OF MARYLAND. 27 



north-east to south-west; a further actual examination of the 

 topography of their banks will indicate a gradual depression in 

 its whole mass from north to south, so that the traveller in this 

 direction moves down a gently inclined plane. In the upper 

 portions of the Shore, south of the Elk, the river banks are 

 high, the country about them irregular, sometimes hilly, more 

 especially towards the heads of the streams, whilst the inter- 

 vening space between these presents an almost unbroken level. 

 North of the Choptank there are no marshes of any extent ; 

 but in the sinuosities of this river, at the salient points of 

 both shores, marshes extending over from ten to a hundred 

 acres occur, that now afford good, though not always very safe, 

 pastures, being in some places quite miry. It has been sug- 

 gested elsewhere that they might be effectually reclaimed by 

 cutting tliem loose from the main land, allowing them thus to 

 be drained in all directions.* Similar marshes exist on the 

 Nanticoke, and where the tide- waters become fresh they have 

 recently been resorted to as rice lands, it is said with entire 

 success. 



Another interesting feature in the physical geography of the 

 Eastern Shore of Maryland presents itself in those portions 

 forming the southern part of Dorchester and western side of 

 Somerset counties. The rivers here, of which the principal 

 are the Blackwater, Transquacking, Nanticoke, Wicomico and 

 Manokin, have their mouths converging into one large estuary, 

 called Tangier's sound, which is separated from the bay by a 

 succession of almost continuous low marshy islands. A great 

 portion of the necks between these rivers consists also of exten- 

 sive salt marshes, with here and there only some more ele- 

 vated spots of dry land. From the present condition of this 

 estuary it is easy to foresee that it will before no very great 

 length of time be completely filled up with the slime that is 

 carried down by the rivers, the sluggishness of whose course 

 allows it to be quietly deposited, whilst tlie barrier of islands 

 previously alluded to prevents its wider diffusion through the 

 waters of the ChesapcalvC. The commencement of this pro- 

 cess of filling up already shows itself in what is termed 

 Fishing bay, where an immense and daily increasing accu- 

 mulation of mud has within the last fifty years rendered it 



* Report on the new map of Maryland, 1835. 



