LONG-ISLAND DIVISION. 
263 
Flatbush and Newtown, at sixty feet below the surface. A periwinkle was found at forty- 
three feet below the surface at New-Utrecht.* 
(m) . Clam and oyster shells were found at sixty-seven feet below the surface, in a ridge of 
hills, and at intermediate depths, near the Narrows in New-Utrecht; and a murex or large 
periwinkle was also found at this depth.* 
(n) . Clams and oyster shells were found from thirty to fifty-two feet, in the fort at the 
Narrows in New-Utrecht. They were in an earthy mass of a reddish color, and so hard as 
to require a pick to dig it up.f 
(o) , (p). The sections on pages 258 and 259 of this volume, show the occurrence of shells 
in Brooklyn at the depth of sixty to eighty feet; and on Great neck, North-Hempstead, at 
about thirty feet. 
(q) . Shells were dug up at the depth of eighty feet, on the Bald hills, two miles south of 
Corum, by Mr. Isaac Overton. They were in a black tough earth, like that called hardpan, 
composed of clay and gravel. . Mr. Overton described them as clams and oysters. 
(r) . Shells were also dug up at twenty-four feet below the surface, at Swesey’s mills, in 
Brookhaven township .| 
(s) . Shells, and a log eight to ten inches diameter and ten feet in length, said to be pine, 
were dug up at West Rocky point, seventy feet below the surface. 
(t) . Oyster shells were dug up at Corum, by Mr. Overton, at forty feet deep. 
(m). In Middletown, on the farm of John Hoel, a shell was found at the depth of thirty 
feet, like the mactras common on the coast {Mactra solidissima ?). 
(v) . In Brookhaven, one mile west of Wading river, round clams and oyster shells were 
stated to have been found at the depth of sixty-five feet from the surface, on the farm of 
Zophar Mills, in digging a well. Mr. Mills says the shells were twice as thick as usual. 
They may have been gryphcBce or exogyra. 
(w) . On Hog neck, Mr. Cory found a shell of a round clam, as he calls it, at the depth of 
thirty feet, in digging a well. 
(a?). On Staten island, near Richmond, shells are stated to have been found at a depth of 
more than one hundred feet. 
This is all the information I have been able to collect in regard to fossil shells. The evi¬ 
dence is such as to be worthy of all credit. I have consulted many individuals of undoubted 
veracity, and who had every appearance of sincerity, who stated that they had found, or seen 
the shells as stated. I have copied similar information from various authors ; so that the evi¬ 
dence may be considered complete, to authenticate the facts. On the other hand, on inquir¬ 
ing to see the shells, no one of those who found them, and had preserved specimens as they 
* Bruce’s Mineralogical Journal, Vol. 1, p. 132; and Medical Repository, Vol. 3, p. 380. 
t Bruce’s MineralogicalJournal, Vol. 1, p. 362. 
JLt, Moses Scott, in the discharge of his duties as one of the engineers of the Long island railroad, has ascertained the levels 
of a great number of localities, and he remarked that the depths at which the shells were obtained from the two last localities 
brought them to nearly the same uniform level. 
