Dale.] 182 [January 3> 



Wm. O. Crosby. Contributions to the Geology of Eastern Massachusetts. 

 Occasional Papers of the Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. ill. 



Boston, 1880. 

 Wm. O. Crosby and G. H. Barton. Extension of the Carboniferous 



Formation in Massachusetts. Am. Journal of Science, Vol. 



xx, in Ser. Nov. 1880. 



Although these works include several geological maps, two 

 general sections and pretty full discussions of the coal-beds, the 

 conglomerate and the glacial phenomena, as well as some very 

 minute observations in one or two localities, and several general 

 remarks and surmises as to the succession of the strata, yet no 

 satisfactory sections illustrating the stratigraphy of the south- 

 eastern end of the Island apj^ear to have been published, nor are 

 the geological maps sufficiently accurate to enable one to con- 

 struct them. 



The writer has taken a number of rambles with a view of meet- 

 ing this want as well as of verifying and, if possible, supplementing 

 the observations of preceding geologists. This paper confines 

 itself to the southeastern part of the Island, embracing Easton's 

 Point, Sackuest Neck, " Paradise," the " Hanging Rocks," and a 

 strip along the eastern shore as far north as " The Glen," in 

 other words, the southeastern portions of the townships of Middle- 

 town and Portsmouth. In order to bring together the somewhat 

 scattered information on each locality, quotations from, or refer- 

 ences to the observations of others always precede or accompany 

 his own. 



Easton's Point. 



This is the angular promontory jutting out southwards between 

 the Bathing or Easton's and Sachuest Beaches. Prof. Charles 

 Hitchcock gives a long list of measurements taken with great 

 minuteness along both sides of this point. 1 He finds a series of 

 schists, 473' 1" thick, occupying the centre and a large part of 

 the west side of the Point, overlaid on that side by 464' 1" of 

 conglomerates and grits, and underlaid on the east side by an 

 older conglomerate, which forms the cliffs about " Purgatory." 

 These rocks strike N. 20°-25° E. His map shows this older con- 

 glomerate as continuous with that of the region called Paradise. 



1 Geology of the Island of Aquidneck, p. 119-121, 135. 



