Rappahannock River Research Articles

Geology of Jurassic-Triassic Culpeper Basin, North of Rappahannock River, Virginia: ABSTRACT

Geology of Jurassic-Triassic Culpeper Basin, North of Rappahannock River, Virginia: ABSTRACT

Place-Names of the Northern Neck of Virginia: a Proposal for a Theory of Place-Natning

THE NORTHERN NECK is a narrow strip of northeastern Virginia beginning at the fall line on the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers and extending eastward between those rivers to the Chesapeake Bay. In general, this neck varies in width from ten to 20 miles, and is in itself composed of a series of smaller pieces of land similarly divided by coves, bays, inlets, and streams into smaller necks. Its historic roots are deep and predominantly English in origin. It has cradled such great families as the Lees, the Washingtons, the Monroes, and the Madisons. Many of the family names attached to the earliest land grants are still flourishing in the Northern Neck today, and the area remains singularly free of huge urban developments, industrialization, and other forms of dubious modern progress. The unspoiled terrain is matched by the traditional bent of the citizenry, and the serenity of a countryside dotted with historic dwellings and churches still in use. , The Northern Neck is a particularly apt location for a place-name study, as the researcher has access to naming practices which have been in operation since the early years of the seventeenth century, and which continue to this day, although on a much reduced scale. The extended span of time permits us to examine names which have been applied at various times during the course offour centuries. During these 350 years the sources of the names, the places named, those responsible for making the selection, and even the types of names have changed considerably from one era to the next. An examination of the place-name evidence from pre-English times down to the present will permit us to note in detail how names have been applied during that time. The place-names in this study were collected from tracts of local history, maps, legislative decrees, deeds, land grants, letters, and local informants. From this collection of more than 2,500 names it gradually became clear that a number of generalizations could be made about place-naming. For example, one could generalize concerning the large number of early settlers who are commemorated in the names of

A Hermaphroditic Alewife, Alosa pseudoharengus, from the Rappahannock River, Virginia

A Hermaphroditic Alewife, Alosa pseudoharengus, from the Rappahannock River, Virginia

Occurrence and Growth of Striped Bass X White Bass Hybrids in the Rappahannock River, Virginia

Occurrence and Growth of Striped Bass X White Bass Hybrids in the Rappahannock River, Virginia

The Summer Food Habits of Young-of-the Year Striped Bass in Three Virginia Rivers

The dominant food items in striped bass,Morone saxatillis (Walbaum), less than 70 mm in fork length were mysids in the York River samples and insects in those from the James River. Stomach contents from larger striped bass were dominated by fish (Rork River) and decapod shrimp (James River). The primary physical difference between collecting sites in these two rivers was salinity. Most James River collections were taken from salinities of less than 5 ‰, whereas the majority of York River stations exceeded 10 ‰. The food of Rappahannock River striped bass was more diverse than that of York and James populations, containing items in common with both. Salinities at Rappahannock stations ranged from 1.5 to 14.5‰

The boron-salinity relationship in estuarine sediments of the Rappahannock River, Virginia

The boron-salinity relationship in estuarine sediments of the Rappahannock River, Virginia

Diagenesis in Estuarine Sediments: ABSTRACT

Diagenesis in estuarine sediments is affected by broad physical and chemical environmental patterns, the nature of which is becoming clear. The bottom environment is influenced most fundamentally by physical conditions, such as the pattern of water movements and the stability of the water column from place to place. Physical parameters are distinctly different in three major regimes of estuaries, the distributary reaches, the mixing zone, and the saline basin. Location and extent of each of these regimes are determined in any system by the interaction among fresh-water discharge, tidal range, channel geometry, and wind effects. The Rappahannock River estuary and the Po River delta illustrate contrasts in such physical differentiation. In estuaries the environment for diagenesis is imposed by a determining physical background and the supplemental operation of chemical and biological processes. Variations in pH, Eh, and in dissolved silica and attainment of sulfide equilibrium illustrate the interaction between physical milieu and bottom chemistry. There is a class of chemical interactions (pH adjustment, ion exchange) which proceed instantaneously when fresh-water sediment enters the marine zone. There is another class that requires physical stability in the bottom sediments before equilibrium is approached (dissolution of silica, sulfide equilibrium). This latter class of reactions is the starting point for diagenesis. The initial stages of diagenesis begin just below the sediment-water interface in estuaries. End_of_Article - Last_Page 629------------

Cyprinid Fishes of the Subgenus Cyprinella of Notropis. The Notropis whipplei-analostanus-chloristius Complex

Notropis whipplei, N. a. analostanus, and N. a. chloristius are characterized and differentiated from related species of the subgenus Cyprinella. N. whipplei of the Mississippi River drainage and N. a. analostanus of Atlantic drainages, although morphologically quite similar, are regarded as separate species, with allopatry the deciding factor. N. a. chloristius, of the Santee River system, a comparatively distinct form previously given species rank, is regarded as a subspecies on the basis of apparent intergradation with N. a. analostanus in the Peedee River system. The meristic characters of the Cayuga Lake population of N. a. analostanus suggest introgression with N. s. spilopterus. In several morphometric characters N. a. analostanus displays a north-south dine to the Rappahannock and York river systems and reverses to the southward of these.

K-Ar Age Studies of Mississippi and Other River Sediments

The ratio of radiogenic argon 40 to potassium supplies information on the source or genesis of components of recent sediments. This is the initial investigation in a larger study on the history of illitic materials using dating techniques. In samples from the deltaic deposits of the Mississippi River, age values for the dominantly silt-sized material of the delta averaged 280 m.y., with little horizontal or vertical variation. The clay-size fractions of the same samples averaged only 166 m.y. This age is lower than one would expect of detritus from Paleozoic shales in the central and eastern part of the source area but may be due to mixtures of younger mixed-layer illite-montmorillonite released from the Cretaceous and Tertiary sections to the west. The Mississippi River sediments in the delta are commonly gray. A reddish-brown layer found at depth in drill holes, believed to have been deposited by the Red River, showed ages of 690 m.y. for the dominantly silt-sized whole samples and 650 m.y. for the clay fractions. This supports a Red River source for this layer and suggests a common source for the two fractions. One would expect the rapidly deposited deltaic sediments from both the Mississippi and Red rivers to lack any appreciable authigenic K phases, if such exist, because these require slow accumulation well offshore. Measured ages of the clay fractions in bottom sediments from the Rappahannock River in Virginia are similar to those from the crystalline rocks of the source regions, indicating again that the K phases are ancient detritus. Clay soils forming over ancient shales can contain illite of the same age as the underlying shales, thus indicating a source for detrital, ancient 1M d illite.

The Ferns and Fern-Allies of Northern Neck, Virginia

Northern Neck is the peninsula that lies to the south of the Potomac River and is bounded on the north by that river, on the south by the Rappahannock River, and on the east by the Chesapeake Bay. Five counties make up the peninsula: (from the northernmost to the southernmost) King George, Westmoreland, Richmond, Northumberland, and Lancaster. The peninsula is about 90 miles in length from the bend of the Potomac River southeastward to the Chesapeake Bay, and varies from 10 to 25 miles in width. Northern Neck is made of

Clay Mineralogy of the Bottom Sediments, Rappahannock River, Virginia

AbstractBottom sediment clay mineral assemblages from the Rappahannock River and estuary contain kaolinite, illite, unorganized illite, dioctahedral vermiculite, 12.4Å montmorillonite, 14.2 Å montmorillonite, chlorite, feldspar and quartz. The x-ray diffraction characteristics of these species and their thermal modifications at 25–500°C are described and illustrated. Progressive changes in the mineralogical composition of bottom sediments occur between the fresh-water and saline-water portions of the Rappahannock system. Chlorite and feldspar occur exclusively in the saline portions of the estuary. Illite shows progressive increase in crystallization quality. There appears to be less kaolinite, proportionately, in the estuarine sediments of the most saline zone. x-Ray diffraction diagrams showing these progressive changes are illustrated.

SUBMERGED RIVER SYSTEM OF CHESAPEAKE BAY

Logs of driving tests and borings in the deposits under the tidal estuaries in the Chesapeake Bay region have been obtained at 14 bridge sites over the Potomac, Susquehanna, Rappahannock, York, and other rivers and over Chesapeake Bay itself. The estuaries of this region are submerged river valleys cut into the Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments of the Coastal Plain, but they now contain a fill consisting of sand and gravel overlain by sandy silt of alluvial and estuarine origin. The youngest deposits are semiliquid silts (river mud) probably deposited by marine currents. Studies of ground-water supplies in terraces less than 15 feet above sea level that border some of the rivers indicate that there may be two fills of different ages separated by an unconformity and that each represents a different period of low sea level during Pleistocene time. The gradients of some river profiles steepen near the master stream, an inheritance from the period of low sea level in Pleistocene time when base level was lowered. Swampy and braided stream reaches result from the adjustment of the channel cross section to the inherited steep slope.

EXTENSION OF YORKTOWN FORMATION (MIOCENE) OF VIRGINIA INTO MARYLAND

In northeastern Tidewater Virginia and in southern Maryland the gray unweathered marine marls, clays, and sands of the Chesapeake group (Miocene) exposed in the high bluffs on Rappahannock and Potomac rivers and on Chesapeake Bay are overlain by 60-80 feet or more of sand and gravel. Previous investigators have treated this sand and gravel as one unit and referred it either to the so-called Lafayette formation (Pliocene?) or to the Sunderland formation (Pleistocene). We divide the sand and gravel unit into two formations. The lower formation consists mainly of 40-60 feet of strikingly soft, loose, medium to coarse sand with interbedded lenses of gravel and subordinate light-gray clay partings. Glauconite is present in some beds. The basal bed is a fine gravel that rests unconformably on the unweathered Miocene strata, transgressing northwestward across both the St. Marys and the Choptank formations. Locally the materials are indurated to ferruginous sandstone and conglomerate, and one such mass at Nomini Cliffs (Horsehead Cliffs), Virginia, yielded an impression of Halymenites major Lesquereux. This fossil, representing a supposed marine organism, and the glauconite, the clay laminae, and the soft, loose texture of the sand, indicate the shallow marine origin of the formation. Unconformably above the marine sand in the higher bluffs is 10-25 feet or more of medium to coarse, more or less ferruginous sand and lenses of gravel, with scattered pebbles and cobbles of quartz and occasional boulders of crystalline rock along the base (Pleistocene terrace deposits). These sands and gravels are locally indurated with iron oxide cement. In the higher bluffs (120-160 feet high) these deposits are interpreted to be the Sunderland formation; in the lower bluff (94 feet high) south of Jones Point on Rappahannock River, Virginia, they may belong to the Wicomico formation. Fossils have been found in the Yorktown formation within a few miles of the lower sand and gravel formation, at altitudes that would permit the latter to fall within the stratigraphic limits of the Yorktown. The lower formation is therefore considered a northward extension of the Yorktown formation (Miocene).

Some Colonial Homes of Middlesex County

The first court held for in February, 1673, was presided over by nine gentlemen who had emigrated from England to Virginia and who had already taken out patents for land along the water-front where they had established homes. These gentlemen justices for this first court were: Perrott, Sr., Henry Thacker, John Foxcroft, Perrott, Jr., Walter Whittaker and John Hazlewood. Until 1666 the area comprising the present County, although embraced at that time in Lancaster, was divided into the Parishes of Lancaster and Pianketank, coinciding with the later Upper and Lower precincts, and each had its Established Church. Hermitage and Lower Church stand approximately on the sites of older churches in the two parishes. For economic reasons the parishioners decreed to unite Lancaster and Pianketank into one large parish, so we find the union completed at a vestry meeting held at Rosegrill, the residence of Sir Henry Chicheley, in 1666; and the new parish, co-extensive with county boundaries, took the name of Christ Church, Middlesex. Thence forward the churches in each of the old parishes became chapels of ease, and a mother church was built 'midway between Brandon and Rosegill in the small Indian field upon the land of Mrs. Brocas.' Of the old families resident in this section Bishop Meade, writing about 1855, states very significantly that Middlesex was the seed-bed of Virginia aristocracy. was among the most cultured counties in the Colony before the Revolution, and perhaps sent more of her sons back to England for their academic and legal education than any other county in the Colony. The first man from Virginia to return to England for his legal training was Henry Perrott, who entered Gray's Inn, as a student of law November 14, 1674. The Perrotts patented Perrott's Neck on a creek by the same name in upper Middlesex, which is known to us today as Nesting, the old home of the Eubanks. A quaint entry in the Parish Register states that Richard Perrott, the son of Mr. Perrott, decd., was born the 24th day of February 1657, being the first man child that was born in the Rappahannock River of English parents. Ralph Wormeley, of Rosegill, was the first student from Virginia to enter an English university, having matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford, in July, 1665. Thus you will see that the houses of Perrott and Wormeley set the pace that was liberally followed by other sons of old Middlesex. Since we have reviewed briefly the creation and organization of the county, together with early church history, let

Potomac River Maps of 1737 by Robert Brooke and Others

Robert Brooke's manuscript map, A Plan of Potomack River, from the Mouth of Sherrendo, down to Chpapcwamsick, Surveyed in the year 1737, mentioned in the Magazine for April last, where the circumstances surrounding the survey of the Potomac in connection with the effort to determine the bounds of Lord Fairfax's Northern Neck grant were described, is but one of a number of maps that were prepared in the course of the extended investigation at this date. In addition to the joint survey of the River from what is now Harper's Ferry to the head waters (the resulting map of which has been reproduced in these pages) the Crown commissioners ordered the surveyor of each county bounded either by the Potomac or Rappahannock rivers to prepare a map of the waters adjacent to his county.1 The result was a series of minor maps which in turn formed the foundation for the two general maps, one by John Warner and the other by William Mayo, that were sent to England and laid before the Lords Commissioners of Trade. It appears that but two of these county maps survive, though a third, that of Stafford county by John Savage, is perpetuated by a tracing in the library of the Coast and Geodetic Survey at Washington. Of the original surviving maps, both in the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, one is an untitled and unsigned plan of the Potomac borders of Westmoreland County, an account of which is here appended. The other is, of course, the excellent map of which, by reason of its careful execution, the names of settlers shown and the later import of the sites it includes (Washington and Mt. Vernon) merits fuller discussion. It should be noted at the outset that the map of identical title in the Coast and Geodetic Library, recorded by Philips and also by Swem in their lists of Virginia maps and reproduced in Fairfax Harrison's Landmarks of Old Prince William,2 is a comparatively late tracing of a portion of the map herewith reproduced. The northern limit of the tracing is at the Great Falls and all key numbers from 1 to 24 are omitted. Consequently that part of the present plan and key above this point-in the original a strip 17%2 by 11 inches-is here shown in print for the first time. Incidentally, the tracing fails exactly to follow the original lettering (e. g. Ro. Brooke was