106 The Upper Cretaceous Deposits op Maryland 



description of a larger number of locally developed formations than are 

 recognizable elsewhere. The names employed in the present report with 

 the exception of the term Magothy, introduced by Darton, were employed 

 by the writer in New Jersey for those formational units which can be 

 traced throughout this northern Upper Cretaceous province. Whether 

 these divisions in New Jersey should be subdivided into members or for- 

 mations and the larger units regarded as formations or groups, as the 

 case may be, is of little consequence, but they must be retained as forma- 

 tional names south of the Delaware basin since the features relied upon 

 for their subdivision in central New Jersey are not recognizable outside 

 that state. Not only are the formations described in an earlier chapter as 

 occurring in Maryland present, but still later formations known under 

 the name of the Rancocas and Manasquan formations, the former of 

 which has been traced through Delaware to the Maryland Line, although 

 the subdivisions described for the New Jersey area are not recognizable 

 south of that state. The Manasquan formation, however, is known only 

 in New Jersey and even in that state is much restricted in its develop- 

 ment. It is possible that this formation likewise participates in the 

 southerly transgression characteristic of the older Upper Cretaceous 

 formations, but there is no positive information on this subject. 



Deep-well borings near the margin of the Coastal Plain in Virginia at 

 Old Point Comfort and at Norfolk show that deposits of Upper Cre- 

 taceous age occur beneath the cover of the Tertiary formations, and repre- 

 sent one or more of the formations developed farther north. The mate- 

 rials penetrated are very similar to those characteristic of the Magothy- 

 Monmouth series of formations, and consist of coarse and fine sands and 

 even of pebbles as well as clays of dark color with lignite and, even more 

 striking, of the dark sandy micaceous clays and greensands so character- 

 istic of the Matawan and Monmouth. At the same time a considerable 

 number of fragmentary fossils have been secured which present more par- 

 ticularly a Matawan aspect, although a single specimen has been ques- 

 tionably referred to a species Found only in the Rancocas. The total 

 thickness of these buried Upper Cretaceous deposits in Virginia has been 

 estimated at 65 feet to 75 feet, but may lie considerably greater. It is 



