36 THE PHYSICAL FEATURES OF CECIL COUNTY 



very high grade of workmanship. Besides the position of the shore- 

 line, they indicated by means of numerals, the depths of water in 

 feet and fathoms, the character of the bottom and the topography of 

 the coast for about two miles back from the shore-line, 



In 1858, Simon J. Martenet published a map of Cecil county on 

 the scale of 1-J miles to the inch. This is a wall map measuring 41 

 by 41 inches. It indicates the position of roads and towns but does 

 not represent the relief. 



An atlas of Cecil county was published in 1877 by Lake, Griffing 

 and Stevenson. This atlas, besides including a map of the county as 

 a whole, contained also plats of the different districts and the most 

 important towns. No elevations are indicated on any of these maps 

 but the culture, such as common roads, private ro^ds, turnpikes, rail- 

 roads and houses, is well represented. 



ISTo other cartographic work of importance appeared until the sum- 

 mer of 1900, when the State Geological Survey in cooperation with 

 the IT. S. Geological Survey published the new topographic sheets 

 on which were platted portions of Cecil county. These sheets are 

 four in number, each one carrying a portion of the county; they are 

 published on a scale of 1 : 62,500, or about one mile to the inch. 

 Relief is indicated by 20 foot contours printed in brown, the hydro- 

 graphy is printed in blue and the culture, including boundary lines, 

 highways, railroads, houses and names is printed in black. These 

 sheets with the election districts added have been united and re- 

 engraved for the atlas which accompanies this report. 



THE HISTORY OF GEOLOGIC RESEARCH. 



From a very early date, those who have examined the geology of 

 Cecil county have distinguished between the crystalline rocks of the 

 Piedmont Plateau and the unconsolidated sediments of the Coastal 

 Plain. These two provinces have always been considered as distinct 

 and as separated from each other by a great time interval. In the 

 early days of geologic research in Cecil county, when those who pre- 

 tended to study the science at all were either amateurs or were busy 

 with other occupations during the greater part of the time, the in- 



