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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



radial drainage area of Morristown, Cheesequake creek receives 

 no affluents adequate to account for the development of a valley 

 extending soutlnvcstward into the mainland at this point on the 

 coast. This abnormality is the more striking from the fact that 

 in those parts where streams might be expected, the land slopes 

 away from the depression and streams flow on that slope to the 

 South river or to the Raritan itself. Everywhere about the mar- 

 gin of the cove steep slopes prevail without that adjustment which 

 occurs in the drainage outside of the area, showing that the 

 basin is more recent than the drainage furrows which surround 

 it. In general form, in its relation to side streams and to the 

 surrounding nonglacial topography, this cove resembles what ap- 

 pears to have been the original condition of those indentations of 

 the north coast of Long Island which have been occupied and 

 somewhat enlarged by the ice of the last advance. The creek is 

 newer than the plain and is evidently drowned beneath the sea 

 level by recent sinking. 



Along the shore at the mouth of this cove are well defined 

 terraces, the remnants of a plain about 30 to 40 feet above the 

 present sea level. This plain has been dissected and partly 

 destroyed by the erosion of the cove, and it has been cut back 

 by the sea, so that its slope and its initial seaward margin are 

 now indeterminate. 



The upper portion of this plain on the west side of the creek 

 consists of coarse yellow gravel lying on Cretaceous clays. On 

 the east side the underlying deposits rise to the surface of this 

 plain, which cuts across different beds thus showing that it is 

 a plain of denudation. The point to be determined is whether 

 this plain is due to marine or aerial erosion, or in other words 

 whether it can be taken as an index of the attitude of the land 

 in recent geologic time, and if so what was that attitude and when 

 was it taken. The fact that there is no equivalent of this plain 

 in the glaciated area shows that it is earlier in origin than the 

 culmination of the Wisconsin epoch and hence makes it presum- 

 able that the land was then and has since been unsubmerged. 



The topographic map exhibits a number of terraces along this 

 coast from Perth Amboy around the Neversink Highlands to the 

 mouth of Shrewsbury river, whose elevations vary from 40 feet 

 downward. 



