maryland geological survey 25 



Historical Eeview. 



During the summer of 1G08, nearly three hundred years ago, Captain 

 John Smith made his memorable voyage of discovery in Chesapeake Bay. 

 Of the long line of adventurers, explorers, and geologists who have 

 traversed this region in search of information, he was the first. It is 

 with great interest, then, that we turn to Smith's narrative for the earliest 

 published observations on the Coastal Plain of Maryland. 



" The mountains are of divers natures : for at the head of the Bay 

 the rockes are of a composition like Mill stones. Some of Marble, &c. 

 And many peeces like Christall we found, as throwne downe by water 

 from those mountaines. For in Winter they are covered with much 

 snow, and when it dissolveth the waters fall with such violence, that it 

 causeth great inundations in some narro valleys, which is scarce per- 

 ceived being once in the rivers. These waters wash from the rocks such 

 glitering tinctures, that the ground in some places seemeth as guilded, 

 where both the rocks and the earth are so splendent to behold, that better 

 judgements than ours might have been perswaded, they contained more 

 than probabilities. The vesture of the earth in most places doth mani- 

 festly proue the nature of the soyle to be lusty and very rich. The colour 

 of the earth we found in diverse places, resembleth bole Armoniac, terra 

 sigillata ad Lemnia, Fullers earth, Marie, and divers other such appear- 

 ances. But generally for the most part it is a blacke sandy mould, in 

 some places a fat slimy cla}^, in other places a very barren gravell. But 

 the best ground is knowne by the vesture it beareth, as by the greatnesse 

 of trees, or abundance of weecles, &c." 



With these meager notes which were not published until 1612-14, 

 Smith summarized practically all he had to say of the geology of the 

 region, but from this statement as a nucleus our knowledge has grown 

 year by year until, after the lapse of nearly three centuries, we are not 

 only familiar with the various deposits, their origin and distribution, 

 but are also able to explain the more important conditions under which 

 they were formed. 



A far more important contribution was the map of Chesapeake Bay 

 and vicinity which Smith executed with remarkable accuracy, considering 



