30 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 



of the Nanticoke, Wicomico and Manokin, in which places 

 they are found to acquire both size and flavour. Thence they 

 are boated to Baltimore, but principally shipped to the northern 

 ports, occupying in this way during the winter season a nume- 

 rous fleet of small coasting vessels. On the verge of the great 

 salt water marshes of Somerset county die same thing is done 

 with the clams (Venus mercenaria^) that are brought from 

 within the capes of Virginia, and the fishing of these together 

 with the dredging for terrapins {Emys centrata of Say,) gives 

 employment to a numerous class of hardy fishermen and boat- 

 men. The terrapins are also frequently parked ; that is, a 

 square ditch being dug out so as to admit of the flow and ebb 

 of the tide, is then planked round at an elevation of three to 

 four feet ; into this the reptile as he is caught throughout the 

 summer is thrown and fattened upon clams, crabs, or other 

 food. Several thousands are thus assembled together in a pen 

 and throughout the winter disposed of at greatly advanced 

 prices. The extensive marshes that occur here, also supply a 

 quantity of eggs, deposited by the numerous kinds of sea-birds, 

 whilst the muskrat {Ondatra zibethicus) and otter {Lutra 

 Canadensis) that frequent them are keenly hunted for their 

 skins. 



The topography of the Western Shore of the Chesapeake 

 bay, even when confined to those portions of it upon the tide 

 water, differs materially from that of the country which has 

 just been the subject of description. In reviewing it, it will be 

 most convenient to have regard to a striking natural division 

 produced by the course of the Patuxent, which separates the 

 iower Western Shore counties into two distinct peninsulas ; the 

 lower one lying between the Potomac and Patuxent, embracing 

 the counties of Piince George's, Charles and St. Mary's; the 

 upper bounded by the latter river, the Chesapeake bay, and 

 the Patapsco, comprising Ann Arundel and Calvert counties. 

 The Potomac side of the former division, commencing at the 

 north-east branch, exhibits a succession of abrupt hills, crowned 

 by plateaus of variable extent and sloping gently towards the 

 south-east. On the table land the soil is principally in an 

 exhausted condition, the effects of a bad system of husbandry 

 anciently pursued, and of the continual washings to which it is 

 subjected. The upper portions of the country are gravelly, this 



