MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 75 



approximate idea of the appearance of the county during Sunderland 

 time. A glance at this chart suffices to show that all of the Eastern 

 Shore and much of the region between the Susquehanna and North- 

 east rivers was submerged, while the peninsula of Elk Neck was 

 greatly diminished in width and its southern extremity, at least, con- 

 verted into a chain of islands. Grays Hill also stood up as an island, 

 a few miles out in the ocean from the mainland. As the Sunderland 

 Sea thus overspread the larger part of the county and the waves rolled 

 unhindered from the Atlantic Ocean, they broke heavily against the 

 shore and cut a well-pronounced sea-cliff all along their margins, 

 precisely as the waves are now doing at intervals along the Atlantic 

 coast. The currents which swept along the shores of the Sunderland 

 Sea picked up the debris which was surrendered to them from the 

 land, and with it built up spits and bars along the shore. 



These events were brought to a close by another uplift of the land. 

 That portion which had previously been covered by the ocean was 

 now transformed into land, and the rivers which sprang rapidly into 

 existence began again to carry out to the sea the materials which had 

 so recently been deposited. It is difficult to say how long this period 

 of emergence lasted, but it probably was of sufficient duration to 

 permit a partial uncovering of the older rocks by the erosion of the 

 deposits laid down by the Sunderland Sea. 



THE WICOMICO STAGE. 



After the erosion of the Sunderland deposits had continued for 

 some time, the region began again to sink and the sea to encroach 

 on the land until the Atlantic Ocean had advanced nearly to the 

 position which it had previously occupied in the Sunderland stage. 



The accompanying diagram (Fig. 2) will suffice to illustrate the 

 position of the shore-line at this time. The full line indicates the 

 approximate position of the Wicomico shore-line, while the broken 

 line indicates that of the present shore-line. It will be readily under- 

 stood from this diagram that while the Wicomico submergence was 

 of the same character as the Sunderland, yet it was not quite so 

 extensive, and more of Cecil county remained above the ocean than 



