20 FLORA OF SOUTHERN NEW YORK AND NEW ENGLAND. 



read before the New York Academy of Sciences on November 7, 1884; a but the 

 author assumed a very conservative attitude in regard to the presence of any mem- 

 ber of the Cretaceous series and merely concluded that — 



From the position and strike of the Cretaceous strata in New Jersey and w^taten Island it has been surmised 

 by geologists that they underlie Long Island throughout the whole or a portion of its extent. The locality at 

 which the strata most resemble the Cretaceous beds of New Jersey is Glen Cove, where the clays already 

 described are probably of this age. 



During this same period Dr. J. S. Newberry began his studies of the Amboy clay 

 flora of New Jersey, by means of which he was enabled to correlate these clays with 

 the Dakota group of the West and the lower Atane beds of Greenland and also to 

 determine certain of the fossil leaves found on Long Island to be specifically identical 

 with those from the Amboy clays and thus to fix beyond further question the Creta- 

 ceous age of the clays of Long Island. The complete results of Doctor Newberry's 

 investigations were not published until many years subsequently, 6 but I enjoyed the 

 benefit of close association with the author in the preparation of both the manu- 

 script and the plates and in the collecting of material from the first inception of the 

 work. Doctor Newberry's conclusions in regard to the Cretaceous age of the strata 

 within the island areas and their correlation as above noted may be found dis- 

 cussed in the introductory chapter of the work mentioned. 



At a meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences, on May 11, 1885, Dr. F. J. H. 

 Merrill gave a description of the beds at Gay Head, Marthas Vineyard, referring 

 them to the post-Pliocene or Quaternary, c but the record consists merely jof the title 

 of the paper read. 



In 1888 a report on the geology of Marthas Vineyard, by Prof. N. S. Shaler, 

 appeared,^ and, in the following year, one on Nantucket by the same author. e Both 

 Cretaceous and Tertiary strata were recognized as present on the former, but only 

 Tertiary and more recent on the latter. These were by far the most comprehensive 

 works on any of the coastal islands which had been published up to that time, and 

 while all of the author's deductions may not have stood the test of later discoveries, 

 they mark an epoch in the investigation of the geology of the region and the begin- 

 ning of careful and painstaking work on a modern scientific basis. In 1889 the same 

 author published a paper " On the Occurrence of Fossils of the Cretaceous Age on the 

 Island of Marthas Vineyard, Mass.,"^ in which is described a limited fauna, but no 

 flora. 



Even in the light of all the evidence above outlined, however, the presence of 

 Cretaceous strata throughout the coastal islands was not universally conceded. In 

 1886, on a geological map of the United States by Prof. C. H. Hitchcock, pub- 

 lished in connection with the American Institute of Mining Engineers, the Cretaceous 

 is not indicated on Marthas Vineyard, although it is indicated on the north shore 

 of Long Island; and as late as 1891, in "Correlation Papers — Cretaceous," Dr. C. A. 

 White remarks (p. 85) that: "Several persons have written upon, or referred to, the 



a Annals New York Acad. Sci., vol. 3, 1885, pp. 341-364. 



b Flora of the Amboy clays, by J. S. Newberry; a posthumous work, edited by Arthur Hollick: Mon. U. S. Geol. Survey, 

 vol.26, 1895 (1896). 



c Trans. New York Acad. Sci., vol. 4, 1885 (1887), pp. 78, 79. 



d Seventh Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. Survey, 1885-6 (1888), pp. 297-363. 



e Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 53, 1889. 



/Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard Univ., vol. 16, 1889, pp. 89-97. 



g Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 82, 1891. 



