MARYLAND WEATHER SERVICE 47 



Princess Anne and Pocomoke City, is drained by a stream which 

 has a fall of 3 ft. to the mile. On the oceanward side of Worcester 

 County, in the neighborhood of Berlin, a few places in which there 

 are slopes of 25 ft. to the mile exhibit the maximum for the Talbot 

 terrace and are exceptional. Along the streams which cross the Tal- 

 bot terrace there are in some places bluffs or steep banks from S to 

 15 ft. in height, as along the Pocomoke River between Pocomoke 

 City and Rehoboth. Back of these banks the surface of the upland 

 is nearly as level as it is back of the marshes of Dorchester County. 

 The maximum elevations of the Talbot terrace where it abuts upon 

 the older Wicomico terrace vary from 25 to 35 ft. 



The Wicomico terrace occupies the inland portions of the Eastern 

 Shore, forming the greater part of the area of Caroline, Queen 

 Anne's and Kent counties. Owing to its greater elevation and 

 longer exposure to sub-aerial erosion as contrasted with the Talbot 

 terrace, it presents a gently undulating topography. The distinct- 

 ness of the two formations may well be observed at a point about 

 one mile east of Easton in Talbot County, and near Eairlee in Kent 

 County. There are but few places where the estuaries have worn 

 away the Talbot terrace and brought the Wicomico to the shore-line 

 and such places are invariably occupied by bluffs 40 to 60 ft. in 

 iieight, as at Betterton in Kent County. The Choptank River has 

 also worn away the Talbot terrace at several places between Dover 

 Bridge and Jamaica Point in Talbot County, where there are bluffs 

 commonly about 20 ft. high. The portions of the Wicomico terrace 

 lying in Wicomico, Caroline and Talbot counties have been eroded 

 so as now to be completely drained by the streams which traverse 

 them, while in the northern part of Queen Anne's County and the 

 Eastern part of Kent the greater elevation of the upland together 

 with the small drainage areas of the streams have combined to leave 

 the upland relatively level and undrained. This gives rise to ex- 

 tensive swamps, such as are to be seen in the neighborhood of Bar- 

 clay and Sudlerville in Queen Anne's County. It also gives rise to 

 many swp.mps or ponds occupying small abrupt depressions without 

 outlet, which represent original depressions in the floor of the 

 Wicomico sea. The ponds which occupy the largest and deepest of 



