Page:The Journal of geology (IA journalofgeology21894univers).pdf/176

so many years the head of the State Survey, it was deemed advisable to act with great deliberation before proposing any important changes in the classification. Accordingly the first report to the State Geologist was limited to the fewest possible alterations in the accepted names of the formations, and the work made to conform so far as it was possible with the earlier results of the State Survey. As the work has progressed the necessity of modifying the classification hitherto adopted has become apparent, and such changes are presented at this time. The use of lithologic terms for the formations in the earlier nomenclature will be in the future discarded for place names, the older terms being retained to designate their economic equivalents. Local terms have been adopted, care being taken to select such as would characteristically represent the formations. The names of rivers, hills, and town, in the vicinity of which typical sections are found, have been generally employed. In this manner the results of the work in New Jersey are brought into conformity with methods generally adopted at the present time in other areas.

The work carried on during the past field season in portions of the area never before studied to any extent on account of the thick covering of recent deposits, reveals the fact that the divisions established chiefly from an examination in the extreme north, are remarkably persistent. This knowledge has been gained to a large extent from recent well openings and borings made at frequent intervals by the writer and his assistants. The unconsolidated character of the sediments render it possible to pursue this method of investigation throughout the region with the hope of far reaching results.

The geological formations of the coastal area of New Jersey represent a nearly complete sequence from the Cretaceous to the Pleistocene. They form a series of thin sheets which are inclined slightly to the southeastward, so that successively later formations are encountered in passing from the northwestern portion