12 BULLETIN 159, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of 15 or 16 miles in southern Delaware, and completely occupying 

 the greater part of the peninsula south of the Delaware State line. 

 Thence it is developed as a broad, low-lying plain along the southern 

 part of the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay as far north as the 

 mouth of the Choptank River. From this vicinity to the mouth of 

 the Sassafras River it becomes narrower but occupies all of the fore- 

 lands and islands. North of the Sassafras River to the head of 

 Chesapeake Bay it is but sparingly represented by lowlands along 

 the water front. 



Throughout the peninsula the Talbot (Cape May) terrace rises 

 gently from the water level either with a low slope or by a low wave- 

 cut scarp. Its surface is a very gently sloping plain, which is chiefly 

 relieved by the tidewater channels of streams which cross it and by 

 low ridges which merely serve to render the surface gently undulat- 

 ing. The terrace is continued for some distance up the channels of 

 the estuarine rivers which are the chief tributaries of the Chesapeake 

 Bay from the eastern shore. 



The portion of the Talbot terrace which lies along the Delaware 

 Valley and the Atlantic Ocean rises to an altitude of about 45 feet 

 above sea level, where it merges into the next higher terrace, usually 

 without any marked topographic break. At most a low slope or 

 scarp may occur locally. On the side toward Chesapeake Bay the 

 inner margin of the terrace is much more sharply marked by a low 

 scarp of 10 to 25 feet in elevation, which extends interruptedly from 

 near the mouth of the Choptank River to the mouth of the Sassafras 

 River. The Talbot terrace is also extensively developed as a low 

 front land along the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay from the 

 mouth of the Susquehanna River to the mouth of the Patapsco River. 



The materials which enter into the structure of the Talbot terrace 

 are all unconsolidated and consist of gravel, sand, loam, and some 

 areas of clay. It is probable that a large part of this material was 

 brought to its present position from the Piedmont and Appalachian 

 regions by the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers. The presence of 

 large ice-borne blocks from both of these regions is noticeable along 

 the upper waters of Chesapeake Bay and even some of the finer 

 material bears close resemblance to the existing surface materials in 

 the adjacent Piedmont region. There can be little doubt that the 

 Talbot formation of Maryland and the Cape May formation of New 

 Jersey are one in origin and mode of formation, and it is probable 

 that both are of about the same age as the youngest glacial material 

 found upon, the western end of Long Island. 



The Talbot formation contains large areas of soils which have 

 been correlated with those of the Sassafras series. The areas of 

 Sassafras sand and loamy sand along many of the estuarine embay- 

 ments of the Maryland-Delaware Peninsula and the Sassafras sandy 



