72 THE PLIOCENE AND PLEISTOCENE DEPOSITS OF MARYLAND 



In that region it forms the fiat featureless surface of the divide, extending 

 from Elkton southward to Salisbury and beyond, and from Chesapeake 

 Bay on the west, well over into Delaware toward the Atlantic ocean on the 

 east. From its surface, streams drain into both the Chesapeake Bay and 

 the Atlantic. Outliers of this terrace are also found in great abundance 

 along the Western Shore from Elkton down to Point Lookout. The 

 greatest development on this side of the Bay is found in the region south 

 of Baltimore between the Patapsco and South rivers. Beyond this terri- 

 tory, in the basins of the Patuxent and Potomac, the Wicomico terrace 

 is developed in a manner strikingly different from that of the Eastern 

 Shore. On the Eastern Shore, as was indicated above, it occupies a 

 wide and almost unbroken territory. On the Western Shore it is 

 developed as a narrow fringe around the base of the Sunderland terrace 

 and as a floor of the ancient drainage valleys which penetrate the body 

 of the Sunderland terrace as reentrants. It was stated above that the 

 scarp-line which separated the surface of the Sunderland from that of the 

 Wicomico was one of the most persistent features in the Maryland 

 Coastal Plain. This scarp-line has exactly the appearance of a wave-cut 

 cliff which has been softened by subaerial erosion and resembles in every 

 detail the similar topographic feature which was described as separating 

 the Lafayette and Sunderland surfaces (Plate VIII and Plate IX, 

 Fig. 1). There are a large number of localities where this topographic 

 feature may be seen, particularly throughout Calvert and St. Mary's 

 counties. Perhaps four of the best and most accessible localities are 

 located at Ridge in southern St. Mary's county not far from Point 

 Lookout; at the turn of the road a mile and a half south of Frazier near 

 the 80-foot contour in Calvert county; in the region to the north of 

 Maryland Point in Charles county; and along the Principio road 1£ 

 miles northeast of Perryville, Cecil county. Where the Wicomico terrace 

 approaches drainage ways, it loses its typical plain character and is 

 modified by erosion into a rolling country, but back in the interior where 

 streams have not yet encroached, the surface is typically a plain. In 

 this particular it again resembles the Lafayette and Sunderland terraces. 

 On the whole it has suffered less from erosion than those which lie above 



