502 W. B. Clark — Brandy wine Formation of the 



characterize the upper portions of the formation. The beds or 

 lenses are irregular and often the materials are mixed together 

 in a confused manner. Cross-bedding occurs in the sands and 

 gravels but in general the materials are imperfectly sorted and 

 are found intermingled in varying proportions, the gravel and 

 sand frequently containing much clay. 



The gravels are chiefly developed in the landward portions 

 of the formation and decline in frequency as well as in size of 

 cobbles toward the seaward portions of the formation and are 

 almost entirely absent near the seaward margin, being 

 replaced altogether by sands and loams. The materials are of 

 varying sizes and shapes, generally more or less angular with 

 rounded edges and rarely affording the discoidal pebbles char- 

 acteristic of sea beaches. The pebbles toward the landward 

 portion of the formation are almost invariably covered with 

 a dark -brown, ferruginous coating, but farther seaward the 

 amount of iron decreases and the coating of iron oxide is prac- 

 tically absent. The pebbles are largely of quartz but some are 

 of crystalline and other rocks and a few even of Newark sand- 

 stone, which shows that they were derived from the Piedmont 

 and Appalachian regions. Many were doubtless redeposited 

 from the early Cretaceous formations. Scattered among the 

 cobbles and pebbles and also at times among the sands and 

 loams are angular bowlders of Piedmont or Appalachian origin. 

 The gravels especially in the landward portions of the forma- 

 tion are often much decayed, the pebbles readily breaking 

 down under light blows from the hammer. 



The sands are both coarse and fine and doubtless have 

 largely the same origin as the gravels although more largely 

 derived from the older Coastal Plain formations. This 

 is doubtless especially true of the seaward portions of 

 the formation, which were evidently derived in considerable 

 measure from the sandy beds of the older Miocene formations, 

 which must have extended widely over the eastern margin of 

 the Piedmont and are today recognized in outliers some dis- 

 tance to the west of the Coastal Plain border. At the same 

 time the sandy members of the underlying Eocene and Cre- 

 taceous formations must also have contributed their quota. 

 The sands are much more heterogeneous in the landward por- 

 tions of the formations than in the seaward and are frequently 

 very compact when cemented by iron oxide or when they con- 

 tain an admixture of clay, loamy sands or sandy loams being 

 frequently found, particularly in the landward portions of the 

 formation. Beds of pure quartz sand are infrequent and 

 when present are not of great thickness or wide extent. They 

 increase in prominence, however, seaward. 



The loams are widely extended but of very variable sorts. 



