Atlantic Continental Shelf and Slope 

of the United States 

Nineteenth Century 

Exploration 

GEOLOGICAL SURVfY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 529-F 

Atlantic Continental 

Shelf and Slope of the 

United StatesNineteenth Century 

Exploration 

By THOMAS]. M. SCHOPF 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 529-F 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Marine Biological Laborator.,y and the 

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 

A synthesis of early work on topography, 

sediments, biology, bedrock geology, 

and water studies 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1968 
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

STEW ART L. UDALL, Secretary 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

William T. Pecora, Director 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office 

Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price 30 cents (paper cover) 
CONTENTS 

Page 

Abstract___________________________________________________________________ F1 

Introduction_______________________________________________________________ 1 

Acknowledgments___________________________________________________________ 1 

Topography________________________________________________________________ 2 

Sediments and biology_______________________________________________________ 3 

Work of J. W. Bailey____________________________________________________ 3 

Work of Count L. F. de Pourtales_________________________________________ 4 

Work of A. E. Verrill____________________________________________________ 5 

Continental margin bedrock geology___________________________________________ 9 

Waterstudies______________________________________________________________ 9 

Summary and conclusions____________________________________________________ 10 

Fteferences_________________________________________________________________ 10 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

FIGURE 1. Graphic scale showing some of the time relations of the men and 

institutions discussed in the text_______________________________ F1 

2-4. Portraits: 

2. J. W. Bailey____________________________________________ 3 

3. L. F. de Pourtales_______________________________________ 4 

4. A. E. VerrilL___________________________________________ 5 

5. Map showing faunal regions postulated by A. E. VerrilL____________ 8 

TABLE 

Page 

TABLE 1. Summary of areas dredged by Fish Commission_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ F7 

III 

ATLANTIC CONTINENTAL SHELF AND SLOPE OF THE UNITED STATESNINETEENTH CENTURY EXPLORATION 1 

By THoMAS J. M. ScHOPF 2 

ABSTRACT 

Two periods of exploration of the east coast of the United 

States are prominent. The first (1807-70) was characterized 

by initial broad surveys of underwater topography by the U.S. 

Coast Survey and of sediments, especially by J. W. Bailey and 

L. F. de Pourtales. It ended with publication by Pourtales of 

the first map summarizing sediment distribution on the continental shelf from Florida to Cape Cod. The second period 

(1871-87) coincided with the existence of the U.S. Fish Commission and was a time during which great emphasis was given 

to description of the offshore fauna of the shelf, especially the 

invertebrates. A. E. Verrill was foremost among those who 

documented this faunal diversity. By 1878, rocks dredged by 

fishermen had led to a correct interpretation of the origin 

of Georges Bank and other fishing banks though the bedrock 

geology of the rest of the shelf remained little known. Water 

studies were of little value until the introduction of a reliable 

reversing thermometer in 1878, and few systematic studies were 

made of water temperature and currents until the 20th century. 

The effects of continental glaciation as a major factor influencing the history and present environment of the shelf were 

usually misunderstood. 

INTRODUCTION 

A comprehensive geological-biologi,cal survey of ·the 

American A1

tlantic continental margin (Emery, 1966,a; 

progress summarized by Emery, 1965, 1966b) has been 

in progress for 5 years. It is the logical continuation of 

pioneering investigations of middle and late 19thcentury and early 20th-century naturalists (Colton, 

1964) . Foremost among these early scientists of the last 

century were Jacob W. Bailey, Louis F. de Pourtales, 

and Addison E. Verrill. The work of these men .and their 

contemporaries helps ·to provide a basis for understanding the importance of presen't work on the continental 

shelf (fig. 1). 

This paper is organized by the suhj ects that these men 

investigated. The reader will note, however, thrut there 

were two periods of early exploration. The first (1807-

70) was characterized by initial broad surveys of underwater topography and sediments; it began with the estwblishment of the "Survey of the Coast" in 1807 and 

ended with ·the publication of the first map to show sediment distribution on the continental shelf from Cape 

1 Contribution 107 o.f the Systematics-Ecology Program. Contribution 

1964 o.f the Woods Hole Oceanographic Instdtution. 

2 Lehigh University. 

Cod to southern Florida (Pourtales, 1870). The second 

period (1871-87) was one during which major attention 

was given to description of shelf organisms; immense 

collections of animals and pl,ants greatly extended early 

ideas in faunal diversity and faunal provinces off the 

east coast of the United States. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

For suggestions ·about the way in which the topics discussed here should be handled, I wish especially to thank 

the following persons: 1{. 0. Emery ·and El,azar Uchupi, 

:Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; James V. A. 

Present 

1926 1910 

1906 

1900 S.P. 

LANGLEY 

Superintendents 1890 of the U.S. 

F' 1887 Coast Survey L.F. de S.F. Present POURTALEs BAIRD 1880 1880 BAIRD 1878 

L.AGASSIZ Y.P.M. 

1874 1873 founded 

a PIERCE 1871 1870 Florida Director 1867 Straits U.S. Fish JOSEPH 

Commission HENRY 

J.W. Yale 1860 BAILEY M.C.Z Harvard 

A.D. 1857 founded 

BACHE 

Coast 1850 N.J. Harvard Survey 

Coli. Harvard 1846 

1843 Directors 

Smithsonian 1840 1839 Institute 

A.E. VERRILL 

1830 

1824 

1820 

1811 1810 1807 1807 

1800 

FIGURE 1.-Graphic scale showing some of the time relations of 

the men and institutions discussed in the text. The periods 

during which individuals were concerned with east-coast materi·al are indicated by heavy lines. Life spans of Bailey, Agassiz, PourtaU~s. and Verrill are shown. N.J. Coll., New Jersey 

Collections; M.C.Z., Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard; Y.P.M., Pea/body Museum, Yale. 

Fl 
F2 ATLANTIC CONTINENTAL SHELF AND SLOPE OF THE UNITED STATES 

Trumbull and J. E. Hazel, U.S. Geological Survey; 

John B. Colton, Jr., Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 

Woods Hole; Daniel A. Merriman, Yale University~ M_elbo~rne R. Carriker and Barry A. Wade, Marine 

BIOlogiCal Laboratory; and J. William Schopf University of Californi·a at Los Angeles. The work w~ supported by a grant from the Ford FoundUJtion to the 

Marine Biological Laboratory, Systematics-Ecology 

Program. 

TOPOGRAPHY 

A period of 27 years ( 1807-34) was needed to initiate 

a b~thymetric survey for America's east coast. In 1807, 

during Jefferson's adm·inis:trat.ion, the U.S. "Survey of 

the Coast" (later "Coast Survey" in 1835 and "Coast 

and Geodetic Survey" in 1878) was established by the 

Treasury Department. It was responsible for determining coastal elevations, charting islands, shoals, and 

places of. anchorage, and currents, and recording depths 

on what TS now known a:s ~the continental shelf. 

Ferdin~nd Rudolph Hassler (1770-1843), ·an immi-

~rant Swiss engineer, was responsible for its organization and early growth. Wraight and Roberts (1957) 

acknowledge their scientific debt to him by writing : 

"Though he was proud and intolerant, constantly drawing down official censure upon himself by his irascibility, 

he nevertheless had an understanding of sound technical 

procedure and a sense of lasting values .. By his strength 

of will and his sincerity, he successfully resisted those 

who wanted a quick and cheap job." 

Initially the survey was beset with many difficulties 

that were not Hassler's doing. All instruments had to be 

newly designed or imported from Europe, and there 

were few trained people in the United 8tates. Congress 

no sooner granted funds than it wanted to know when 

the job would be completed. The first series of shore 

elev;a;tions were d~termined in 1817 in Rhode Island 

New York, ' and New Jersey (map published by Hassler, 

1834). However, work was barely begun when the activities were transformed to the Navy (1818), and civilian personnel including Hassler could not be hired. In 

1832, the Treasury Department reeS'tablished oontrol of 

the Survey of the Coast and, with Hassler back in 

charge, surveying extended north and sou'th along the 

coast. Bathymetric surveying began 'in 1834 (Shalowitz, 

1964, p. 214) 0 

In 1843 Hassler helped to plan a major expansion of 

the Coast Survey but later in the year he died following an injury sustained during fieldwork. For the next 

?4 years, Alexander Dallas Bache (1806-67) was superIntendent. Bache was the great-grandson of Benjamin 

Franklin and "chief founder" and first president of the 

U._S. National Academy of Sciences (Conklin, 1941). 

H1s first annual report in 1844 initiated a policy of 

yearly publication of charts that showed survey progress. He divided the Adantic and Gulf coasts into nine 

sections, each to be rna pped by separate parties (Colbert, 1941}. In this way, many persons from different 

regions could be pleased, and indeed southern ports and 

populated regions were surveyed before the intervening 

uninhabited areas. Of additional interest at this time 

was the discovery of the Blake Plateau (see Pillsbury, 

1883) by soundings of Lieutenants Craven and Maffitt 

that revealed a bank seaward of the Gulf Stream off 

Florida and South Carolina (Bache, 1854}· In sum, a 

large body of new information was accumulated each 

year of Bache's administration. 

Harvard mathematician and astronomer Benj·amin 

Peirce ( 1809-80) was superintendent of the Coast Survey from 1867 to 187 4. He sponsored intensive work 

aboard the Oorwin (four stations, 1867) and Bibb (212 

stations, 1868-70) in the Straits of Florida; these 

cruises resulted in an important series of bottom profiles (Pourtales, 187la, pl. 8) and the discovery of 

Pourtales Plateau (named by L. Agassiz, 1869), later to 

be called Pourtales Terrace (Jordan and Stewart, 1961). 

The general description of topography and sediment 

in tha.t area by Pourtales (1870, 1871b} was not greatly 

improved upon until recent detailed work of Jordan, 

Malloy, and Kofoed ( 1964). 

Although soundings of water depth existed for much 

of the continental shelf in 1870, contours apparently 

were rarely shown for depths greater than 8 meters 

(Shalowitz, 1964, p. 252}. Not until 1939, when echosounding provided continuous measurements over large 

areas, were charts published that showed contours in 

preference to sounding depths ( Shalowitz, 1964, p. 

284). Verrill and others who used 19th century cha~ts 

had no real idea of local submarine canyons off New 

England, although Pourtales (1870} and Dana (1880, 

p. 244) knew that the Hudson River valley extended 

seaward into .the Hudson Canyon to depths of more 

than 200 meters. Veatch and Smith (1939} finally 

estll!blished the importance of these canyons. 

In 1870, L. F. de Pourtales, a zoologist and geologist 

associated with the Coast Survey and Harvard, summarized bathymetry and sediment distribution from 

Florida to Cape Cod. Areas no1:th of this region were 

not described, probrubly because of greater bathymetric 

and sediment complexity. Encouragement from a growing fishing industry (especially persons engaged in 

catching cod and mackerel, and in whaling----4800 McFtJ,rland, 1911) in the later part of the 19th oentury 

resulted in exploration of the Gulf of Mll!ine, but only 

in 187 4 did its bathymetry become known in a general 

way. Indeed, the distribution and bathymetry of basins 

of the Gulf of Maine, which oomposes about 30 peroent 
NINETEENTH CENTURY EXPLORATION F3 

of its area, were compiled for the first time in 1965 

(Uchupi, 1965). 

By the summer of 1871 when A. E. Verrill began his 

collahomtion with the U.S. Fish Commission, most of 

the major bathymetric features of the east coast continental margin had been mapped. The edge of the 

continent was known to occur at approximately the 200-

meter line and not near the present shoreline. Extensive offshore · soundings existed for the regions from 

Georges Bank to Delaware Bay, from southern North 

Carolina to northern Florida, and off southern Florida. 

Scattered soundings had been made for much of the 

remainder of the continental shelf and only the area 

off eastern Florida was virtually unsounded (Peirce, 

1874, sketch no. 1). 

Although gross bathymetric features were known, 

their origin was not weH understood by Verrill. For 

example, he thought that the present surfaces of Nantucket Shoals, Georges Bank, and other banks were 

probably once islands "which have been worn down by 

the waves below the level of the sea." (Verrill, 1875b, 

p. 368). Although he was a student of Louis Agassiz 

(who developed the glacial theory) and a colleague of 

Dana (who strongly supported it), Verrill did not 

comprehend the consequences of continental glaciation 

either in supplying sediments or in modifying what is 

now submarine topography. He did recognize preRecent marine deposits above present sea level, and the 

erosional origin of fiords below present sea level, but he 

erroneously thought that land rather than sea level was 

the predominant unsta.ble element. This assumption 

also appears as ·a premise in some of Verrill's notions 

about the distribution of animals. 

The Coast Survey collected data chiefly from the 

continental shelf, but in addition excellent bottom profiles of the shelf, slope, and rise resul1ted from cruises 

of the Blake in 1880-83. Pilsbury (1883; republished 

anonymously, 1883) prepared 27 profiles covering 

transects from Georges Bank to Puerto Rico, some extending as far seaward as Bermuda. The Navy worked 

more extensively in deeper water than on the shelf. 

Among important deep-water soundings were those 

taken by the Brooke sounding apparatus in 1852-53 

on Lieutenant Berryman's Newfoundland-to-Ireland 

cruise to locate the best place for the transatlantic 

telegraph cable (Williams, 1963). Based on these 

soundings, the first bathymetric chart of the North 

Atlantic Ocean showing depths at 1;000-meter contour 

intervals was prepared by Matthew Fontaine Maury 

(1861) of the "Depot of Charts and Instruments" (later 

the U.S. Navy Oceanographic Office). 

SEDIMENTS AND BIOLOGY 

Three men, J. W. Bailey, L. F. de Pourtales, and 

A. E. Verrill, were responsible for many of the fundamental advances in the knowledge of distribution of 

sediments and organisms in the middle to latter part of 

the 19th century. At that time, those who studied sediments also studied animals and plants, and indeed 

larger sediment samples included a significant collection of organisms. 

WORK OF J. W. BAILEY 

Bailey (fig. 2), Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, 

and Geology at the U.S. Military Academy from 1838 to 

1857 was the first worker to describe sediment composition from the American Atlantic Continental Shelf and 

Slope. Early in his career, he published papers on 

taxonomy and distribution of fossil and living plants, 

especially dia.toms and other algae. In 1848, Bailey collected lead line samples a:t depths of approximately 20, 

40 100 and 200 meters on transects extending seaward ' ' from four locations along the New Jersey coast. The 

expectation was that quartz sands or muds, similar to 

the nearshore deposits, would occur in deeper water. 

FIGURE 2.-Jacob W. Bailey by Robert W. Weir. From U.S. 

Military Academy Arclrives. 
F4 ATLANTIC CONTINENT~L SHELF AND SLOPE OF THE UNITED STATES 

Bailey (1851) was greatly surprised to find Foraminifera dominating the 100- and 200-meter samples. 

Later, Bailey showed that deeper \Yater samples from 

other temperate latitudes differed greatly from shore-

] ine deposits. From sediment colleoted by the Brooke 

sounding appamtus in 1852-5?, from depths of 2,000-

4,000 meters in the North .:\.tlantic, Maury sent five 

s~tmples to Bailey. In these, Bailey found abundant 

complete Foraminifera, that were different from species 

previously seen in New Jersey shelf deposits. A few 

diatoms, sponge spicules, and radiolarians, as well as 

broken Foraminifera, constituted the finer sediment 

fraction (Bailey, 1854). In 1855, he discovered that 

Foraminifera were dominant in samples from 300 to 400 

meters off Key Biscayne, Fla., (Bailey, 1856a). In 1856, 

he described the process of ghuconite formation in deposits near the sea\Yard limit of the shelf off eastern 

Florida. This description confirmed the hypothesis previously suggested from rock samples by the paleontologist Ehrenberg in Europe (Bailey, 1856b). In fact, so 

extensive were the discoveries of Bailey, that at his 

death, the prominent taxonomist Augustus Gould 

(1857) referred to him as the "Ehrenberg of America." 

WORK OF COUNT L. F. de POURTALES 

Pourtales (fig. 3), a student of Louis Agassiz at 

Neuchatel, Switzerland, followed his mentor to the 

United States in 1847, and the following year entered 

the service of the Coast Survey (A. Agassiz, 1881). In 

an 1850 paper, Pourtales "confirmed and extended" 

Bailey's 1848 observations on depth zonation of 

Foraminifera on the New Jersey continental shelf 

(Bailey, 1854; Bache, 1851) . However, although Bailey 

and Pourtales had shown that tests of Foraminifera and 

other organisms occurred in deeper water, the question 

remained whether these organisms lived at the greater 

depths or were only accumulated there. From samples 

obtained by Craven and Maffitt (Bache, 1854) from the 

Blake Plataeu, Pour:taH~s reported that Foraminifera, 

which accounted for 95 percent of the samples, were 

probably alive. In addition he discovered "some delicate shells of molluscs from deP'ths beyond [1,000 

meters], where they were certainly living" (Pourtales, 

1854). 

Between 1867 and 1869, Pourtales carried out pioneer 

studies in the use of a dredge to obtain large benthic organisms in the Florida Straits. This was one of the early 

attempts to find out whether or not larger organisms 

lived at depths as great as 200 meters and paralleled the 

investigation aboard the H.M.S. Lightening and Porcupine on the eastern side of the Atlantic (Herdman, 1923, 

p. 41). Pourtales was greatly impressed when he discovered that "animal life exi8ts at great depths [200-

500 meters], in as great a diversity and as great an 

abundance as in shallo10 w>ater" (Pourtales, 1867; italics his). Later he wrote : 

The discovery of so varied a fauna at such great depth is an 

unexpected result in the history of the geographical distribution 

of organized beings. The examination of numerous specimens 

of sea bottom brought up by the lead has made us ·acquainted with 

a fauna very rich in individuals, though poor in species, and 

indeed confined almost entirely to one of the lowest classes of 

the animal kingdom, the foraminifera. The dredge has shown 

us now that they form but the lowest step, and that ab<>ve them 

rise representatives of all the higher branches, except perhaps 

the vertebrata, (fishes,) and of the presence or absence of 

the latter we have no proof, probably only because we have 

as yet employed no means to procure it (Pourtales, 1869) . 

It is not surprising that Louis Agassiz ( 1869) concluded 

that "we owe to the Coast Survey the first broad and 

comprehensive basis for an exploration of the sea botFIGURE 3.-L. F. de PourtJales. From archives of the Museum of 

Compara,tive Zoology, Harvard University. 
NINETEENTH CENTURY EXPLORATION F5 

tom on a large scale, opening a new era in zoological 

geological research." 

The first extensive collections of sediments and organisms from off eastern North America were made by 

the U.S. Coast Survey during Bache's administration 

( 1843- 67), but they were not described until 1870 and 

1872. PourtaH~s (1867, p. 104) stated that from eight 

to nine thousand samples had been obtained from the 

sounding lead from depths down to 2,700 meters by 

hydrographic parties. These samples formed the basis 

for his 1869 report to the Coast Survey in which he 

summarized the distribution of shelf sediments, including types of foraminiferal oozes, from Florida to 

Cape Cod (Pourtales, 1872). The color maps that were 

prepared for this summary were not published by the 

Coast Survey but did appear with the German translation in Petermann's journal (Pourtales, 1870). This pioneering work, essentially correct in its main features, 

is comparable to the map of U chupi ( 1963), compiled 

from the literature 90 years la,ter. The main features 

unrecognized by Pourtales were the increase in coarseness of sediments going seaward on the shelf, which 

indicates that shelf deposits are mainly of relict origin 

(Shepard and Cohee, 1936; Emery, 1965), and extensive manganese and phosphorite deposits of the Blake 

Plateau (Pratt and McFarlin, 1966). 

WORK OF A. E. VERRILL 

Verrill (fig. 4) extended knowledge of marine biology off the New England coast more than any other 

19th-century scientist. Born in Greenwood, Maine, his 

earliest publications dealt with minerals and birds collected in his youth. At the age of 20, he went to Harvard 

to continue his studies of natural history under the direction of Prof. Louis Agassiz, Director of the newly 

founded (1859) Museum of Comparative Zoology. Verrill joined Alpheus Hyatt, Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, 

E. S. Morse, and others in working with one of America's best natural history libraries and collections. However, the young scientists were foroed to restrict their 

professional advancement in favor of that of the museum and its director. When Verrill and his colleagues 

came to independent scientific judgements, especially 

on the theory of evolution (which Agassiz strongly opposed) , the association became unbearable and several 

students revolted against Agassiz and left in 1863- 64 

(Dexter, 1965). Thus at the age of 25, Verrill went to 

Yale as the first professor of zoology in the United 

States. He was hired by the eminent zoologist and geologist James Dwight Dana (1813-95), and Verrill taught 

zoology and some geology until his retirement in 1907 

(G. E. Verrill, 1958). 

In contrast to another famous 19th-century natural316--109 0 - 68- 2 

ist, Charles Darwin, Verrill did not construct major 

theoretical systems and develop his work around them 

as Darwin had done, for example, with his theories of 

evolution, natural selection, sexual selection, and coralreef origins. VerrilFs approach to scientific problems 

was much less theoretical. The major theme in his work 

was the documentation of the diversity of life (independent of the reasons for this) and the relationships between these organisms and the physical environment which they inhabit. His best contributions 

to science were in making intelligent observations on 

the life history of individual species, such as his excellent work on the squid Loligo perileii (Verrill, 1882), 

in describing the fauna from many localities, and in 

forming inductive generalizations based on his observations. 

FIGURE 4.-Addison Emery Verrill. Reproduced from frontispiece in "The Ancestry, Life and Work of Addison E. Verrill 

of Yale University" by George E. Verrill (1958). 
F6 ATLANTIC CONTINENTAL SHE·LF AND SLOPE OF THE UNITED STATES 

His general view of biology was well stated by Coe 

(1930): 

Verrill did not directly participate in * * * more modern phases 

of biological research and had little patience with those who 

were acquainted with animals only under laboratory conditions. He sought always to emphasize the fact that much of 

the more recent work has been possible only because of the 

foundations laid by a small group of able men who, since the 

middle of the last century, have explored the vast fields containing previously undiscovered forms of life and have thereby 

made known the morphology, natural history and relationships 

of the organisms available for more 'Specialized and experimental investigations. 

In his career, Verrill published more than 300 articles 

with 800 plates, mostly of organisms (G. E. Verrill, 

1958, p. 71). He described "well above a thousand" 

species (Coe, 1930, p. 30) belonging to all major animal 

groups except the protozoa. His geological contributions were summarized in a six-chapter "'Science" article (Verrill, 1883a, b, c, 1884a), and republished with 

few changes in the report to the Fish Commission 

(Verr·ill, 1884b). 

Verrill's work on sediments consisted chiefly of explanations for the origin of anomalous marine deposits. 

He did not attempt to synthesize availa:ble data on sediment distribution. Verrill thought it strange that sand 

should be found in sea water far from shore and decided 

that 

Another way, generally overlooked, in which fine beachsand can 

be ca-rried long distances out to sea , is in consequence of its 

floating on the surface 'Of the water after it had been exposed to 

the air, ·and dried on beaches. The r.ising tide carries off a considem'ble amount of dry sand, floating in this way. In our fine 

towing-nets we often take more or less fine siliceous sand which 

is evidently floating ·on the surface, even at considerable distances from the shoTe (Verrill, 1883c, p. 153). 

More recently, Hume (1964) described chert pebbles and 

sand floating on sea water near shore in an area of glacial 

debris. 

Verrill recognized that the occurrence of large igneous 

and metamorphic boulders in muddy sediment is 

anomalous. In descr~bing substrates 15- 30 miles southeast of southern Maine, Verrill (1874c, p. 345) wrote, 

"On one occasion we brought up in the trawl from [118 

meters] an angular bowlder, estimated to weigh over 

500 lbs. These bowlders were probably transported from 

the adjacent coast by shore-ice in spring." Similarly in 

describing substrates from the continental slope south 

of Cape Cod, Verrill (1883c, p. 153) wrote, 

In many instances, even in our deepest dredgings [about 1,300 

meters], * * * we have taken numerous pebbles, and small 

rounded bowlders, of all sizes, up to several pounds .in weight, 

consisting of granite, syenite, micaschist, etc. * * * Probably, 

while frozen into the shore-ice in winter and spring, they have 

been recently floated out from our shores and rivers, and dropped 

in this region, where the ice melts rapidly under the influence 

of the wal"mer Gulf-Stream water. Proba'bly much of the sand, 

especially the coarser portions, may have ·been transported 'bY 

the same agency. 

These coarse deposits are now considered to have been 

transported by glacial ice and melt water. This idea was 

understood by Dana ( 1873, p. 210) who wrote that the 

shallowness of the continental shelf waters off Long Island "is probably due partly to deposits from the glaciers; and also that of the waters 'between Cape Cod 

and Nova Scotia, where the part of the glacier over 

Maine . ted"J t . is supposed to have termma . us as m explaining the origin of present submarine land forms, 

Verrill did not appreciate the concept of continental 

glaciation. 

From 1871 to 1887, by far the most important east 

coast biological collections were made by the U.:S. Fish 

Commission from New England waters. Spencer F. 

Baird (1823-87), the first Director of the Fish Commission and the second Director of the Smithsonian 

Institution, undertook n sampling program that yielded 

3,000 dredge hauls, more t:Jhan 2,000 invertebrate spec~es 

and several hundred thousand specimens (G. E. Vernll, 

1958, p. 68). The invertebrates and many of the more 

significant geological specimens were studied by Verrill 

and his associates at Yale. In addition, the Fish Commission arranged for Verrill to receive nnd describe any 

unusual specimens brought in by fishermen at the famous 

port of Gloucester, Mass., and several extensions in the 

ranges of organisms were thus published (anonymous, 

1882). Regions from which Verrill had material are 

summarized in table 1 and figure 5. Prior to 1882, dredging was conducted from naval tugs (A. Agassiz, 1888), 

but thereafter vessels specifically built for oceanoO'raphic work were used: the Fishhalwk (1882) 'and the A Zbatross ( 1883). Until the present continental margin 

program (Emery, 1966a), no naturalist since Verrill has 

had the opportunity to work with such diverse and 

rubundant collections of the invertebrate fauna from the 

American Atlantic Shelf and Slope. 

A good example of Verrill's inductive generalizations 

is his conclusion that"* * * the climatic distribution of 

most marine animals seems to depend mainly on the 

temperature of the season at which reproduction takes 

place" (Verrill, 1874c, p. 375). Generalizations that Verrill proposed based on a reconstruction of past physical 

conditions were notably less successful because he 

thought that land rather than sea level had greater 

vertical mobility. For example, after noting the anomalous warm-water elements of the Casco Bay, Maine, 

fauna, he remarked that "* * * a rise of the land in 

the region of Saint George's Bank, to the extent of 250 

feet [75 meters], would produce an island quite as large 

as the State of Massachusetts, and would thus very 
NINETEENTH CENTURY EXPLORATION F7 

TABLE 1.-Summary of base of operations, areas dredged, number of stations, and ships used by the U.S. Fish Commission from 1871 to 

1887 on the continental shelf and slope off eastern United States 

[Summarized from Smith (1889)] 

Year Base of operations Area dredged 

187L ___________ Woods Hole, Mass ___________ Vineyard Sound __________________________ _ 

1872_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Eastport, Maine____________ Eastport, Grand Menan, Bay of Fundy _____ _ 

1873 ___________ Peak Island, Casco Bay, 

Maine. 

187 4_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Noank, Conn ______________ _ 

Georges Bank, Le Havre Bank ____________ -_ 

Casco Bay, off Portland ___________________ _ 

Gulf of Maine, especially Jeffreys and Cashes 

Ledges; Massachusetts Bay. 

Fishers Island Sound, Long Island Sound, 

Block Island Sound, adjacent bays. 

Gulf of Maine ______________________ - ___ --

187 5 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Woods Hole, Mass_______ _ _ _ _ Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds, Buzzards 

Bay, Nantucket shoals. 

1876_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ None. 

1877 ___________ Salem, Mass., Halifax, N.S ___ Massachusetts Bay, off Cape Ann, Cape Ann 

to Cape Sable, off Halifax. 

1878_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Gloucester, Mass____________ Massachusetts Bay, off Cape Ann __________ _ 

1879 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Provincetown, Mass ____ ·_____ Massachusetts Bay, off Cape Cod __________ _ 

1880 ___________ Newport, R.L ______________ Narragansett Bay, Sakonnet River, off 

Block Island, 3 Gulf Stream trips, off 

Chesapeake Bay. 

Georges Bank to Cape Hatteras ____________ _ 

188 L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Woods Hole, Mass___________ 7 trips to Gulf Stream, Vineyard Sound, 

Buzzards Bay, off eastern Cape Cod. 

1882 ________________ do _____________________ 5 trips to Gulf Stream ___________________ _ 

Vineyard Sound off eastern Cape Cod; South 

of Martha's Vineyard. 

1883 ________________ do _____________________ Washington D.C. to Woods Hole __________ _ 

Off Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard _____ --

1884 ________________ do_____________________ Cape Hatteras to Georges Bank ____________ _ 

Off Martha's Vineyard, Buzzards Bay _______ _ 

1885 ________________ do_____________________ 20°-47° N., 49°-87° W ____________________ _ 

1886 ________________ do _____________________ 23°-47° N., 44°-82° W ____________________ _ 

Off Martha's Vineyard ___________________ -_ 

1887 ________________ do _____________________ Vineyard Sound, Block Island Sound, Nantucket Sound. 

Total _________________________________________________________________________ _ 

Number Ship 

of stations 

348 Sailboat, steam 

launch, and 

Moccasin. 

15 Sailboat and Mosswood. 

19 Bache. 

112 Bluelight. 

37 Bache. 

180 Bluelight. 

41 Bache. 

169 Bluelight. 

128 Speedwell. 

110 Do. 

140 Do. 

147 Fish Hawk. 

47 Blake. 

133 Fish Hawk. 

101 Do. 

5 Josie Reeves 

116 Albatross. 

21 Fish Hawk. 

194 Albatross. 

15 Fish Hawk. 

318 Albatross. 

121 Do. 

5 Fish Hawk. 

55 Do. 

2,577 

materially alter the climatic conditions of the Gulf of 

Maine, between it and the New England Coast" (Verrill, 1874c, p. 377). He thought the effect of this would 

be to diminish ~the force and height of tides along the 

coast and thereby "allow greater differences between 

the temperatures of the shallow water and deep waters, 

and would thus favor southern species inhabiting shallow water." Present explanations of this kind of anomalous faunal distribution depend upon the effects of 

warming of the ocean combined with higher stands of 

sea level that would put the present Cape Cod land 

barrier underwater. 

on faunal affinities of various collections, but he never 

summarized his observations. Based on his papers, a 

map of faunal regions is presented (fig. 5) as Verrill 

might have considered them. 

Having worked in detail with marine invertebrates 

off New England for 35 years, Verrill often remarked 

The difference in the fauna on the north and south 

sides of Cape Cod, which Verrill well documented, had 

been noticed in previous studies (Gould, 1840, 1841 ; 

Dana, 1852, p. 1451, 1853a, 1853b) and has been supported by more recent work. Allee ( 1923) , in a ninesummer study of invertebrates of Woods Hole, Mass., 

characterized the fauna ( 241 invertebrate species) as 55 

percent south ranging and 30 percent north ranging, the 

remainder being in the middle of their ranges. Additionally, 40 percent of the species was not known north 
F8 ATLANTIC CONTINENTAL SHELF AND SLOPE OF THE UNITED STATES 

50 0 50 100 KILOMETERS 

CONTOURS IN METERS 

FIGURE 5.-Faunal regions postulated by A. E. Verrill, prepared from scattered comments in papers of the 1870's and 1880's. 

The stippled pattern represents Verrill's idea of the Acadian or arctic faunal region. The clear area southwest of Cape 

Cod is the northern extension of his Virginian faunal region. Areas from which Verrill had collections are horizontally 

ruled in water shallower than 2,000 meterS' and dashed for water deeper than 2,000 meters. Collections from the deeper 

water were notably more scattered and fewer than those in shallower water. 

of Cape Cod and 11 percent not known south of Vineyard Sound, which borders the south side of Woods 

Hole. Setchel ( 1922) discussed Cape Cod as a barrier 

:for nearshore algae. He indicated that approximately 

25 percent consists exclusively of northern forms, 20 

percent exclusively of southern forms, with 55 percent 

occurring on both sides of the Cape, often sparingly. 

More broadly speaking, of all Cape Cod algae, 47 percent is considered north ranging, 50 percent south ranging, and 3 percent of uncertain range. 

On a broader scale, Verrill probably considered the 

organisms off Nova Scotia, in the Gulf of Maine, and 

on Georges Bank and Nantucket Shoals as parts of a 

general arctic fauna. The region east of Nova Scotia 

was called arctic. The Gulf of Maine was considered 

"almost purely arctic." The northeastern part of 

Georges Bank was considered "more boreal" than the 

southeastern part. 

Published reports of offshore collections over wide 

areas are still very limited, but at the present time 

the chief change in Verrill's faunal provinces would be 

to relate Nantucket Shoals and Georges Bank much 

more closely to the Virginian fauna than to the Acadian 

fauna. For the offshore, the data of Fritz (1965) for 

groundfish, Parke,r ( 1948) for benthic Foraminifera, 

Petersen ( 1964) for hydro ids, and Schopf ( 1965) for 

bryozoans suggest that the faunas northeast of the Cape 

are decidedly different from these south and southwest 

of it. The distribution of groundfish and bryozoans in 

particular indicate that the fauna of Georges Bank 

has more in common with Nantucket Shoals than with 

the Gulf of Maine or the Nova Scotia shelf. 
NINETEENTH CENTURY EXPLORATION F9 

The factor controlling the southern distribution of 

colder bottom water currents is the land barrier of Cape 

Cod and Georges Bank which turns and confines them 

and sets up a large counterclockwise gyre in the Gulf of 

Maine (see Bumpus and Lauzier, 1965). Some of the 

shallower water appears to spill from the Gulf of Maine 

into Georges Bank or southward onto Nantucket Shoals ' but this water is warmed rapidly in the shallower areas 

(see Schopf, 1967). 

CONTINENTAL MARGIN BEDROCK GEOLOGY 

By the 1870's and 1880's, enough was known of marine 

sediments off New England to indicate that rocks of 

different composition and origin underlay surficial deposits in different areas. Indeed, rock samples dredged 

by the Fish Commission and Gloucester fishermen permitted Verrill and others to arrive at an essentially correct understanding of the basic geological structure of 

Georges Bank, the Canadian fishing banks, and Cashes 

Ledge in the Gulf of Maine. 

Several early writers have mentioned the origin of 

Georges Bank and other fishing banks. Upham ( 1894) 

stated that Hitchcock (1877) wrote that the fishing 

banks were at Terteriary age and that Louis Agassiz 

"much earlier * * * had taught his classes that they 

must consist superficially of drift, the eastern continuation of the drift sheet of the northern United States 

and Canada." From fossiliferous blocks obtained by 

Gloucester fishermen, Verrill supported a "Miocene or 

later Tertiary" age for this "hitherto unknown geological formation" (Verrill, 1878). He thought that the 

formation extended "at least several hundreds of miles 

in length * * * from off New England nearly to Cape 

Cod, and perhaps constitut[ed] in large part, the solid 

foundations of these remarkable submarine elevations." 

Emery and Uchupi (1965) recently showed by continuous seismic reflection profiles that this explanation 

is correct at least for Georges Bank. 

The composition and regional relationships of ledges 

and banks within the Gulf of Maine were little examined by the early workers, and not much more is known 

at the present time. However, for Cashes Ledge, Verrill 

(1874b) wrote: 

Since it is in range with the extensive belt of syenitic 

rocks which, running in a southwestern direction, terminate 

in the mountains of Mt. Desert and the smaller island 

situated farther south, Cashes' Ledge is, in all probability, a 

sunken island belonging to the Mt. Desert group. The rocks of 

Mt. Desert are mostly massive reddish colored syenites, often 

passing into granite and hyperite. Many of the fragments 

brought up on the dredge at Cashes' Ledge are of the same kind 

of rock and the mud of the same region is reddish brown * * * 

and under the microscope shows minerals characteristic of this 

granitic formation. 

Toulmin (1957) described a rock dredged from Cashes' 

Ledge as a peralkaline granite of a type that is quite 

similar petrographically to granites from eastern Maine, 

eastern Massachusetts, and the New Hampshire White 

Mountains. Uchupi (1966) used results from seismic 

surveys to suggest that the bulk of Cashes Ledge is 

granite. Toulmin's and Uchupi's data emphasize Verrill's conclusion that rocks of this granitic type extend 

farther seaward than is generally recognized. 

WATER STUDIES 

Bigelow (1927) wrote that surface temperatures in 

the Gulf of Maine were obtained as early as 1789 but 

that "the first attempt to measure the temperature of the 

gulf below the surface was made in the summer of 1870, 

when Verrill (1871, p. 3) found the water virtually 

homogeneous, surface to bottom, in Passamaquoddy 

Bay, though readings with thermometers of the maximum-minimum type established a considerable range 

of te.mperatures on the offshore slope of Georges Bank 

(Verrill, 1873a, b, c; Smith, 1889, p. 887) * * * ." Additionally in 1872, Verrill (1874a, p. 408; 1874c, p. 345) 

"was able to bring to scientific attention the contrast between the low bottom temperature and the warm surface of the western side" of the Gulf of Maine (Bigelow, 1927). Indeed, Verrill tried to relate bottom temperatures to the distribution of benthic animals. Verrill 

was most successful in this in nearshore areas where the 

most complete temperature data were available. 

Verrill (1873a, p. 3; 1874a, p. 406; 1875a, p. 413) recognized the need for improving the Miller-Casella maximum-minimum thermometer currently in use, which 

registered the lowest temperature reached and not necessarily that of the depth to which it was lowered. Reversing thermometers were perfected during cruises of 

the Blake (1877-80) (Sigsbee, 1880), and Verrill 

adopted their use in the Gulf of Maine. Accordingly, 

Bigelow (1927) concluded that "modern oceanographic 

research in the Gulf of Maine may * * * be dated from 

the summer of 1878" when Nagretti-Zambra reversing 

thermometers were used in the Coast Survey ship 

Speedrwell. 

Surprisingly little was known of surface or bottom 

circulation in the Gulf of Maine and connected water 

bodies in Verrill's time. As late as 1881, Mitchell was unraveling problems of tidal drift and there was almost 

no information on non tidal drift. Verrill mentioned thart 

there was a southward flowing cold current on the shelf 

south of New England and landward of the Gulf 

Stream, but he erroneously thought this derived directly 

from a cold current flowing southwestward along the 

sea ward side of Nova Scotia. Drift bottles were first 

systematically used in circulation studies in 1919 (Bige-
FlO ATLANTIC CONTINENTAL SHELF AND SLOPE. OF THE UNITED STATES 

low, 1927); this and later drift-bottle work are summarized by Bumpus and Lauzier (1965). 

Verrill ( 1883b) observed the effect of Gulf Strea.m 

water in warming slope water but made no other general 

observations on it. The history of ideas concerning the 

cause of the Gulf Stream, and in particular those that 

were expounded by Verrill's contemporaries, is given 

by Stommel (1950, 1958). 

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 

Information on bottom topography of the Atlantic 

Continental Shelf was first obtained in 1834-27 years 

after founding of the "Survey of the Coast." Throughout the 19th century, detailed bathymetric charts were 

limited to near-coastal areas. Despite excellent bottom 

profiles, some extending seaward to Bermuda (Pillsbury, 1883), local shelf and slope bathymetry was not 

known because lack of soundings did not permit accurate contouring in deeper water. Hence, submarine canyons were not recognized as impovtant physiographic 

features as they are today (Veatch and Smith, 1939). 

Knowledge of shelf sediments and organisms was initiated by the studies of Bailey about 1850 in transects 

off New Jersey. During the next 20 years, eight to nine 

thousand samples were obtained from the sounding lead 

· from Florida to Cape Cod. Pourtales ( 1870) summarized the sediment distribution for this area, and his 

maps are comparable to those made nearly a century 

later (Uchupi, 1963). In 1867-69, the Coast Survey gave 

Pourtales the opportunity to dredge for large benthic 

organisms in a few hundred meters of water off Florida. 

The presence of large animals was a revolutionary discovery which the Fish Commission and Verrill were 

later to exploit. 

From 1871 to 1887, most of the new information of 

continental shelf biology, water studies, and geology 

was based on data collected off New Engla.nd. Using the 

several hundred thousand specimens fron1 the more 

than 3,000 dredge samples, Verrill and his Yale colleagues systematically described the New England inshore and offshore fauna. Many remarks were made on 

the faunal affinities of various collections, but a map of 

faunal provinces was never constructed. Such a map is 

presented here to summarize Verrill's comments on this 

subject. 

Verrill initiated modern oceanographic research in 

the Gulf of Maine by the use of accurate thermometers 

to record surface and bottom temperatures, but unfortunately no method was devised for following surface 

or bottom currents. In matters of geology, he correctly 

surmised that Georges Bank was underlain by Tertiary 

rocks, but he did not understand the effects of continental glaciation in supplying sediments, shaping land 

surfaces, or altering sea level. This was perhaps Verrill's most serious mistake because he came to the eiToneous conclusions that present sediments had been 

largely formed by in situ erosion, that anomalous large 

boulders had been chiefly carried seaward by recent 

spring ice flows, and that warmer water faunal enclaves 

in a few Gulf of Maine bays were due to faunal migra.-

tions in past times when Georges Bank had risen high 

enough to diminish the influence of the colder water. 

The pioneering work of Bailey, Pourtales, and Verrill on the continental shelf was not substantially improved upon until at least the second quarter of the 

20th century. The chief advance in topography is the 

work of the Coast and Geodetic Survey summarized 

by Uchupi (1965, 1968). The chief modern water 

studies of the shelf are those of Bigelow (1927) and 

Bumpus and Lauzier (1965). Outstanding new work in 

sediments, bedrock geology, and biology promises to 

result from the current Woods Hole Oceanographic 

Institution-U.S. Geological Survey Program for the 

Atlantic Continental Margin (Emery, 1966a). Biological collections made during this survey are being analyzed by more than 25 taxonomic specialists, and their 

effort is being coordinated by Roland L. Wigley of the 

Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Woods Hole. 

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---1874b, Brief contributions to zoology, from the museum 

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---1874c, Explorations of Casco Bay by the U.S. Fish 

Commission, in 1873: Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci. Proc., Portland 

Meeting, August 1873, p. 340-395. 

---1875a, Brief contribuitions to zoology, from the museum 

of Yale Colllege, no. 32. Results of dredging expeditions off 

the New England coast in 1874: Am. Jour. Sci., 3d ser., v. 

9, p. 411-415. 

---1875b, Brief contributions to zoology, from the museum 

of Yale College, no. 36. On the post-Pliocene fossils of 

Sanlwlty Head, Nantucket Island; with a note on geology 

by S. H. Scudder: Am. Jour. Sci., 3d ser., v. 10, p. 364-375. 

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v. 16, p. 323-324. 

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Stream off the eastern coast of the United States by the 

U.S. Fish Commission. 1, Introductory. 2, Physical features 

of the region: Science, v. 1, p. 443-447. 

---1883b, Recent explorations in the region of the Gulf 

Stream off the eastern coast of the United States by the 

U.S. Fish Commission. 3, Influence of the Gulf Stream: 

Science, v. 1, p. 531-534. 

---1883c, Recent explorations in the region of the Gulf 

Stream off the eastern coast of the United States by the 

U.S. Fish Commission. 4, Nature and origin of the deposits. 

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2, p. 153-155. 

---1884a, Results of dredgings in the Gulf Stream region by 

the U.S. Fish Commission. 6, Evidence of the existence of 

light at great depths in the sea.: Science, v. 4, p. 8-10. 

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U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1968 o-315-109