MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 65 



THE RECENT STAGE. 



Another elevation of the region brought the Talbot stage to a close, 

 and the surface was once more attacked vigorously by erosion and finally 

 was lowered somewhat beneath the waters of the Patuxent River and 

 Chesapeake Bay. It is believed at the present time that this submergence 

 is still in progress and that the land is gradually sinking. It is impos- 

 sible to say how much the land was elevated at the close of the Talbot 

 stage, but it is probable that it stood much higher than it does to-day 

 for mud and silt which have been deposited since the close of the Talbot 

 stage are now found filling all the estuaries and creeks, not excepting 

 the Patuxent River. This filling amounts to about 50 feet. During this 

 uplift the Susquehanna River flowed the length of Chesapeake Bay, re- 

 ceiving as tributaries all the rivers which now drain the Coastal Plain of 

 j^Iaryland and Virginia and reached the ocean some miles beyond the 

 present shore line at Cape Henry. At the present time the waves of 

 Chesapeake Bay and of the Patuxent River are engaged in cutting against 

 the Talbot terrace exactly as the waves during the Talbot stage did 

 against the Wicomico terrace, and the waves in the Wicomico stage did 

 against the Sunderland terrace. A new terrace is, therefore, being 

 formed under the waves below the Talbot and separated from it by a 

 well-defined scarp-line. 



