MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 67 



of the county, is an estuary for almost its entire course. It extends 

 inland due east from Grove Point and is navigable for 9 miles, as 

 far as Georgetown. Elk River, the largest of the estuaries, extends 

 in a northeast direction from the extremity of Elk Neck at Turkey 

 Point to Elkton, a distance of 15 miles, and is navigable throughout 

 its entire extent. Toward the east it sends out two important rami- 

 fications. Bohemia Piver is an estuary for 7 miles. Back Creek, 

 which crosses the county as a navigable waterway, connects with the 

 Delaware river by means of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. 

 On the western side of Elk Neck, Northeast Piver extends up into 

 the land as an estuary for a distance of about 5 miles, and Furnace 

 Creek, two miles to the west, penetrates inland for a distance 

 of about 1-J miles. All of these estuaries lie wholly within the 

 Coastal Plain region. Only one estuary crosses the region, that 

 of the Susquehanna river, the lower portion of which is submerged 

 and navigable some five miles above its mouth to Port Deposit. 



The other category of drainage ways, or the creeks, includes flowing 

 streams which carry the water from the surface to Chesapeake Bay 

 and its estuaries. These creeks are prevailingly short, the largest 

 not much exceeding 5 miles in length. Their drainage basins are 

 correspondingly restricted, and because of this fact, the streams 

 partake largely of the character of mountain torrents; flow only 

 during the wet season of the year or immediately after a storm, and 

 frequently become dry at least throughout a great portion of theii 

 courses during the dry weather. An exception to this general rule is 

 found in the northern margin of the Atlantic Coastal Plain district 

 where streams, such as the Little Elk, Northeast Creek and Prin- 

 cipio Creek, which rise within the Piedmont Plateau and drain from 

 the more extensive basins, are obliged to cross the Coastal Plain to 

 Chesapeake Bay. Within the Eastern Shore district, the creeks have 

 cut deep, narrow valleys beneath the surrounding surface, as time 

 has not been sufficient since the emergence of the land above the ocean 

 to permit the streams to widen extensively their basins. The creeks 

 which drain the peninsula of Elk Neck differ from those over the rest 

 of the Coastal Plain streams of Cecil county, in that they rise on 





