PLEISTOCENE CLAYS. 131 



at least during the closing- stages of the Glacial period the south- 

 ern portion of the State stood from: 40 to. 60 feet lower than at 

 present, at which time the waves and streams constructed the 

 terraces just mentioned. 



They are for the most part composed of gravel and sand. In 

 certain localities, however, they contain workable beds of clay, 

 and in many places they are covered with the clay loam already 

 •described (pp. 121-2). To the material of these terraces south 

 of the region where it is glacial, the name Cape May formation 

 has been given. It may be equivalent in age, in whole or in part, 

 to the glacial and aqueo-glacial clays just described, but owing 

 to the different manner of accumulation, its clay beds are sepa- 

 rately considered. 



Localities. — As already indicated, the Cape May formation is 

 partly marine and partly river made. The land stood 40 to 60 

 feet lower than at present, and estuaries were formed at the 

 mouths of all the streams. In several of these estuaries there 

 seems to have been a certain area where the conditions favored 

 the accumulation of beds of clay. Such conditions apparently 

 prevailed in Cohansey creek, near Bridgeton; in Maurice river, 

 near Buckshutem, south of Millville ; in Great Egg Harbor river, 

 at High Bank Landing, near Mays Landing; in the Delaware, near 

 Kinkora, and perhaps also at Edgewater Park. At these points 

 the clay is sandy, usually dark in color, due to carbonaceous ma- 

 terial, and somewhat pebbly. It is commonly covered T-th sev- 

 eral feet of sand or gravel, of both. Near Port Elizabeth it is 

 overlain by a layer of oyster shells of recent age, 2 feet thick. 1 

 The beds of clay are apparently of limited extent and grade hori- 

 zontally into sand or gravel. This is well shown at the line of 

 old pits on the right bank of Cohansey creek below Bridgeton. 

 The maximum thickness observed was about 17 feet at Hess & 

 Golder's pit, near Buckshutem, on Maurice river. 



At the time of our investigations these clays were being dug 

 at Hess & Golder's pit (181) and A. Burchem's yard (180), 

 Doth on the Maurice river, near Buckshutemi. They were also 

 formerly dug by Isaac Mulford, near Millville; by Isaac Hil- 



1 N. J. Geol. Surv., Ann. Rep. 1878, p. 64. 



