100 THE PLIOCENE AND PLEISTOCENE DEPOSITS OF MARYLAND 



feet of sandy clay literally packed with Ostrea virginica. These same 

 general relations hold for the similar deposits south of Cedar Point. 



There are a number of other localities in the Talbot formation in which 

 animal and vegetable remains have been discovered. They are not as 

 important as the ones just described, but show similar relations whenever 

 the contacts are visible. All the fossil localities known at the present 

 time within the superficial deposits of Maryland have been indicated on 

 the geological map, Plate I. 



Steatigraphic Relations. — The Talbot formation is built as a ter- 

 race lying irregularly and unconformably on older rocks which range in 

 age from pre-Cambrian down to the latest members of the Miocene period. 

 It laps up about the borders of the Wicomico formation and apparently 

 lies unconformably on its basal portions. It is at a distinctly lower level 

 than- the Wicomico and is separated from it by a scarp (Plate XII) which 

 makes a distinct feature in the topography. The surface of the Talbot 

 is also the surface of the country in which it is developed with the excep- 

 tion of its borders, which are unconformably overlaid at times by the 

 Eecent beaches (Plate XV, Pig. 2). The valleys which have been cut 

 in the Talbot formation have recently been drowned and on these the 

 Eecent sea is making a deposit similar to that which has been made by 

 every terrace deposit in the reentrant valleys of its predecessor (Plate 

 XV, Fig. 1). 



There has been considerable discussion regarding the presence of the 

 Talbot formation in the vicinity of Washington. Darton has failed to 

 map it in his Washington folio, and Salisbury says that it " has not been 

 recognized in the District of Columbia, and in the immediate vicinity of 

 Washington, at least, it has little, if any, development." ! Notwithstand- 

 ing this assertion, the Talbot and Wicomico are both unquestionably 

 present in the District of Columbia and the two have been mapped by 

 the author throughout this region. The Capitol is built on Wicomico 

 and the descent from this surface to the surrounding lower flats is the 

 Talbot-Wicomico scarp. It falls in line and is in perfect harmony with 



8 Ann. Rept. State Geol., N. J., 1901, p. xxxix. , 



