the elytra of beetles, occasional insect -nils and molluscan re- 

 mains. Evidently most of these Pleistocene peats indicate the 

 presence of cypress swamps, hut this is not always the case, since 

 in some instances we find representatives of upland vegetation, 

 while in other cases the fossils show that the vegetation was open 

 and marsh-like with a scattering of trees of oak, birch and pine. 

 Where quiet water conditions followed the subsiding forest-bed, 

 deposits of clay are to be found and these often contain frag- 

 ments of leaves along with casts of the shells of Unio if the 

 locality is toward the head of the ancient estuary, or shells of 

 Rangia cuneata if the waters were more saline. The latter is 

 very abundant in Pleistocene deposits of this sort from Maryland 



above Tappahannoek, Va., from which the above mentioned spe- 

 cies were collected. It is exposed for a thickness of four or five 

 feet and shows many cypress stumps in place with the "knees" 

 protruding through the recent narrow sand-beach. Overlying 

 the peat is a layer of drab plastic clay from one to four feet thick 

 and carrying fragments of leaves. Above this there is from ten 

 to fifteen feet of coarse sand. The Rappahannock has cut into 

 the bluff along its south hank, exposing this old cypress swamp 



such a condition of affairs in 

 n of Parrotts Creek with the 

 of apparent unconformity is 



