PLEISTOCENE GEOLOGY OF MOOERS QUADRANGLE 



40 



Marine fossils. Postglacial marine fossils were found during 

 the course of this survey at only three points within the area of 

 the map. The excavations made for the State road from West 

 Chazy to Sciota in 1903 gave numerous shallow sections in the 

 beach gravels between the 300 foot and 400 foot contour lines, but 

 no fossil shells were seen in several thousand feet of such expo- 

 dares. A few shells of Macoma groenlandica were found however 

 in a borrow pit in the sand hill on the west bank of Tracy brook, 

 where the road crosses that stream at 300 feet of elevation. 



An excellent exposure of fossil if erous sands and some clay 

 was found at the bend of the Big Chazy about li miles 

 below Mooers Forks. The marine deposits here rest on an arena- 

 ceous boulder clay without the interposition of barren sands or 

 clays which might be attributed to a glacial lake. The deposits 

 are exposed on the west side of the neck of land near a large out- 

 crop of the Potsdam (Saratogan?) sandstone lying in the middle 

 of the stream. The bank is gradually receding here under the 

 attack of the river. At about 340 feet above tide, 3 or 4 feet of 

 fine marine sands, including a thin, underlying clay, contain nu- 

 merous shells of Saxicava rugosa, Leda arctica, a few valves of 

 Yoldia sp., and shells of Balanus sp. Many of the molluscan shells 

 show both valves in the attitude of growth. The deposit is over- 

 lain by coarse gravels, evidently a part of the old river bed when 

 the Chazy flowed at a higher level. 



Fossil shells, apparently Macoma groenlandica, were also seen 

 in a trench in gravels at a house by the spring west of the school- 

 house which stands about 1 mile west of Perry Mills, at about 

 300 foot elevation. 



Mr William D. Stevenson, United States customs officer at 

 Mooers Junction, stated that some 15 years ago he saw shells taken 

 from a well on the McDowell place at the depth of about 8 feet. 

 This locality is at the railroad junction, where the surface of an 

 ancient delta of the Big Chazy is approximately at 280 feet. 



The lack of recent excavations prevented undoubtedly the find- 

 ing of shells in many parts of the low ground along the eastern 

 part of the area. 



J ust over the international boundary, north of Mooers Junction 

 and about 1-J miles south of Hemmingford, Can., at an 



