MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 65 



Plain topography, for the same types with their systems of terraces exist 

 as well in New Jersey and Virginia as in Maryland. 



The Chesapeake Bay which runs the length of the Coastal Plain in 

 Maryland drains both shores. Prom the Western Shore it receives a 

 number of large tributaries among which may be mentioned the Susque- 

 hanna, Bush, Gunpowder, Patapsco, Magothy, Severn, South, Patuxent, 

 and Potomac rivers. On the Eastern Shore its principal tributaries con- 

 sist of Bohemia Creek, Sassafras, Chester, Choptank, Nanticoke, Wicom- 

 ico, and Pocomoke rivers. These streams, which are in the process of 

 developing a dendritic type of drainage, have cut far deeper channels on 

 the Western than on the Eastern Shore. If attention is now turned to 

 the character of the shore line, it will be seen that along Chesapeake Bay 

 it is extremely broken and sinuous. A straight shore line is the exception 

 and in only one place, from Herring Bay southward to Drum Point, does 

 it become a prominent feature. These two classes of shore correspond to 

 two t}rpes of coast. Where the shore is sinuous and broken, it is found 

 that the coast is low or marshy, but where the shore line is straight, as 

 from Herring Bay southward to Drum Point, the coast is high and 

 rugged as in the famous Calvert Cliffs which rise to a height of 100 feet 

 or more above the Bay (Plate XXI, Fig. 1). The shore of the Atlantic 

 ocean is composed of a long line of barrier beaches which have been 

 thrown up by the waves and enclose behind them lagoons flushed by 

 streams which drain the seaward slope of the Eastern Shore. Of these 

 Chincoteague Bay is the most important. 



It was stated in the early part of this chapter that the topography of 

 the Coastal Plain was in reality more complex than at first appeared 

 and that this complexity was due to a system of terraces out of which 

 the region is constructed. The subaerial division of the Coastal Plain 

 contains four distinct sets of terraces and part of another, while the 

 submarine division is composed of one set only. This makes for the 

 Coastal Plain as a whole a group of five sets of terraces. In describing 

 these terraces the author will anticipate somewhat, material which will be 

 discussed later in this monograph and will, for the sake of simplicity, 

 designate these terraces, beginning with the highest, by the names of 

 Lafayette, Sunderland, Wicomico, Talbot, and Eecent. The first four 

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