, favorable to 

 erosion in the Coastal Plain at the time the Bridgeton gravels 

 and sands were deposited. (2) Occasional bowlders in the 

 Bridgeton formation are as much as 5 feet in diameter. Float- 

 ing ice seems to be called for in their transportation. Especially 

 do slab-like masses of red shale and sandstone, 40 to 60 miles 

 from their nearest possible source, seem to demand floating ice 

 for their carriage, for, apart from their size, it does not appear 

 that any other agent of transportation could have got the weak 

 masses of shale to their destination without comminution. (3) 

 The likeness of the stony material of the early glacial drift to 

 the coarse material of the Bridgeton formation is great. This 

 likeness applies to the physical condition of the bowlders, as 

 well as to the kinds of rock involved. (4) The arkose char- 

 acter of much of the sand is suggestive of a glacial origin. It 

 is difficult to see how such quantities of such material could 

 have been formed and carried so far from its sources, under 

 normal conditions of river action, or by any combination of 

 rain and river erosion with waves and shore currents. (5) The 

 structure of the Bridgeton is very similar to that of glacial out- 

 wash, though it is recognized that this structure is not espe- 

 cially distinctive. 



This general view does not in itself preclude the hypothesis 

 that the land may have stood somewhat lower than now in the 

 Bridgeton epoch or during some part of it, — low enough, per- 

 haps, to have permitted marine deposits within the area of the 

 present land. But paleontologic evidence of marine deposits 

 of this epoch within the area of the State is wanting. 



