USA > New Jersey > Scheyichbi and the strand : or, early days along the Delaware ; with an account of recent events at Sea Grove ; containing sketches of the romantic adventures of the pioneer colonists ; the wonderful origin of American society and civilization > Part 13
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SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND.
It is in the Triassic formation, however, that the greatest signs of drift action appear ; there the red sandstone has in many places been worn away from two to five hundred feet. The Newark marshes have been dug out by drift action, and the excavation was carried below the level of the sea, resulting in bays now but partly filled by mud, grass, roots, etc., etc. Boulders of various kinds appear in this formation. There is a boulder of five hundred tons' weight on the northwest slope of First Mountain, near the Newark and Mount Pleasant turnpike, which has been carried by the drift current full thirteen miles. There is another boulder near Woodbridge, more than twenty miles from its parent strata, which must weigh two hundred and fifty tons. There are trap and sandstone boulders everywhere in the Triassic formation, and considerable deposits of limestone in loose masses. Paleozoic fos- sils are also found scattered with the drift into Triassic beds.
The Cretaceous formation has been worn away and changed by denu- dation nearly as much as the Triassic strata; Naversink Highlands, and the Mount Pleasant Hills of Monmouth County, have perfect sea- shore pebbles upon their summits ; yet they are about four hundred feet high, their valleys being one hundred feet above the sea-level. In the Cretaceous beds and layers, the forces of the drift encountered only friable materials, as the stratification was comparatively recent, and the elevation referred to in a former page still later; hence, when these forces became active among the shell layers and the loose sands which had been imported from other formations and not concreted, the uni- form surface of the uplifted land was worn into valleys, or washed away entirely for large areas, to the depth of three or four hundred feet.
Thus were created the broad low plains now visible in South Jersey, and the low hills with their shallow valleys between them, which there mark the Cretaceous area. The sides of these hills, and the bottoms of the valleys, afford excellent opportunities for geologic observation. The sand, loam, and general mass of material dislodged, was carried away toward the south. The drift action continued a long time, and thus were the abraded constituents of all the strata to the north mixed with the materials of the Cretaceous sediment, swept out to sea and deposited there, creating the Tertiary formation.
That extensive areas should rise and fall, and even " the sit-fast and immovable hills" appear and disappear, grow and waste away, seems incredible to the untaught, and is wonderful to all ; and yet in geologic ages continents emerge from the sea and then sink again beneath the ocean ; Himalayas, Alps, Andes, and Sierras swell aloft by the action of geologic forces, and then subside into the subterranean, or are sculp- tured into picturesque forms and worn away by denudation.
Geology gives time; and in time, the sun, the rain, the wind, and the frost, as has been demonstrated, will humble the head of the highest mountain that lifts its granite top above the clouds! Then again by
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THE EARLIEST LIFE ON EARTH.
sudden or by gradual shiftings of the balance and polarities of the earth, tremendous and sometimes abrupt changes of climate have been in- duced, and vast floods and moving fields of ice have been the conse- quence. These awful forces, in time, work out the grandest results and most radical changes.
The whole solid crust of the earth, moreover, is no thicker in com- parison to its liquid, fiery mass than the shell of an egg to its contents ; therefore any changes of the surface are not unnatural, or, in view of the facts, a matter of amazement. The perpetual miracle and admirable wonder is that, with such forces always in action in some form, the uni- versal equipoise is maintained, and the conditions of human life and happiness evolved, with Infinite wisdom, from the perturbations of nature !
§ Formerly, the names of Primitive, Transition, Secondary, and Tertiary, were applied to various kinds of rocks, in geological classifi- cation ; modern usage substitutes the technical terms of Azoic, Paleo- zoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic, to define periods marked by peculiar stratifications and fossils. The rocks themselves are now called Meta- morphic, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary; the last significator being retained and adopted from the old terminology ; besides, the phrase Post Tertiary is used, meaning since the Tertiary.
The rocks are named with regard to their constituents and character, or derive their titles from geographic localities where they especially abound, or where they were first scientifically observed. The Azoic rocks are supposed to have been formed before vegetable or animal life existed on this planet, and until the last few years it was supposed that no form of life was known below the lower Silurian rocks, that is to say, in Azoic time, before the Paleozoic period. American geologists are disposed to admit that the recently investigated "eozoon" found below the Silurian is the fossil of an animal form; if they are right, the history of life on earth must be antedated, and carried back very far in time, and an Eozoönic age be recognized between the Azoic and Silurian.
The Paleozoic period was the age of Mollusks or shell-fish, and their fossil remains abound in the limestones of the Silurian division. The Devonian sandstones and shales contain shells and the fossil remains of vertebrate fishes. The Carboniferous division of the Paleozoic time has no place in the geology of New Jersey, it is exceedingly developed in Pennsylvanian coal measures; in its time land plants flourished beyond comparison; these fossil plants are coal at present. In the Triassic, the Jurassic, and Cretaceous divisions of the Mesozoic time there was an enormous development of Reptilian life, and the bones of monster reptiles are plentifully found as fossils in the rocks of those layers. The Mammals, which are warm-blooded quadrupeds, appear
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SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND.
as fossils first in the Tertiary rocks and strata, and the human period, the time in which man has inhabited the earth, is included in the Post Tertiary.
The divisions of the Tertiary formation are the Eocene, the Miocene, the Pliocene, and the Post Pliocene, including the recent ; in New Jersey it constitutes the formation of the territory south of the Cretaceous strata, being bounded on the north by an irregular line from Shark River to Alloway's Creek. The Recent formation lies along the sea- shore and the banks of various streams, and generally includes all lands less than twelve feet above the level of the tide.
None of the boundaries of the Tertiary fields are sharply defined like those of the rocky strata; the drift and wash has intermixed the materials of the formation, merging the outlines of the various beds and layers. Though the earthy nature of the Tertiary formation sub- jects its surface to change from storms and streams, by which the beds are mixed together or discolored, yet the mineral substances therein are undisturbed in their original places of deposit and not petrified, while even the lowest Tertiary strata contain fossils of existing species, proving the modern origin of the whole. The upper marl bed is in the Eocene division of the Tertiary formation, and is the lowest layer of its stratification.
In a well bored at Winslow, Camden County, New Jersey, there was found :
First 5 feet of surface earth.
Then- 15 feet blue and black clay.
95 glass sand.
35 miocene clay.
IO7
" micaceous sand.
43
" brown clay.
A gum log one foot thick. (!)
20 feet green sand, marl, white shells, teeth, etc.
15 " pure green sand.
At which point water rose from the bottom of the green sand. This gives a good general idea of the structure of the Tertiary formation in New Jersey.
Loamy clay, white quartz pebbles, silicified fossils, feldspathic rock, etc., intermixed with sand, the materials of the drift, overlie the other beds unless the surface has been washed away. This drift varies much in constituency from pure clay to clean sand; it is generally reddish yellow from oxide of iron, often fertile and retentive as a soil, and makes good roads, packing into a solid, smooth, durable bed, even when spread over loose sand. The excellence of the road-bed of the avenues of Sea Grove is due to the liberal use of this material upon them.
The glass sand underlies the drift gravel to the depth of ninety-five
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FORMATION OF THE STRAND.
feet, and is pure white quartzose sand, except when it comes to the surface or at the bottom of the bed in places, then it is sometimes discolored. Its use in glass-making is very common and important, and this sec- tion, from which much glass sand is now shipped, contains enough of this valuable material to supply the world for a thousand ages! The sandy plains of South Jersey are the exposures of this bed of sand where the drift gravel has been washed away.
The Miocene clays and marls of South Jersey, so largely and suc- cessfully dug as fertilizers, contain numerous fossils, and are a source of wealth as well as a matter of geologic interest. The Micaceous sand, one hundred and seventeen feet deep, found in the well at Win- slow, does not crop out at the surface anywhere, and is in place below the sea-level. The same is true of the brown clay found as described.
Thus the layers of the Tertiary were formed, being deposited as drift from the more ancient strata. Mixed with the Tertiary layers, or distributed through them, may be found constituents of all the older formations in the State; thus thrown together, they have, by chemical action and reaction upon one another, entered into new combinations and produced new substances; these in turn, with all the rest, sub- jected for thousands of years to the play of elementary forces, have been variously manipulated and chemicalized continually, while all the time impelled by the floods and streams toward the sea, along whose shallow margin they have been deposited, forming in " Recent" ages still another new shore to the ceaseless waves.
§ As the Tertiary formation is marked by drift and earthy deposit, so alluvium characterizes its Recent division. In the Tertiary we find clay, sand, gravel, loose pebbles, and some boulders, most of which are from distant strata; the beds of the Recent are made up of finer sands and clays, loams, mud, peat, etc., derived from adjacent deposits or the remains of vegetable production. The fossils of the Recent are all identical with existing species; among them human remains and relics are frequent. The Recent formation in New Jersey borders the Atlantic from Sandy Hook to Cape May, and forms the shore of Del- aware Bay up to Salem, also the banks of some of the rivers and creeks. The sand beaches, the marshes, the cedar swamps, and an in- definite amount of upland border in the State are recognized as being included in this formation, and are in process of formation and change. The general surface soil of the upland border is a fine sandy loam with but little gravel, and contains organic matter enough to render it pro- ductive and fertile ground. An example of such border land is to be seen adjoining Sea Grove, and forms the Stites farm. The farm has been for some time occupied by the Hon. Downes Edmunds, and has been worked in places constantly and successfully for a hundred or more years without any manure or dressing whatever, and yet has not been at all impoverished. The land thus cultivated is so full of shells
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SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND.
in spots as to make ploughing difficult; the sub-soil is a deep, black, sandy mould.
The tide marshes of the Recent formation of New Jersey are a re- markable feature; there are about three hundred thousand acres of such marshes in the State, and Cape May County alone, with a total area of one hundred and seventy thousand one hundred and seventy- one acres, has fifty-eight thousand eight hundred and twenty-four acres of tide marsh, including ten thousand four hundred and forty-three acres of sounds, bays, inlets, etc. The marshes are but little above ordinary tide level, and covered with grass, reeds, and coarse sedge, but treeless. Beneath the surface of the marsh there is from a yard to forty feet of mud or soft earth, with an average depth of twenty feet. The marsh is deepest back from the beach and from the banks of streams, water-courses, etc. The body of the marsh is merely a bed of fibrous roots; near the beach, sand is intermixed with the roots, and along the streams and water-courses mud has been deposited, and is retained among them.
The marshes enlarge by encroachment in 'places upon the wooded upland, and by growing into the sounds and waters they enclose ; at the same time the sea and bay have during the last century cut away many acres of the marshes, which have become exposed to the waves by the demolition and shifting of the sand dunes and beaches. The surface of the marsh, when enclosed by beaches, or by the clayey banks of streams, sinks slowly, by the decay and compression of the fibrous mass of which it is mostly composed. The wash of streams and the drift of the sea sand landward tends to solidify the marsh, as vege- table growth and deposit elevates the surface; however, shutting the water off from a true marsh causes it to sink, as it is really afloat, in and through the water, and it is so unsubstantial that many cubic feet of it when burned make but a very small quantity of ashes ; the marsh is, in fact, a sound or cove choked full of fibrous roots and vegetable deposit. Many hundreds of acres of that which was cedar swamp is now salt or tide marsh ; the trees having been killed by the encroach- ment of the sea water, have fallen, and are now buried, but undecayed, in the deep mud, the surface growth flourishing evenly above them.
§ In treating of the Cretaceous formation, on a former page, it was stated that alternate elevations and depressions of the shore line had taken place, until finally, before the drift period, the surface of the whole formation was lifted several hundred feet above the sea, from which it has been degraded by denudation and drift down to its present level and configuration. It can be readily and definitely shown that similar but less extensive fluctuations have taken place in the Tertiary and Recent formations and are now operative along the present shores. How far inland the action may reach, or in what degree affect the interior, is more difficult to decide.
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ALTITUDE OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
In various elevated positions in the Recent formation marine shells of the common species, or casts of them, are to be seen in their natural attitude; on the banks of Maurice River, at Tuckahoe, and elsewhere along shore, they lie from eight to twelve feet above high-water mark, and indicate an elevation before the depression now going on; and as the amount of subsidence at present is about seventeen feet on an average, as estimated by measurement from tide level to the lowest points where buried and submerged trees are found in the places in which they grew, the former elevation must have raised the surface from twenty-five to thirty feet.
The highest land of Cape May County is but about forty feet above the level of the sea, and that only at a few points of very limited extent, the average elevation being but eleven feet; so that when the shells now from eight to twelve feet above tide mark were at the level in which they grew, the greater part of Cape May County must have been submerged. The last elevation carried the shore line at least seventeen feet above where it now is.
The operations of the Sea Grove Association in clearing and grading the remarkable sea-side resort they have so well begun, have obliterated some of the most interesting and characteristic traces of geologic action to be found in the State. Between the gateway of Sea Grove and the bay, and lying along the shore, were formerly a number of well- defined parallel ridges of drift sand. These were the evidence of a former uprising of the shore, and of the consequent receding of the water of the sea, which must have washed the gravel bank or fast land; the ridges were created, one behind another, by the wind, which, blowing across the ancient strand, would raise the innermost ridge first, and then, as the shore widened toward the sea, another between it and the water, and so on.
The beach ridges, having been formed long since, were covered with a heavy growth of black oak timber, which has been in part removed by the Sea Grove improvements ; the parallel ridges have ceased to advance seaward, but Mr. Alexander Whilldin, a close observer, affirms that at present Cape May Point is growing out into Delaware Bay, by the deposition of sand upon it from the ocean front, and by the action of the wind piling up dunes or sand-hillocks.
Almost entirely along the shore of New Jersey, the main or " fast land" is separated from the sea by salt marshes of three miles or less in width; outside of these, next the sea, occurs a row of long, narrow, somewhat elevated, and more or less wooded islands, or " beaches." These are the Old beaches; they are more ancient than the marsh, and are supposed to have been formed during a former period of depression. The waves beating upon a friable shore of earth and sand, such as then existed, would wear a channel next the shore, and pile up a shoal outside the surf; a series of such shoals would
8
IIO
SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND.
thus be formed parallel to one another, and when the next elevation occurred they would appear above water, and form the basis of the present beaches. Shrubs and trees would soon grow upon these ridges, saving them from drifting away, and causing them to retain all the sand the wind blew from the strand upon them. The lower grounds between the ridges would finally rise above water, and pres- ently become covered with vegetation, until a subsequent depression again carried them below tide level, when they would become salt marshes, filling with mud by the action of the tides, and keeping their surface at high-water mark, by the growth of peat, just as one hun- dred and seventy-eight thousand two hundred and forty-wo acres of such formation, lying all the way from Long Branch southward along the shore to Cape May, are now doing.
Fresh marshes form in the broad shallow valleys of the slow- moving rivers and creeks of South Jersey; as at Tuckahoe, and on Great Egg Harbor Rivers. The salt marshes on Delaware Bay shore have been formed as fresh marshes in the valleys of the streams which flow through them to the bay, and are supposed to have had beaches between them and the bay, which have gradually been washed away; in the same way a large portion of the marsh itself has gone.
§ The landward beaches which join the marsh are developed in long, parallel lines, and, where the timber has not been removed, are covered with a very old growth of it; the open spaces in the depressions between the beaches are called savannas; in wet seasons they are saturated or more or less covered and filled with fresh water; they are then called slashes, and are the haunts of numerous water-fowl and game-birds, which makes them favorite resorts of discriminating sportsmen.
The Old beach ridges are not over a rod in width, and not more than five or six feet high; yet they, with the savannas beside them, may be a mile or two long. The Old beaches contain a small portion of clay with their sand, which partly saves them from drifting with the wind, and promotes the growth of the timber. The Old beach varies in height, increasing in elevation toward the sea; part of the low landward ridges have become submerged, and yet can be traced in places by the lines of dead trees standing in the marsh.
At Sea Grove the marsh disappears from the Delaware Bay front, and the Old beach has formed back directly over the marsh or against and upon the upland. Lily Pond, or Lake Lily as it is now called, occupies the place of what might be a marsh, and yet is a fresh-water pond, from which water was formerly taken for shipping.
The water of Lake Lily had connection with the sea by a water-course which ran from the shoreward end of the lake, between the strand and the lighthouse, and along the foot of the upland, to the west of Cape Island, and so into Skillinger's Creek and under the bridge to Cape Island
1
III
DESCRIPTION OF LAKE LILY.
Sound, and out by Cold Spring Inlet to the Atlantic. Now the sand drift has filled and covered the water-course near the lighthouse, and the Sea Grove Association have obliterated the natural features of the lake. In their zeal for improvement they have detracted very much from the scientific interest and value of the original pond, which is less to be regretted however, as there are enough indications all around of the same purport, and the engineers, by grading the shore of the pond to a fine drive, putting up ornate boat-houses, etc., have succeeded in making a very pretty miniature lake of what was a somewhat unsightly even if pure and interesting sheet of fresh water.
Since its improvement as above stated, Lake Lily has become one of the attractions of attractive Sea Grove, and is a great addition to the pleasure of visitors. When the water-course referred to was open, it was not very uncommon for the sea, in storms, to throw its waters across the beach into it, making the waters of the lake brackish; but now the natural and artificial filling in of the southern end of the water-course and the lake prevents such an occurrence, so the lake has been care- fully cleaned out, and stocked with valuable fish. The waters of Lake Lily are solely from the rainfall; they percolate slowly down and out from the bed of the lake, displacing the salt water which infiltrates the sand, yet not mixing much with it. Similar effects are produced among all the beaches. The different gravity of salt and fresh water has an influence upon the phenomena ; the fresh water being lightest, remains at the surface, and can be obtained by digging a few inches beneath the sand, anywhere between the beach ridges. Lake Lily is the only simi- lar body of water on the Cape below Cold Spring.
§ The Recent formation of New Jersey, especially in the southern part of the State, is noted for extensive swamps and marshes. Those of the interior are heavily wooded, but none of them are much above tide level ; the more elevated and solid are "timber swamps," and not only furnish good and desirable lumber, but might in many cases be improved by clearing and culture, and thus make valuable farms. It seems remarkable more has not been done for the agricultural develop- ment of the interior of South Jersey, but the original settlers looked to the sea for their highway, and to a great degree for their harvest too ; for which reason they made their homes along the upland of the shore.
Of late, through the enterprise of several parties, notably that of Charles K. Landis, of Vineland, the interior of the State has been better appreciated, and, being extensively and judiciously advertised, has attracted many intelligent and industrious settlers, who have suc- cessfully planted many fine vineyards, orchards, and farms.
The.cedar swamps, which are extensive on the banks of the rivers and around their sources, are overflowed, not stable land like the timber swamps; the White Cedar (the Cupressus thuyoides of the botanical nomenclature), which holds exclusive possession of them, flourishes
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SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND.
only in submerged or saturated soils. In many places in South Jersey it grows in a peaty stratum, where there is neither clay, gravel, loam or mud, but only a compact mass of fibrous roots, and the débris of its own fallen growth. In such localities, as well as where more substan- tial components partly form a true soil, the white cedar grows densely, and in its young growth rapidly; afterwards it becomes crowded, and grows tall, but increases more slowly in diameter.
The vegetable remains which fall from the swamp trees into the wet mass are shaded from the sun by the evergreen foliage, and thus kept cool and saved from rapid decomposition. Settling gradually down, they become submerged and then buried, from which time their decay is almost imperceptible. In this way the surface of the swamp is gradually elevated ; a layer of more than a foot thick has thus been formed in sixty years.
The original growth of cedars were sometimes seven feet or more in diameter, and immensely high ; the average size of the full-grown trees, however, was but about two feet and six inches. There are none of these great trees left, and as the whole area of Cedar Swamp is cut over every second generation, or every sixty years, a living cedar tree a hundred years old is now a rare specimen; still, the natural term of the tree is a lifetime of successive centuries. Various parties have counted the annual rings in the logs and stumps of cedars, and various witnesses affirm the existence of from five hundred to over a thousand of them in a single specimen. Sir Charles Lyell, F.R.S., quoting a newspaper article of Dr. Beesley, of Dennisville, says (Second Visit to United States, vol. i. page 34) that "Dr. Beesley, of Dennis Creek counted 1080 rings of annual growth, between the centre and outside of a large stump six feet in diameter ;" this grew atop of a previously fallen tree, which was half as old ; thus fifteen centuries were registered in a couple of logs on the surface of a swamp, which has been sounded in places from eight to ten or even eleven or more feet deep, and is full of fallen logs to the very bottom.
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