MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 265 



direction. The intervening valleys are, for the most part, narrow, 

 merging into low foothills which form the lower slopes to the higher 

 mountains. 



The salient features in the topography are the long high ridges 

 known as Town Hill, Warrior Ridge, Wills Mountain and Dans 

 Mountain. Sideling Hill and Savage Mountain are equally promi- 

 nent barriers on the east and west, but are mainly outside of Alle- 

 gany county. The west boundary of the county lies on the east 

 slope of Savage Mountain, while the east boundary lies at the bottom 

 of the west slope of Sideling Hill. The elevation of these mountains 

 ranges from 1,000 to 2,900 feet. 



Most of the larger mountains have long and gradual slopes, in- 

 cluding also broad flat benches at elevations of 800 to 1,200 feet 

 Less commonly, the mountain slopes are precipitous, notably on the 

 south border of the county. The surface of the mountains and 

 higher hills is often broken by exposed boulders of quartzite and 

 sandstone. The summits of the mountains are marked by mostly 

 bare rocky cliffs. 



SOIL. 



The soil of nearly all the hills and mountain slopes is thin, being 

 composed largely of fine slaty shale. Cultivated portions are rap- 

 idly worn out, and even where the timber grows the soil is often poor 

 in humus. This poor top-soil under forest cover is due partly to a 

 necessarily slow disintegration of the substratum of pure shale and 

 broken rock which lies close to the surface and partly to the fre- 

 quent forest fires which continually destroy the enriching leaf mould. 



The soil of the lower hills and valleys is rocky, but deeper and 

 richer. The best agricultural lands are, therefore, situated mostly 

 in the valleys and on low adjacent hills (Plate XXV, Fig. 2). Con- 

 siderable land has been cleared on the higher mountain slopes, but it 

 is far less productive than the lower areas. 



WATER FLOW. 



The county is well watered by numerous rocky streams fed by 

 innumerable cold springs among the low hills and on the higher 



