104 THE GEOLOGY OF ST. ilAEY's COUNTY 



vary in diameter from 2 to over 10 feet, and after the removal of the 

 surrounding clay, stand out prominently in the position in which they 

 must have grown. Mr. A. Bibbins, to whom the author is indebted for 

 notes on these deposits, has counted 32 of these stumps which were 

 visible at one time, and also reports finding worm-eaten beechnuts inti- 

 mately associated with cypress cones near the base of the formation. 

 Sands and gravels of the Talbot formation overlie the whole. Imme- 

 diately south of this outcrop the dark-colored clays are temporarily re- 

 placed by the Earitan formation, but they appear again a little farther 

 down the shore, and afford an almost unbroken exposure for about a mile. 

 The thickness of the clay in this locality is at first about 10 or 12 feet, 

 but it gradually becomes thinner southward and finally disappears alto- 

 gether. Casts of Unio shells and not vegetable remains, are its pre- 

 dominant fossils, while, like the beds containing the cypress swamp, it 

 overlies the Raritan formation unconformably, and is itself abruptly 

 buried beneath Talbot sands and gravel. 



Another locality is on the Bay shore, about a mile northeast of Drum 

 Point. Here, at the base of a cliff about 30 feet high, is a 2-foot bed 

 of dark, chocolate-colored clay carrying gnarled and twisted sticks pro- 

 truding in every direction from the material in which they are imbedded. 

 Above this occurs a thin seam of lignite 1-^ feet thick, which in turn is 

 overlain with about 5 feet of slate-colored clay. At this point the con- 

 tinuity of the deposit is interrupted by a series of sands, clays, and 

 gravels belonging to the Talbot formation, which extend upward to the 

 top of the cliff. Although the base of this lignitic clay series is buried 

 beneath beach sands, field relations lead to the conclusion that the de- 

 posit is very much younger than the Miocene clays on which it rests un- 

 conformably. A similar section is to be seen on the Patuxent River, 

 about a mile below Sollers Landing. Large stumps here protrude from 

 a dark, basal clay bed, some 5 feet in thickness, which is covered by 3 

 feet of sand, and this again is buried beneath 10 feet of Talbot sand 

 and gravel. The relations of the basal clay to the underlying Miocene 

 is again obscure, but indications point to an unconformity. Another 

 section is exposed along the shore 1-J miles northwest of Cedar Point, 



