G BULLETIN 159, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



by a low cliff. Thence its surface rises very gently, seeming almost a 

 plain, to an inner escarpment, whose base is 30 to 40 feet above tide 

 level. Frequently another terrace intervenes, at an altitude of 50 

 to 80 feet, between the lowest terrace and the inner plateau. In fact, 

 the entire section consists of a series of steplike terraces rising from 

 tide water to the general level of the upland except where wave or 

 river cutting has destroyed the lower terrace forms. Such terracing 

 is shown in Plate I, figure 1. 



The section lying between the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay, 

 generally known as the Maryland-Delaware peninsula," possesses 

 somewhat different topographic forms. The eastern shore of Chesa- 

 peake Bay from near the mouth of the Sassafras River, southward, 

 is bordered by a tract of low land which corresponds in elevation 

 with the lowest of the terraces on the western side of the bay. This 

 swings eastward and forms the greater part of the peninsula south 

 of the Delaware State line including, also, the southeastern portion 

 of Sussex County, Del. It forms the lower portion of both shores 

 of Delaware Bay and Delaware River as far north as Trenton. It 

 is probably represented along the Atlantic coast of New Jersey 

 by the belt of lowland, extending from Cape May nearly to the 

 Navesink Highlands. 



Along the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay this lower terrace is 

 bounded, inland, by a low escarpment which extends from near the 

 mouth of the Sassafras River southward past Easton, Md., to the 

 mouth of the Choptank River. Between this low ridge and the 

 shore of Delaware Bay the higher terrace stretches as a gently 

 undulating to nearly level upland. The highest elevations are found 

 in the western portions of Cecil and Kent Counties, Md., where 

 altitudes of 80 to 100 feet are attained. From these the general 

 slope is gently seaward. 



In southern New Jersey the surface features are somewhat dif- 

 ferent. As has been indicated, the lowest terrace of the Chesapeake 

 Bay region extends along both shores of the Delaware River and 

 Bay as a distinct topographic feature. It is possibly found along 

 the Atlantic coast in the form of the low slope which rises from 

 tidewater to an elevation of about 50 feet. In New Jersey the 

 marked topographic feature of the Coastal Plain is formed by 

 the ridge of dissected hills which extends from the Navesink High- 

 lands on the northeast to the vicinity of Bridgeton, N. J., on the 

 southwest. From this ridge the land surface declines rather rapidly 

 toward the interior valley, separating the Coastal Plain from the 

 Piedmont Plateau. The descent toward the sea is long and gentle 

 in extreme southern New Jersey but short and steep as the eastern 

 end of the ridge is reached in the Navesink Highlands. 



