MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 27 



Situated at the head of the Bay, on the main line of travel between 

 the cities of the Atlantic coast, Cecil county has been well provided 

 with transportation facilities. Across the center of its territory, from 

 the Susquehanna on the west to the Delaware line on the east, run 

 the Baltimore and Ohio and the Philadelphia, "Wilmington and 

 Baltimore railroads, while the northern portion of the county is 

 served by branches of the Pennsylvania system running up the Sus- 

 quehanna with an intersecting line extending from Octoraro Junction 

 eastward through Easing Sun into Chester county, Pennsylvania. 

 The southern half of the county has no railway facilities, but is so dis- 

 sected by the estuaries of the bay that few points are more than five 

 miles distant from water transportation. 



The surface configuration of the county is attractive, the view being 

 diversified by sheets or streams of water, terraces rising gently from 

 the level of the Bay, isolated hills and the higher uplands carved in 

 pleasing contours by the winding courses of the streams. According 

 to the character of the surface the county is separable into two main 

 divisions, the Piedmont Plateau on the north and the Coastal Plain 

 on the south. As has been pointed out in another place, the Coastal 

 Plain is again divisible' into a Western Shore, characterized by rolling 

 country, and an Eastern Shore division, whose surface is extremely 

 fiat and featureless.' 



Cecil county contains neither mountains nor hills of importance. 

 The highest points run but little over 500 feet above the level of the 

 sea and do not stand conspicuously above the general rolling surface 

 of the country in which they are situated. Iu the Piedmont Plateau, 

 the three most conspicuous elevations are Foys Hill, with an altitude 

 of 420 feet; Woodlawn, 456 feet, and the vicinity of Rock Springs, 

 540 feet. In the Coastal Plain, a range of low hills extends down 

 the center of Elk Neck. These are known, beginning at the north, 

 as the Hog Hills, which reach an elevation of about 300 feet; Black 

 Hill, 311; Elk Neck, 260; Bull Mountain, 306, and Maulden Moun- 

 tain, 220. Near the Delaware state line, where the Coastal Plain 

 approaches the Piedmont Plateau, Grays Hill rises abruptly from the 

 surrounding level to a height of 268 feet above the sea. 



