102 THE PLIOCENE AND PLEISTOCENE DEPOSITS OP MAEYLAND 



remains Avhile the latter formation alone contains invertebrates. A few 

 mastodons' teeth and other vertebrate remains have been found in the 

 Talbot formation. The plant remains have yielded important informa- 

 tion regarding the flora of the time and have thrown considerable light 

 on the age of the deposits and on the climatic conditions which existed 

 in this region during the deposition of the terrace formations, but they 

 have been of little value in correlation. This statement will be better 

 appreciated when it is realized that the plant beds which are local in 

 development and widely scattered are for the most part confined to the 

 Talbot formation There are but two localities in the Sunderland where 

 plants are known to occur and only one in the Wicomico. All the ma- 

 terial thus far discovered has not yielded conclusive evidence of distinct 

 floras in the various formations, but rather conveys the impression that 

 practically the same forms of plant life existed in the region from Sun- 

 derland down through Talbot times. Such variations as are present are 

 suggestive of different plant societies in the same general flora rather 

 than of a distinction of age between the floras. 



The invertebrate remains have been chiefly secured from the two locali- 

 ties so well known to Conrad — Wailes Bluff, near Cornfield Harbor, and 

 Langleys Bluff, on the Bay shore, five miles southeast of Cedar Point. 

 Federalsburg, Baltimore, and a few other places have yielded additional 

 material, but not in the same abundance as the localities just mentioned. 

 These fossils are valuable in determining the age of the Talbot in which 

 they all occur, but the lack of invertebrate remains in the other terraces 

 makes it impossible to say whether the fauna of Talbot time was different 

 from that of Wicomico, Sunderland, or Lafayette time. The inverte- 

 brates, therefore, cannot be used to distinguish between the various 

 surficial deposits of Maryland or adjoining regions, but they are of value 

 in correlating the Maryland series as a whole with similar series else- 

 where. The lack of an abundance of fossils seems in a large measure to 

 be due to unfavorable conditions for preserving the hard parts of ani- 

 mals, which probably inhabited the estuaries and open water of the ocean 

 in large numbers. The few vertebrate remains which have been discov- 

 ered are of even less value in correlation. They have, however, thrown 



