208 NATURAL SCIENCE [September 
THE SKELETON OF MARYLAND 
MaryLanp GeroLocican Survey. Volume One, By Wm. Bullock Clark, State 
Geologist, E. B. Matthews, and L. A. Bauer. 8vo, 540 pp. and 17 plates. 
Wiru its first volume of Reports, the Geological Survey of Maryland 
makes an imposing, attractive, and generally successful start. This 
Survey has the benefit, inestimable in America, of being removed 
from the immediate control of politicians, since it is under the direc- 
tion of a commission “composed of the Governor, the Comptroller, the 
President of the Johns Hopkins University, and the President of the 
Maryland Agricultural College.” We may therefore expect the ful- 
filment of the promise that other volumes will follow, dealing with 
the mining, geology, palaeontology, mineralogy, forestry, agricultural 
physics, and so forth. 
The present volume opens with an Introduction by Professor 
Clark, who relates the history of the establishment of the Survey, 
describes its plan of operations, and then gives an account of the pro- 
gress of investigation concerning the physical features and natural 
resources of Maryland. This is followed by an outline of present 
knowledge of the physical features of the State, embracing an account 
of the physiography, geology, and mineral resources. This also is 
from the pen of Mr Clark ; it occupies 87 pages, and is illustrated by 
a hypsometric and a geological map and several photographic plates 
of scenery. A useful appendix to this is a bibliography and carto- 
graphy of Maryland, with special reference to its geology, by Dr E. B. 
Matthews, who was assisted in the compilation by all the members 
of the Survey. The volume concludes with the First Report upon 
Magnetic work in Maryland, by Dr L. A. Bauer, who has been. con- 
ducting this division of the work of the Survey. 
The State of Maryland forms part of the eastern border region 
which stretches from the Atlantic coast to the crest of the Alle- 
ghanies, and from its central situation affords, perhaps, the most 
characteristic section of this broad belt. In Maryland, as elsewhere, 
this part of the continent is divided into three physiographic areas : 
the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont Plateau, and the Appalachian Region. 
The Coastal Plain includes rather over one half the land area of the 
State (nearly 5000 square miles), and attains in places'a width of 100 
miles. By the great Chesapeake Bay, running north and south, it is 
divided into the very low-lying Eastern Maryland, and a higher 
western trait usually called Southern Maryland. The Piedmont 
Plateau occupies somewhat over one quarter of the land area of 
the State, being about 65 miles wide in the north, and gradually 
narrowing to 40 miles in the south. It is divided by Parr’s Ridge 
into an eastern and western division. The former has a diversified 
topography due to varied crystalline rocks with complicated structure ; 
in it are broad, fertile limestone valleys running in various directions. 
The western division includes the broad limestone valley of the Mono- 
cacy, on which is the town of Frederick, and near the mouth of which 
is Sugarloaf Mountain rising rapidly to a height of 1250 feet. The 
Appalachian Region extends from the Piedmont Plateau to the 
western limits of the State ; it comprises about 2000 square miles, and 
attains a maximum width of 115 miles in the northern part of Mary- 
