Perry.] 128 [February 28, 
time in question. It also seems probable-that the sea was still some- 
what depressed from the great previous evaporation; in other words, 
that the land really stood, relatively to the ocean, certainly as high 
as it does to-day. ‘There is thus little or no evidence to countenance 
the supposition of such a marine deposition. That sediments were 
laid down, at given points, where the war between the ice and the ~ 
ocean occurred, is no doubt true; still, if what has been advanced be 
correct, these certainly had place, for the most part, outside the pres- 
ent dry-land, and somewhere along the outer edge of the existing 
shoals that girt the sea-shore from Labrador to Florida. . 
The quotation just made brings to mind what appears to be a mis- 
conception on the part of Professor Dana. He evidently supposes 
that even typical Drift was deposited, nay more, he says it was 
“formed,” in connection with the wasting of the ice-mass. Now it 
was mainly “formed,” and took its place, at an earlier time. For the 
most part it was simply laid bare as the ice melted. He also seems 
to imply that the waters of the ocean extended largely under the ice- 
mass, and that as it melted, there went on beneath it various kinds 
of deposition simultaneously. That the sea undermined portions of 
the ice-sheet that lay along what was then its coast, and flowed under 
them, and that it also extended up some of ourelowland rivers at a 
given period, is undoubtedly the fact. But the portion which may 
have been thus reached is not a tithe of New England. And that the 
ocean laved more than this, even at a little later time, I fail to find an 
iota of evidence. At just the time in question, the ocean, at least in 
the northern hemisphere, was probably lower than it is now, and did 
its work mostly outside of the present shore-line. Exterior to this 
line there was probably a considerable margin above what was the 
level of the sea, when the ice-mass in New England began to melt. 
Now the facts, as I understand them, occurred somewhat in this wise. 
First, and constantly, along the edge of the ice-sheet, as the wasting 
advanced, a confused jumble of matter previously “formed,” and 
now known as typical drift, was brought to light. Secondly, beds of 
oravel and coarse material were somewhat assorted and partially 
arranged by the waters from the wasting ice. These waters bore the 
finer and more thoroughly comminuted sands usually to a consider- 
able distance to lower levels, on which, thirdly, they laid them down 
in a stratified, or semi-stratified form, the beds usually sloping toward 
the south, though occasionally in all directions, while in some cases 
they were very regular. A fourth class of beds consists of clays, 
