148 Quaternary Formations of Southern New Jersey. 



Matawan has an altitude of about 70 feet. The gravels, etc., 

 on this ill-defined plain he would regard as post Pensauken, and 

 probably pre-Cape May. If this is the case, there is no gravel 

 equivalent to Pensauken in the area east of Matawan. The 

 topography of this region is youthful, and the streams are erod- 

 ing vigorously. Any Pensauken that once existed here may have 

 been removed. 



Topographic history. — It seems permissible to entertain the 

 view that the major divide of the region, even in Pensauken 

 time, extended from Matawan northeast to Long Island, and 

 that from this divide there was a gentle slope toward Amboy. 

 The absence of streams along the strike of the Cretaceous, in 

 pre-Pensauken time, in such relations as those of Matawan 

 and Cheesequake creeks, seems to imply the absence of a master 

 stream along the lower course of the Raritan. This suggests 

 the flow of that stream from Bound Brook via Kingston to the 

 Delaware at Trenton. 



If the lower Raritan below Bound Brook assumed its present 

 course after the Pensauken epoch, the drainage relations in the 

 direction of Raritan Bay were profundly altered when the present 

 course was established, while those to the southeast were not. 

 This might have made great differences in the deposits of post- 

 Pensauken time, on the two sides of the divide. 



South of Matawan are hills 380 to 400 feet high with caps 

 of Beacon Hill gravel, overlying Cohansey sand. The Cohansey 

 and Beacon Hill formations once extended much farther north 

 and northwest, probably reaching the present highlands (at an 

 elevation of more than 400 feet) at the north. The Beacon 

 Hill gravels may be taken as representing the starting point in 

 the topographic development of the region. 



Post-Beacon Hill drainage probably involved the flow of the 

 antecedent of the Hudson across New Jersey. Adjacent to it, 

 over a wide belt, the Beacon Hill and older beds down to the 

 Cretaceous were removed, and a broad lowland was developed. 

 To the southeast of the lowland, lay the main divide, perhaps 

 from Long Island to Wickatunk, thence to Freehold, Clarks- 

 burg, Cream Ridge, Mt. Holly. Berlin, Glassboro, and Shiloh. 



