220 



forests are nearly all destroyed. Grass-lands are more prevalent 

 than plowed fields, somewhat as in New England. 



The Eocene is said to be scarcely exposed in New Jersey and 

 Delaware, and from Townsend to Cape Charles the country is 

 mapped by geologists as Miocene, like the pine-barrens of New 

 Jersey. The Miocene strata do not form much of the soil, how- 

 ever, being nearly everywhere covered by the so-called super- 

 ficial formations of Pliocene and later age. Going southward 

 from Townsend the country becomes gradually more level and 

 sandy, pines more prevalent, the proportion of cleared land less,* 

 and the civilization and crops more southern in character, all ap- 

 parently without any abrupt transitions. The peninsula is too 

 narrow to permit any extensive development of streams and 

 valleys, and as the railroad keeps pretty close to the divide most 

 of the way the vegetation visible from the train is mostly of the 

 upland type. Navigable streams were crossed near Seaford and 

 Laurel, Del., and Salisbury and Pocomoke, Md. These all rise in 

 sandy regions, and appear blackish, as swamp water always does 

 when it is several feet deep. Between Clayton and Dover, where 

 the soil is less sandy, at least one muddy stream was crossed. On 

 the left side of the Nanticoke River near Seaford is a faint de- 

 velopment of sand-hills, analogous to those of Southeast Georgia, 

 where this feature is best developed. f 



Pines were first seen just south of Dover ; and around Felton, 

 about ten miles farther south, a faint suggestion of southern pine- 

 barrens was noticeable. In the southern half of Delaware, which 

 is much more sandy than the northern, most of the towns showed 

 unmistakable evidences of recent growth and prosperity, like all 

 the sandier parts of the southeastern states at the present time. 

 The principal crops here seem to be corn, sweet and Irish pota- 

 toes, apples, peaches, and pears. 



Of the country between Norfolk and Emporia there is little to 

 be said except that it is comparatively level near the coast and 

 moderately hilly toward the fall-line, and more or less sandy all 



* Except that the Maryland part of the peninsula seems to be a Httle less sandy and 

 a. little more under cultivation at present than southern Delaware, 

 f See Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 17 : 25-27. 1906. 



