II 
New Jersey. “These operations,” observes Mr. Mantell, “even 
if carried on upon an extended scale, are manifestly unim- 
portant as agents in any of those grand revolutions which con- 
stitute the principal objects of Geological enquiry.” 
Diluvium. On the greater part of the earth’s surface are 
observed beds of sand and clay, with rolled pebbles of various 
siz.es, all bearing marks of the action of a violent current, which 
has first comminuted and rounded the fragments of rocks, and 
then strewed them promiscuously on all the other formations. 
Thus we find the Diluvial beds lying directly on the Primitive, 
Secondary, and Tertiary rocks; forming what has been termed 
the mantle of the earth’s crust. The Diluvium frequently 
encloses the remains of large quadripeds, which appear to have 
perished in the catastrophe to which these deposits owe their 
origin. In the great Atlantic tract, now under consideration, 
the Diluvium is well characterized and in many places very 
extensive. To it are referred the bones and teeth of the Mas- 
todon, found at Pemberton, N. J., and in other places farther 
south : also the bones of the elephant exhumed in New Jersey, 
North Carolina, &c., and those of the Megatherium, in Geor- 
gia. By some Geologists, these remains are considered to be 
embraced in the Alluvial and not in the Diluvial deposits, and 
Mr. Featherstonhaugh shews that, in reference to this country 
at least, the facts are in favour of the former of these opinions. 
In the deposits above described, but little order or regularity 
is perceptible ; their various contents are, for the most part, 
indiscriminately mingled; but those which form the subject of 
the following remarks, will be found to present a certain and 
constant order of superposition; particular species will be seen 
to occur in some of the strata, and to be wanting in others ; 
and, by comparing these remains, we are able to identify a 
formation, wherever it occurs, and to refer it to its proper 
place in the Geological scale. 
UPPER MARINE FORMATION. 
We adopt this formation as defined in the admirable work of 
Conybeare and Phillips. Its existence in this country was first 
suggested by Dr. Van Rensellaer, and it was afterwards more 
specifically examined and illustrated by Dr. Morton, in the 
Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences. 
