324 W. B. CLARK — UPPER CRETACEOUS FORMATIONS OF NEW JERSEY. 



the center of the belt. This ridge forms an escarpment toward the west, 

 but generally declines gradually seaward. 



The Cretaceous escarpment, as it may properly be called, stretches across 

 New Jersey from the vicinity of Sandy Hook to the head of Delaware 

 bay, and forms for much of the distance the divide between the streams 

 entering the Atlantic ocean on the east and the Raritan and Delaware 

 rivers on the west. Beginning on the prominent headland of the High- 

 lands of Navesink, which rise to 276 feet, it extends westward (plate 49, 

 figure 2) as a clearly defined ridge (south of Keyport reaching its greatest 

 height at 391 feet) for a distance of about 15 miles to the vicinity of 

 Morgan ville, beyond which the range broadens, and with a general eleva- 

 tion of 200 feet continues to Freehold. From this point the ridge turns 

 to the south westward as far as Clarksburg, in the vicinity of which is a 

 group of hills more than 300 feet in height, Pine hill being 372 feet above 

 sealevel. 



From the Pine Hill region the Cretaceous escarpment extends south- 

 ward into central New Jersey, being clearly shown in such points as Red 

 hill (234 feet), Arneys mount (230 feet), mount Holly (180 feet), and 

 mount Laurel (173 feet), although the elevation of the country does not 

 generally exceed 150 feet. In the valley of Rancocas creek is an area of 

 lowland which falls considerably below 50 feet and which marks the line 

 - of a depressed belt crossing southern New Jersey. To the south of mount 

 Laurel the escarpment is less clearly shown, although appearing at 

 Haddon heights, Woodbury heights (the latter reaching 161 feet), and 

 at some other points. To the south of Woodbury heights, with the ex- 

 ception of an area of highland to the east of Swedesboro, the escarpment 

 is less pronounced, while throughout Salem county, in southern New 

 Jersey, it is hardly apparent. 



To the south of the Delaware river in the state of Delaware and upon 

 the eastern shore of Maryland the escarpment practically disappears, 

 but upon the western shore of the Chesapeake, throughout Anne Arun- 

 del and Prince Georges counties, extending nearly the entire distance to 

 the Potomac river, the escarpment is clearly shown, but nowhere rising 

 into the marked ridge which characterizes it in central and northern 

 New Jersey. In Anne Arundel county it appears in several isolated 

 hills, which, however, are in part made up of the overlying Eocene de- 

 posits. Such elevations are seen at mount Misery on the Severn river 

 and to the east and south of Millersville. Beyond the Patuxent, in 

 Prince Georges county, the escarpment is somewhat broken, but appears 

 to the southeast of the Baltimore and Potomac railroad. Farther to the 

 south it skirts the shore of the Anacostia river, and thence following the 

 line of the Potomac river valley continues as far as Piscataway creek. 



