THE SUXDERLAXD FOK:\rATrOX. 207 



merges into true fluviatile deposits. In North Carolina it divides into two 

 terraces, constituting the Chowan and Pamlico formations. 



"All of these Pleistocene formations have heen traced step by step 

 throughout the area in question, and present the same general characters 

 ever3n¥here." 



The Sunderland Formation. 



The Sunderland formation, like the Lafayette formation, can onh' 

 be correlated on the basis of physical criteria. The more or less dissected 

 terrace surface has been traced from Delaware southward across Maryland 

 and Virginia into North Carolina. 



The materials comprising the Sunderland formation are similar to those 

 found to the northward although some changes occur due to differences in 

 the character of the rocks from which the sediments were derived. Its 

 position enwrapping the higher portion of the Coastal Plain beiieath the 

 Lafayette formation is closely similar to the Sunderland of more northern 

 districts. This oldest of the Pleistocene terraces is everywhere more highly 

 dissected than the later terraces at lower levels while the materials as a 

 whole are somewhat more extensively disintegrated, although this factor 

 must be employed with care since similarly decayed materials are often to 

 be found in later deposits. 



The Sunderland formation corresponds approximately with the Earlier 

 Columbia of McGee and Darton and with parts of the Bridgeton and Pen- 

 sauken as described by Salisbury in New Jersey. 



The age of the Sunderland and later terraces has been generally rec- 

 ognized as Pleistocene. The fossil leaves of the Sunderland belong mostly 

 to living species while the relatively small physical changes that have 

 occurred indicate that the deposits cannot be older than Pleistocene. 

 Furthermore its probable contemporaneity with pronounced glacial con- 

 ditions is evidenced by the striated boulders sometimes found in the deposits. 

 Whether they represent the earliest phase of Pleistocene deposition has not 

 been settled and tannot be until the age of the Lafayette formation is 

 finally determined. 



The Wicomico Formation. 



The Wicomico formation is devoid of fossils of correlative value. Its 

 equivalency with the deposits similarly named in Maryland is shown by its 

 terraced surface occupying a position at approximately the same level and 

 beneath the Sunderland terrace already described. It enwraps the earlier 



