THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST 
Vou. XXVI. August, 1892. he ea 
WHY THE MOCKING BIRDS LEFT NEW JERSEY—A 
GEOLOGICAL REASON." 
By Samvet Locxwoop, Pu. D. 
Is it not “past the infinite of thought?” Even though 
expressed in numbers, who has a mental grasp of the stellar 
distances? And equally inadequate is the time conception of 
any working æon taken by nature in sculpturing the features 
of our Mother Earth. Still, though we may do no better than 
conjecture the time of any special fashioning, so dim is the 
distance, yet the geologic record makes clear the fact that the 
sea coast of New Jersey formerly extended very much farther 
into the Atlantic than it does to-day. In taking soundings off 
the coast the lead will drop suddenly into deep gorges in the 
ocean bed, thus revealing, as it were, an oceanic valley nearly 
parallel to the coast line. Though about a hundred miles 
south-east of the present mouth of the Hudson, this seems to 
denote the ancient outlet of the river into the sea. All this is 
in accord with the facts known concerning the subsidence of 
the New Jersey coast. Even when Hudson saw them, the 
Highlands of Navesink were somewhat higher than now, 
hence with the Squan Highlands, the first land sighted by 
homing vessels, were visible further out at sea. These 
‘Read at the Ninth Congress of the American Ornithologists’ Union in New York, 
Nov. 16, io 
Mo. Bot. Garden, 
1893 
