166 THE COASTAL PLAIN FORMATIONS OF CECIL COUNTY 



resented by disconnected remnants or small areas. It is this broken 

 feature, which chiefly characterizes its distribution in Cecil county. 

 Within this county the Lafayette is developed in two groups of out- 

 liers; one of these groups is found on the southern margin of the 

 Piedmont, near its contact with the Coastal Plain, between the Sus- 

 quehanna and Little Elk Creek. The other group of outliers is 

 confined to the peninsula of Elk Neck, and occupies its highest hill- 

 tops, extending down its center from near Bacon Hill to Maulden 

 Mountain. These outliers are the remnants of a once continuous 

 mantle of the Lafayette formation, which probably extended over 

 all of Cecil county. They, at the present time occupy the highest 

 elevations in the vicinity, but as they are constantly being carried 

 away by erosion, their volume is growing less and less. The most 

 important localities for Lafayette are found on the highland in the 

 vicinity of Woodlawn, and just east of it across Principio Creek, on 

 the elevation between Theodore and Foys Hill. There are also 

 scattered outliers extending from Theodore to the eastward toward 

 Egg Hill. On Elk Neck some of the highest points of the Hog Hills 

 carry a capping of Lafayette. A large area is met with on the hill- 

 tops and range of hills just south from here, and also on Black Hill, 

 Elk Neck, Bull Mountain and Maulden Mountain. 



The materials of the Lafayette formation were not deposited on 

 a perfectly plain surface, but on a somewhat rolling one, and since 

 their deposition, have been raised and somewhat titled toward the 

 southeast. The result is that while there is a general decrease in the 

 elevation of the base of this formation from the Piedmont to the 

 ocean there is also a variation in the height at which the base is found 

 even in restricted area, thus: along the Piedmont where the structure 

 of the formation would seem to pre-suppose the same general height 

 for the base the formation actually rests on a platform varying from 

 460 to 340 feet. These changes, however, do not take place abruptly. 

 Along the backbone of Elk Neck the base lies considerably lower 

 than on the Piedmont, but as it is further down the dip this change in 

 altitude is no more than should be expected. Yet even in this region 

 the altitude of the base is found to vary between 120 and 200 feet. 



