The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-05-04
HISTORY OF THE GULF OF MEXICO
Waters of the Early World Once Cow
cred Large Portions of the South.


Most people know in general way
that large portions of the United States
have in the past been covered by the
ocean, but it is perhaps not so generally
known that the continent is. now rising
in some places and sinking in others.
There is every reason to believe that
minor movements of the land are con-
stantly taking place. Not so very long
ago, in a geologic sense, the Hudson
river flowed through deep canyon or
gorge at New York City. Soundings
show that this gorge extends through
the harbor and far out to sea. II is evil
dent that the land surface has been low
cred in this region, allowing the ocean
to creep in on the land, fill the old river
channel, and in many places wholly
submerge it. The submergenee of the
land was greater at one time than it is
now. In excavations for some of the
New York skyscrapers remains Of
oysters and other saltwater animals
have been found. As rule the only
available knowledge in regard to the
former submergence of an area IL de-
rived from the marine shells and other
animals found in deposits laid down by
the sea. BY the nature of the fossils
biologists are able to tell approximate
" when the ocean invaded the land.
They have found evidence of a submerg-
ence of much greater magnitude and
much older than that which now floods
the Hudson valley. Gothamites and
Others need not however, feel alarmed
at this statement of the ups and downs
OF the continent, for while geologically
this submergence is not so very old, the
geologist thinks and speaks in terms of
thousands if not millions of years.
Sharks Teeth Found in New Jersey.
Along the Atlantic coast, from New
Jersey southwark, it is not unusual to
find quantities of sharks teeth and other
marine fossils in the greensands that
are now located far inland and are used
for fertilizers. In certain sections of
the southern Mississippi valley where
limestone is not readily accessible a
farmer will 20 out and gather wagon
load of fossil oyster shells to burn for
lime. The shark bearing rocks of New
Jersey and the oyster beds of Tennes-
see are of the same general age and rep
resent one of the later OF the great in
vasions of the ocean on the North Ameri-
can continent. In geologic parlance
these rocks are said to be OF Cretaceous
age.
When the Gulf of Mexico Reached Cairo.
In the course of its investigations of
the geology of the country, the United
States Geological survey has been max
ing a study of the Cretaceous deposits
of the eastern states and has found
that the ocean of that time covered
much of what is now the Atlantic Coast
al Plain, while the Gulf of Mexico
spread widely over the central south
ern states. probably reaching as far
north as Cairo, Ill The Ohio was then
larger and older river than the Mis-
sissippi. Some of the sediments of this
age, now hardened into rocks, were de-
posits in a shallow sea, some about the
mouth of rivers, and some perhaps in
the flood plains of the rivers themselves.
All these different types OF sediments,
as found in the eastern Gulf region, are
described in the United States Geologi-
cal surveys professional paper, 81. by L.
w. Stephenson. In another portion of
the paper is a discussion of certain oy-
sterlike shells found in these Cretace-
Gus rocks, all the known species being
described and figured.
The paper is of interest to those liv-
ing in the eastern Gull region not only
as illustrating the geology of the area
but as indicating the distribution of
certain types of rocks. AS the soil is
made in large part by the slow decay
of the underlying rocks, it naturally