Blaney and Loomis — Mt. Desert Island. 



399 



Art. XLI. — A Pleistocene Locality on Mt. Desert Island, 

 Maine • by Dwight Blaney and F. B. Loomis. 



On the southern end of Mt. Desert Island, Maine, at the 

 head of Goose Cove, there occurs a deposit of Pleistocene 

 clays which has never been described. The bed is so pecu- 

 liarly rich in well-preserved fossils that it should be a fre- 

 quented locality for the study of postglacial marine remains. 

 It has a further interest because on the other side of the island 

 in Frenchman's Bay, only about ten miles away, a careful 

 study of the marine fauna has been made for a period of many 

 years, so that an opportunity is presented for an unusually 

 interesting comparison of these two faunas, both the Pleisto- 

 cene and the recent faunas having lived under approximately 

 the same bottom conditions, except as to the matter of tem- 

 perature. 



The clays form a bed from below the low-tide level to about 

 twenty feet above high tide, making a bank which blocks the 

 head of the cove, and especially along its lower portions is well 

 exposed. In the shallow water of the cove many of the shells 

 may be found washed out, but most of the fossils will not stand 

 such rough treatment as the weathering by the sea imposes. 

 The clay is fairly soft and as the fossils nearly fill it, collecting 

 is rapid work. We found it convenient to collect the larger 

 shells on the spot and carry home blocks of clay, from which 

 after drying the delicate and smaller shells could be easily 

 washed out. The abundance of the material may be judged 

 from the fact that in two to three hours we collected over three 

 hundred shells. 



The following is a list of the shells taken from this locality, 

 with comments as to the abundance of the fossils in the clay, 

 and in Frenchman's Bay, some ten miles away: 



1. Pecten islandicus, Muller 



2. Mytilus edulis, Linne 



3. Modiolus modiolus, Linne 



4. Nucula tenuis, Montagu 



5. Leda minuta, Muller 



6. Leda pernula, Muller 



1. Astarte elliptica, Brown 

 8. Astarte laurentiana, Lyell 



Goose Oove 



The most abundant 

 and well preserved 

 form. 



Very abundant but 

 poorly preserved, 

 crumbling easily. 



Rather rare and of 

 small size. 



Rare. 



Fairly common. 



Not common. 



Very abundant. 



Common. 



Frenchman's Bay 



Very rare, only dead 

 shells ever found. 



Very abundant. 



Very abundant. 



Common. 

 Not found. 

 Not found. 

 Not found. 

 Not found. 



