2 Report on the projected Survey of the State of Maryland. 



could or ought to have been attended to. These they were anxious 

 should be known, in order that an opporlunity might be afforded to 

 persons interested (ihey hope under that tiile to include every citi- 

 zen of Maryland) of ascertaining how far the parts passed over were 

 capable of furnishing a correct general idea of the whole. 



This general idea, the results of their examination — they beg leave 

 now to present; premising, that by a geological investigation they 

 conceive is meant, not only an inquiry into the mineral constitution 

 of the different sections of the state, but a developement of all its re- 

 sources, in so far as these are dependent upon the occurrence within 

 its territory of such substances belonging to the soil, as have already 

 been, or are capable of being applied to useful purposes, in agricul- 

 ture, manufactures, and the arts ; the collection likewise of facts re- 

 lative to its hydrology, by which they understand, besides an inquiry 

 into the nature and properties of the mineral waters that occur with 

 in its limits, an examination of the peculiar circumstances under 

 ■which the natural flow of its streams is deterniined, with a view, 

 principally, to establish the amount of its water poiver, and, in a word, 

 every point of information usually embraced under the head of the 

 physical geography of a country. 



Taking this view of the subject, they proceed to lay down the 

 facts in the order in which they have presented themselves to their 

 observation, adding such remarks concerning them, as may serve to 

 illustrate their importance or the interest connected with them, wheth- 

 er of a general or local character. 



; Turning the attention, in the first place, to that portion of the state 

 usually designated as the Eastern shore of Maryland, and overlook- 

 ing all those subjects, in which it abounds, of a merely speculative 

 interest in geology, the observer cannot fail to be struck with the im- 

 mense advantages which its agricultural interests would derive from 

 a minute investigation of the mineral constitution of its soil, and a 

 careful research into the nature and extent of the resources which 

 it offers within itself for improvement or amendment. If the obser- 

 vation be confined, for the present, to that portion of the Eastern 

 shore which lies south of the river Elk, it is found to comprise an 

 extensive and irregular deposite of gravel, sand and clay; support- 

 ed, perhaps, in its whole extent, by a substratum of clay, enveloping 

 innumerable reliquiae of many genera of testaceous animals. This 

 substratum, the value of which is to a certain extent known, is com- 

 monly denominated, and not improperly so, beds of shell marl; its 



