136 THE PLIOCENE AND PLEISTOCENE DEPOSITS OF MARYLAND 



ited successively on each other. There is no evidence that this has taken 

 place. The field relations show, on the contrary, that the surface was in 

 a great measure stripped of one formation before the next was deposited. 

 In the vicinity of Annapolis indurated portions of the Eocene sub- 

 stratum have been found penetrating the surficial cover of Pleistocene 

 materials, their upper surfaces planed off level with the general surface 

 of the terrace. In the locality here mentioned, the lithologic distinction 

 between the Eocene and Pleistocene materials is so marked that there is 

 no difficulty in distinguishing between the two and determining their 

 relation. It is probable that the same relation may exist in other places 

 between the underlying beds and the overlying Pleistocene deposits, but 

 the discrimination being less easily made, the presence of such localities 

 has not been distinguished. 



Throughout the southern half of St. Mary's county, especially in the 

 vicinity of Eidge, the inner margins of the three lower terraces do not 

 have the same elevations as elsewhere in Maryland. The lowest rises 

 from tide to a height of about 10 feet. It is here abruptly terminated 

 by a scarp about 10 feet high. The next terrace slopes from the top of 

 this scarp to a height of about 45 feet. At this point the second scarp 

 rises, near Eidge, to join the terrace above at a height of about 60 feet. 

 Although there is this difference in elevation between the three lower 

 terraces in the southern half of St. Mary's county, and the same terraces 

 in regions to the north and west, yet the transition from one region to the 

 other is not abrupt but gradual, and one may trace them as they gently 

 rise from Point Lookout to the surrounding regions. It would appear, 

 then, that there has been a slight tilting of the surface in the vicinity of 

 Point Lookout. Future investigations may of course show, when these 

 various terraces have been traced southward through Virginia, that the 

 interpretation just given is not the correct one. 



Summary. 



In this monograph it has been shown that the surficial deposits of 

 Maryland are the last of a long series of unconsolidated beds which began 

 to be deposited in Lower Cretaceous and possibly Jurassic time and 

 have continued on with interruptions down to the present. These de- 



