A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 5

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

USA > New York > A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 5

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The boulders of Long Island attract the at- tention of the geologist by their size and variety. They represent almost every geolog- ical age, fossiliferous rocks of the Helderberg, Oriskany and Cauda Galli, Hamilton, Che- mung and Eocene periods having been found in the drift. Examples of these are in the col- lection of the Long Island Historical Society. There are also various members of the Arch- æan series, viz., gneiss, granite, syenite, horn- blende, chlorite, talcose and mica schist, limc- stone, dolomite, and serpentine; and the Palæozoic and Mesozoic ages are represented by Potsdam sandstone, Hudson River slate, Oneida conglomerate or Shawangunk grit, Catskill sandstone, and Triassic sandstone and trap. As the lithology of the boulders has been described in detail by Mather (Geol. Ist Dist. N. Y., pp. 165-177), it would be super- fluous for me to undertake a similar descrip- tion.

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

In addition to the rocks mentioned above, a ferruginous sandstone and conglomerate occur abundantly in fragments along the east shore of Hempstead Harbor, and in the drift be- tween Glen Cove and Oyster Bay. Many of these fragments contain vegetable impres- sions, but in only two localities have any leaf prints been found. These were West Island, Dosoris, and the well of the Williamsburg Gas Co. The prints are supposed to belong to Cretaceous plants, but the evidence is incom- plete.

Many of the erratic blocks are of immense size, one in particular, of gneiss, on Shelter Island, near Jennings' Point, contained as a solid mass over 9,000 cubic feet. It has split in three pieces since it was deposited. Mather (Geol. Ist Dist., p. 174) mentions a mass of granite near Plandome, which was estimated to contain 8,000 cubic yards above the surface of the ground.

Having thus briefly reviewed the characters of the surface drift, we will now consider in detail the strata which underlie it. The crys- talline rocks outcrop'along the shore at Hell- gate and over a limited area in the vicinity of Astoria. They consist of finely laminated gneiss and schists, tilted at a high angle, and belong to the same formation as the rocks of Manhattan Island. I am informed by Mr. Elias Lewis, Jr., that in boring an artesian well in Calvary Cemetery, near Brooklyn, a bed of gneiss was encountered at a depth of 182 feet. Further than this we know nothing of the extent of the crystalline rocks on Long Island. The section obtained in the boring mentioned was as follows:

FEET.

Surface loam and drift. 139

Greenish earth

White clay with red streaks 4

Gneiss

400

Total

582

The greenish earth referred to lost its color on being treated with hydrochloric acid, and the white residue examined under the micro- scope appeared to consist of minute fragments of kaolinized feldspar, with occasional grains of quartz sand. The acid solution gave a strong reaction for iron, indicating a probable admixture of glauconite with the material. It is stated in Cozzens' Geological History of New York Island that a shell of Exogyra costata, with green-sand adhering, was found

between Brooklyn and Flatlands, at a depth of sixty feet. This locality is about five miles south of the well just mentioned, and would indicate the presence of Cretaceous strata near Brooklyn.

The following data, also furnished by Mr. Lewis, of a well dug by the Nassau Gas Light Co., in Williamsburg, will give an idea of the formation at that locality :

FEET. INCHES.

Surface loam

Quick-sand (so called) 2

Boulder clay, somewhat sandy. 70

Blue clay with pebbles 27

Oyster shells

Total .102 6

The shell-bed was underlaid by quicksand bearing water.

In the vicinity of Manhasset, on the road to Port Washington, are extensive exposures of stratified sand, more or less inclined from the horizontal. About 200 yards south of the postoffice, on the west side of the road, is a bank about 40 feet highi, composed of a white, coarse, laminated sand, streaked with hydrous peroxide of iron, the layers dipping S. E. 13 degrees. A little northeast of the postoffice, along the road, there are banks of red sand cemented together in places by sesquioxide of iron and resembling the Cretaceous red sand bed of New Jersey.

On the shore of Manhasset Bay, near Port Washington, are highi banks of coarse yellow stratified sand and gravel. This deposit is very irregular in its stratification, as it shows in many places the "flow and plunge" structure described by Dana, and which is evidently pro- duced by swift currents. The depth of this formation cannot be determined ; it is probably not less than 150 feet, and possibly is much greater. These beds dip about 15 degrees W .; the strike is nearly due north and south. Along the shore of Manhasset Bay, from Port Washington to Barker's Point, are extensive banks of stratified sand and gravel, muchı stained with iron and dipping westward. At Prospect Point and Mott's Point the banks are composed of coarse gravel similar to that at Port Washington.

Between Roslyn and Glen Cove there are high bands of red and flesh-colored sands, while at Carpenter's clay pits a most interest- ing section is presented. The greatest height

TOPOGRAPHY OF THE ISLAND.

of this section is seventy-three feet, the strike of the beds being N. 80 degrees W. and the dip about 37 degrees northerly, the layers here apparently consisting of quartz, but susceptible of being easily crushed in the hand. The peb- bles are traversed by innumerable cracks, and are composed of coarse white gravel and sand, and appear to have been subjected to the action of an alkaline solution. Interstratified with the gravel are layers of fine white clay, from six inches to one foot in thickness, stained pink in some places, and containing occasional frag- ments of a soft hematite or red ochre. Besides these beds there is a deposit of kaolin farther south, but its stratigraphical relations to the layer exposed could not be determined. This kaolin is a soft, white, granular, clayey sub- stance, consisting chiefly of hydrous silicate of alumina from the decomposition of feldspar. In fact the whole deposit would seem to be the decomposition product of a granulite rock such as occurs abundantly in Westchester county, New York, and in southwestern Connecticut. In the north end of the bank is an unconform- ability, the gravel beds, which dip 37 degrees, being overlaid by stratified sand dipping: 15 degrees in the same direction. The layers shown in this section form the north slope of an anticlinal flexure, the lowest beds being, I am informed by Mr. Coles Carpenter, one of the proprietors, almost vertical. An excava- tion made about 100 yards W. S. W. of the main pit, for the purpose of obtaining some leaf-prints, exposed the following section :

FEET. INCHES.

Gravelly drift

White sand

Coarse sand

Reddish clay

Grey, sandy carbonaceous clay with leaf-prints

These beds dipped about 15 degrees S. W., the locality being on the south slope of the anticlinal. Owing to the sandy nature of the clay, and the dryness of the season, no satis- factory specimens could be obtained. The prints retain no carbon, but simply show the venation of the leaves.

North of Sea Cliff, along the shore of Hempstead Harbor, to the Glen Cove steam- boat landing, is a series of clay beds outcrop- ping on the beach and dipping N. by E. about

Io degrees ; these beds are of various colors, blue, yellow, reddish, white and black. The reddish clays contain fragments of a soft hematite, and one of the blue layers is over- laid by about two inches of lignite in small fragments. Other layers contain pyritized lignite and nodular pyrites, but it is impossible to determine the nature and order of these beds accurately, without extensive excavations. Dark clays, with pyrites, are also reported to occur in Carpenter's pits at a considerable depth. In the beds of decomposed gravel al- ready mentioned are many geodes of sand ce- mented together by hydrous and anhydrous sesquioxide of iron, containing a dark granular mass which analysis shows to consist chiefly of decomposed pyrites. The conclusion is therefore justifiable that the nodules of mar- casite which once existed in the gravel beds have decomposed by oxidation, and the result- ing ferric oxide has cemented the sand about them into a hard crust, while the nodules in the clay beds which were protected from oxi- dation have remained unaltered.

North of Glen Cove clays of various kinds occur at East and West Islands, Dosoris' and at Matinnecock Village. At the East Willis- ton brickyard, near Mineola, there is a local deposit of grey micaceous clay. The depth of this, where excavated, varies from seven to eighteen feet. The clay overlies white lami- nated sands, stained with limonite, the upper surface of the sand being cemented together for the depth of an inch by the yellow oxide. Over the clay is about six inches of black alluvial earth.

At the brickyard on Centre Island, in Oys- ter Bay, there is a deposit of brown sandy clay over a bed of more homogeneous and tougher clay. These beds undulate in an east and west direction or away from the shore, and the lower stratum contains shaly concre- tions or claystones. About a mile north of the brickyard it is said that a bed of white fire clay has been found at a depth of twenty-five feet under the drift and sand. A little west from the U. S. Fish Hatchery, at the head of Cold Spring Harbor, is a bank of stratified gravel seventy feet high. About forty feet be- low the top of this bank is an exposure of laminated sand and sandy clay stained red, brown and yellow with oxide of iron, and a short distance below a chalybeate spring issues from the bank. The clay deposit at Stewart's brickyard, at Bethpage, is about sixty feet in depth. The surface stratum is a yellowish

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

micaccous clay, the lower part being mottled blue and yellow. It probably was originally a gray or blue clay, its present yellow color be- ing due to the peroxidation and hydration of the iron contained. Of this stratum there is about thirty-five feet ; below is about five feet of reddish sandy clay, and beneath this a blue- black sandy clay containing nodules of white pyrites. This stratum is about twenty-five feet deep and is underlaid by white sand. The beds are somewhat disturbed and folded, the uppermost being slightly undulating, while the two lower appear to be raised in a fold trend- ing nearly east and west.

I am indebted to Mr. Lewis for the follow- ing section obtained in digging a well at Jericho in 1878, on the premises of Mr. Jules Kunz:

FEET. INCIIES.

Surface loam 15

Drift

Yellow gravel 81

Sand 15

Sandy clay with a carbonized branch 4

Yellow clay 3

Blue and gray sandy clay with

pyrites 30

Micaceous sand 14

Total

198 6

From the same authority I have the follow- ing section of a well on Barnum's Island :

FEET.

Sand and gravel, stratified 70

Clay and clayey sand with ·lignite. . 56

Gravel and fine sand with clayey sand .. 44

Blue clay, clayey sand and silt, with lig- nite and pyrites. 168

Total 338

In the third stratum, at a depth of 168 feet, a fragment of the stem of a crinoid was found, which, together with a complete set of specimens from the well, is in the collection of the Long Island Historical Society. The fossil fragment is probably from some Pal- æozoic formation, and has no special import- ance.

At Crossman's brickyard in Huntington, on the east shore of Cold Spring Harbor, we have an intersected section trending a little east of north, which is as follows:

FEET.

Till and stratified drift. IO

Quartz gravel 45

Red and blue "loam" or sandy clay. 20

Diatomaceous earth

Yellow and red stratified sand. 20

Red plastic clay. 20

Brown plastic clay 25

Total

143

The bed of diatomaceous earth is of unde- termined extent, and appears to be replaced a little to the east by a blue clay, which, how- ever, contains some diatoms. It is undoubt- edly equivalent to the bed of ochre which over- lies the sand throughout the remainder of the section. At Jones' brickyard, adjoining Cross- man's, there is a similar fold nearly at right angles to the first, but the upper portion has been removed by ice or water down to the sand. This stratum, which is yellow and brown in the north part of Crossman's yard, is dark red in the south end and at Jones'. It appears to be mixed with a fine red clayey matter which separates on washing.

The formation on Lloyd's Neck is similar to that at Crossman's, with regard to the com- position of the strata. On the north side of East Neck, at Eckerson's brickyard, is a de- posit of reddish clay underlaid by brown clay very similar to that at Crossman's. To the west of this is a bank of white quartz gravel, while on the east is an extensive deposit of fine, white quartz sand, laminated with red, yellow and brown waved streaks. The exact relations of these strata I was unable to de- termine, but from their analogies to other de- posits I am inclined to consider the laminated sand as the more recent.

On the north end of Little Neck there is another large deposit of these laminated sands. At this point they dip S. E. about 15 degrees. The following section is given in Mather's Re- port Geol. of Ist Dist., p. 254:

FEET.

I. Loose surface sand. 11/2

2. Dark-colored loamy sand and clay. 3

3. Yellowish and reddish sand, waved laminæ +1/2

4. White sand tinged with yellow. 4

5. Sand similar but differing in color and direction of laminæ. 4

6. Sand red, waved laminæ. 30

7. White clay 4

TOPOGRAPHY OF THE ISLAND.

FEET.

8. White sand tinged with red or yellow

9. Clay, white like No. 7. 3

IO. Sand, white like No. 8. 3

II. White clay like No. 7 .. 5

12. White sand like No. 8. 5

Total

South of this deposit, about half a mile, is a clay-pit which is worked by Captain Sam- mis, of Northport. Here the stratification is as follows :

FEET.

Surface loam and drift. 3 or 4

Sandy kaolin IO

Yellowish clay 4

Dark blue sandy clay. 15

Dip, 5 degrees W.

The lowest stratum is separated into thin laminæ by equally thin layers of sand, in which are numerous impressions of fragments of vegetable matter, but only one leaf-print has been found; this is in the museum of the Long Island Historical Society. It is a small, broadly elliptical leaf, about three-fourths of an inch long. In this same bed was found several years ago a shark's tooth which has been identified as Carcharodon angustidens or megalodon. It is difficult to determine the re- lation of this stratum to the other layers in the vicinity, but it is probably of the same period as the laminated sands, and seems to be identical with a bed which Mather describes as occurring on Eaton's Neck. (Geol. Ist Dist., p. 228.)

At the brickyard near West Deer Park, be- neath the gravel and drift, is a stratum of flesli-colored clay, underlaid by dark blue clay containing pyrites. I was informed by the owner, Mr. Conklin, that in the centre of the hill of gravel the clay rises up in a fold. Be- tween Bethpage and West Deer Park is a de- posit of ferruginous conglomerate and sand- stone formed by the solidification of the strati- fied gravel and sand or yellow drift. This rock is very similar in composition and appearance to one which occurs in fragments in the glacial drift and contains vegetable impressions. At Provost's yard, near Fresh Ponds, are quite extensive beds of brown sandy clay, reddish clay, and chocolate-brown clay, dipping from

the shore. The red and chocolate clays are probably identical with the similar beds at Crossman's in Huntington.

Lake Ronkonkoma is in a basin of which the bottom is about 210 feet below the high ground on the south. Its southern bank is composed of laminated sand streaked with oxide of iron, and the rest of the shore ap- pears to be formed of the same material. At Crane Neck Point are bluffs, 60 feet high, of sand and gravel containing masses of fer- ruginous sandstone of recent date. At

Herod's Point the bluffs consist of fine yellow sand and gravel, slightly stratified, and dip- ping a few degrees south. Limonite concre- tions are here abundant. The bluffs at Friar's Head are about 120 feet high, and consist of yellow stratified sand with pebbles. Over these is a dune of yellowish drifted sand 90 feet high, making the total height of the peak 210 feet. On the west side of Robbin's Island is an exposure of blue clay overlaid by laminated ferruginous sand. The depth of this clay-bed has not been determined, but it is similar in appearance and quality to some of the clays near Huntington, especially at Crossman's brick-yard. A chalybeate spring issues from the laminated sand on the shore, a little to the south of the clay-pit. The clay bed ap- pears to dip southward about 10 degrees throughout the whole extent of the island. Near the railroad between Southold and Greenport are two brickyards. At the more easterly of the two there are various deposits of stratified sand and clay very much folded and tilted. At this place the section exposed shows two parallel folds, the axes of which trend a little north of east. The upper stratum of brown clay contains angular fragments of mica schist. At the other yard they are work- ing a bed precisely similar to that just men- tioned and also containing angular fragments of rock.

On Shelter Island are high hills of gravel with a thin covering of till; the highest point is about 180 feet above tide. West of the vil- lage of Orient is a narrow isthmus of sand beach and salt meadow, about a mile and a half long and not more than ten feet above tide. East of this, on the north side of the peninsula, Brown's Hills extend along the shore for a mile and a half, the highest point being 128 feet above Long Island Sound. The struc- ture of these hills is difficult to determine, as extensive land slides have occurred, and the

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

slopes are covered with grass and bushes. One exposure gave the following section :

FEET.

Drift 3

Fine yellow sand 8

Micaceous clay

Micaceous sand 25

Total

The micaceous sand occurs at the foot of the bluffs along the shore in this vicinity. It may also be seen half a mile west of Orient, in a bank by the road-side.

On Gardiner's Island a very complete sec- tion is exposed on the southeast shore, which exhibits the strata to the depth of about 250 feet. Here stratified sands and clays of va- rious kinds and colors are raised up in two parallel anticlinal folds. In the southerly fold the stratum is a light red, fine, plastic clay, very similar to that at Crossman's in Hunting- ton ; it is here exposed to a depth of about 100 feet and is upheaved at a high angle, its outer slopes dipping about 45 degrees, while along the axis of the fold the lamina are vertical. The northern anticlinal has about 15 degrees dip on either side, and in its north slope is a stratum of yellowish clayey sand containing a bed of post-pliocene shells, at an average height of 15 feet above the sea. The formation which is here brought to view probably un- derlies the whole of the island, as it is ex- posed at various other points. On the north and southeast shores the beds are very much disturbed and folded, and the surface of the island is raised in a series of parallel ridges corresponding in position to the folds and hav- ing a general trend of N. 65 degrees E. The highest point on the island is 128 feet above the sea ; the bluffs along the shore being from twenty-five to seventy feet high. The fossil- iferous stratum is about 20 feet long and four feet thick, containing an abundance of shells, most of which appear to have been crushed by superincumbent pressure. The locality was visited in 1863 by Prof. Sanderson Smith, who describes the bed as 150 to 200 feet long. * * * *

Napeague Beach, east of Amagansett, is three miles long and one-quarter of a mile broad, consisting entirely of white quartz sand. Along the shore on the north and south are dunes of drifted sand 20 or 30 feet high, but the main portion of the beach probably aver- ages less than 10 feet above the sea. East

of the beach the country for twelve miles to the end of Montauk Point is chiefly a terminal moraine, and as such I have already briefly described it.

HISTORICAL GEOLOGY.

Having thus reviewed in detail the various strata underlying the drift, we come now to consider their age and history. Without at- tempting to decide the geological equivalence of the crystalline rocks at Astoria, we will dis- cuss the unsolidified deposits which have just been described.

From the position and strike of the Creta- ceous strata in New Jersey and Staten Island, it has been surmised by geologists that they underlie Long Island throughout the whole or a portion of its extent. The locality at which the strata most resemble the Cretaceous beds of New Jersey is Glen Cove, where the clays already described are probably of this age. If the Cretaceous formation extends under the whole of Long Island it must occur at a very great depth, since deep sections at points east of Glen Cove do not reveal its presence.

In regard to this formation and the follow- ing, it should be understood that sufficient data have not yet been obtained to warrant an at- tempt to map out their extent. The only ex- posures are in vertical sections along the shore and in various clay-pits or similar excava- tions; and there being an immense amount of quaternary material overlying them, no satis- factory degree of accuracy can be as yet at- tained in this regard.

The Tertiary strata of Long Island cannot as yet be identified with much more certainty than the Cretaceous. From their character and position we may surmise that the brown and red plastic clays of Huntington, Gardiner's Island and elsewhere belong to the age in ques- tion, but we have no palæontological evidence except from the shark's tooth found on Little Neck, which would identify the bed in which it occurred as Eocene or Miocene. The strati- fied sands and gravels, however, which overlie the supposed Cretaceous and Tertiary beds, and in turn are overlaid unconformably by surface drift and till, we may accept as Post- pliocene, from the analogy of their composi- tion, structure and position to the deposits of Gardiner's Island and Sankaty Head, of which the fossils determine the age beyond question ; unfortunately, however, there is no unconform-

ability to show where the Tertiary ends and the Quaternary begins.

At various times and places fossil shells and lignite have been found on Long Island. I append a synopsis of a list of these compiled by Elias Lewis, Jr., from Mather's Report and from other sources :

presumed Cretaceous and Tertiary beds were deposited we know nothing; though it is rea- sonable to conclude that they consist of the debris of New York and New England rocks carried down from the highlands and deposited along the coast by rivers or by other agencies of transportation. The overlying deposits of

NATURE OF FOSSIL

LOCALITY AND DATE

DEPTH

AUTHORITY

1. Recent shells.

Fort Lafayette.

23-53 feet. 43-67 feet.

E. Lewis, Jr. Thompson's Hist. of L. I. E. Lewis, Jr.

3. Clam and oyster shells.

Well in Prospect Park.

40-50 feet.

E. Lewis, Jr.

5. 2 Petrified clams.

100 feet.

1 5 W. J. Furnam, Antiquities

6. Orogyra Costata, with grain sand.

Oyster shells.

High grounds in Brooklyn. Fort Greene, 1814.

73 feet.

Furman's Antiquities.

8. Clam shells.

9. Anomia ephippium.

Cor. Jay & Front St., Brooklyn

15 feet.

E. Lewis, Jr.

10.

Oyster shells.

Nassau Gas Light Co., Wil- liamsburg.

127 ft. 6 in.

E. Lewis, Jr.

11.

Log of wood.

Bushwick.

40 feet.

Thompson's History.

12.

Shells.

Newtown.

70 feet.

Thompson's History.

13.

Clam shells.

East New York.

80 feet. Thompson's History.

14. Wood.

Three miles west of Jamaica. Lakeville.

5 85 ft. above tide.

Henry Onderdonk, Jr.

16. Clam, oyster and scallop shells.

Lakeville.

, 200 ft. above tide. J. H. L' Hommedieu. 47 feet.

Great Neck, 1813.

50 feet.

Thompson's History.

Manhasset, 1813.

78 feet.

Thompson's History.

19. Shells.

Bet. Manhasset and Roslyn.

140 feet.

Thompson's History.

20. Stem of Crinoid.

Barnum's Island.

168 feet.

E. Lewis, Jr.

21.

Lignite.

Barnum's Island.

100-383 feet.

E. Lewis, Jr.

22.

Wood.

Near Westbury.

Great depths.

Thompson's History.

23. Wood.

Hempstead Plains, 1804.

100-108 feet.

Dwight's Travels. Isaac Coles.

25 Lignite.

Glen Cove, 1864.

40 feet.

E. Lewis, Jr.

26. Lignite.

Jericho, 1878.

96 feet.

E. Lewis, Jr.

27. Wood.

Cold Spring. Little Neck.

110 feet.

Thompson's History.

28. Carcharodon angustidens

P. B. Sills.

29. Log of wood.

Strong's Neck.

10 feet.

Thompson's History.

30. Clam shells.

Shelter Island, 1898.

57 feet.

Thompson's History.

31. Shells.

Wells at Amagansett. Jamaica Pond, 1846.

Yaphank.

$ 100 ft. above tide. E. Lewis, Jr.

/ 20 feet.

34. Ostrea Virginiana.

Sag Harbor, 1864.

180 ft. above tide

Dr. Cook.

In view of the fact that we have nowhere else any good evidence of a change of sea level amounting to 200 feet in the vicinity of New York during the Glacial epoch, we can only account for the high elevation of some of these fossils by supposing that they, with their con- taining beds, have been raised to their present position by glacial action in the manner I shall describe.

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 5

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188