1897.] Geology and Paleontology. 709 
General Notes. 
GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY. 
Hollick on Block Island.—The series of investigations carried 
on by Mr. Arthur Hollick in Staten Island, Long Island, Martha’s 
Vineyard and Nantucket now includes Block Island. For several 
years Mr. Hollick has carefully recorded his observations, and has ac- 
cumulated a vast amount of geological information, based on both 
paleontologic and stratigraphic data. His latest views on the relations 
these islands bear to each other are given in a recent paper as follows: 
“ Block Island has been brought into a line geologically with Long 
Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. They all had their origin 
in one series of cause and effect. They manifestly represent remnants 
of the former coastal plain which consisted of Cretaceous and Tertiary 
sands, gravels, clays and marls. The glacier of the Ice Age squeezed 
upward and pushed forward these incoherent strata into a series of con- 
torted folds along its line of furthest advancement, depositing on top 
the detritus of the moraine. The ridge so formed was at first contin. 
uous, but with the gradual sinking of the coast, and the action of the 
ocean, the less elevated portions have succumbed, and only the highest 
parts, now represented by these islands, remain above water. All the 
facts point to this conclusion, and even the most superficial observation 
shows that the phenomena of submergence and erosion are in active 
operation at the present time. Should they continue in the future it 
requires but little prevision to appreciate that Block Island and the 
islands to the eastward will continue to shrink in size, disappear, and 
eventually form merely parts of the shoals which now connect and 
surround them. Montauk Point will continue to recede, and, by the 
submergence of the low, narrow strip of land in the vicinity of Canoe 
Place, a new island will be formed from what remains of the Point.” 
(Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., XVI, 1896.) 
Age of the Himalaya.—In a discussion of the geology of Hazara, 
India, Mr. C. S. Middlemiss again urges the great age of the Himalaya 
as opposed to the more popular idea that they were the product of yes- 
terday, geologically speaking. He states that “it has been gradually 
becoming evident to all who really examine the question in detail that 
the Himalaya are and have been in a constant state of change; a state 
of elevation along the main axis and depression along the mountain- 
foot, "N intermediate zones of crushing, crimpling, and over-riding 
