SOILS OF THE SASSAFRAS SERIES. 



peake Bay to the western end of Long Island, N. Y., that the soils 

 of the Sassafras series have been encountered. 



In general, the coast is fringed by long, narrow stretches of 

 Coastal beach between which and the main land there are included 

 narrow sounds and bays and stretches of Tidal marsh. The main 

 land rises gently inland through the greater part of the coast coun- 

 try, although low coastal bluffs are locally found and the Navesink 

 Highlands, with an elevation of 276 feet, approach within a mile of 

 the shore line in east-central New Jersey. Elsewhere the rise 

 toward the interior is gentle and for the first few miles does not 

 usually exceed 5 feet to the mile. Near the interior margin the rate 

 of slope rapidly increases to 10 or even 20 feet per mile. From the 

 vicinity of Raritan Bay to the Delaware River and thence near the 

 inner line of the Coastal Plain as far as the Potomac River there is 

 a sharp slope toward the interior and the main body of the Coastal 

 Plain is separated from the Piedmont Plateau and from other 

 Coastal Plain deposits along its front by an irregular valley. The 

 general trend and extent of this depression is outlined by the direc- 

 tion of the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroads, which 

 follow it from Newark, N. J., to Washington, D. C. In part this 

 valley is a land feature, as across central New Jersey and from 

 Baltimore to Washington, but in part it has been occupied by estu- 

 arine waters as along the Delaware River from Trenton to Salem, 

 N. J., around the headwaters of Chesapeake Bay, and in the west- 

 ward bend of the Potomac River immediately south of Washington, 

 D. C. 



From the vicinity of Fredericksburg, Va., southward this valley 

 feature is lacking and the elevated interior margin of the Coastal 

 Plain directly overlaps the Piedmont Plateau. 



Within this northern section of the Atlantic Coastal Plain there 

 are four subdivisions which possess different details of elevation 

 and relief. 



The portion which lies west of the Chesapeake Bay, from the 

 James River to the mouth of the Susquehanna River, consists of an 

 elevated inner section of the Coastal Plain, which is deeply dis- 

 sected by broad estuarine stream valleys. Both in eastern Virginia 

 and in the southern counties of Maryland the remnant of the higher 

 portions of the Plain takes the form of narrow or broad plateaulike 

 ridges, which are locally known as " river necks." These have an 

 elevation of 100 to 250 feet along the inner edge of the region, but 

 their axes sink gradually toward Chesapeake Bay until they are 

 terminated by a low escarpment or end in wave-cut cliffs along the 

 bay shore. The larger estuarine rivers within this section are 

 usually bordered on one or both sides by low-lying terraces. The 

 lowest terrace rises from the water as a gentle slope or is bordered 



