The drought is over !! My cup runneth over !!!

Like many of my east coast counterparts, there has been quite a drought
here in Maryland for the last few months.  Fossil colelcting wise, there
has also been a bit of a drought finding any kind of quality size teeth.
Well, last week it finally rained for three and a half days, with some
heavy downpours mixed in.  I was chomping at the bit to see what the
resulting impact would be on the cliffs along the Bay, but I knew the
direction of the rains probably didn't hit the face of the cliffs to
help loosen up some new material, and Lord only knows how bad we need
some new material.  My first opportunity was to go first thing Sat
morning as the rain was ending.  I was surprised no one else was there,
but I saw many footprints from the day before, so I knew the tide hadn't
come in very far overnight to stir things at all.  The water was on the
low side, with just a little bit of beach to search over.  I set my
screen, shovel, and bucket down and started in search and scan mode.  I
wasn't finding a single thing, not even the tiny little stuff.  This
place, like many other places on the bay, is quite picked over.
However, within just 15 minutes of searching, I saw the edge to a Meg
that I immediately knew was on the larger side, just barely poking out
of the sand.  There was only about an inch exposed showing a little root
lobe and enamel, and as I eached for it and pulled it felt too light to
be whole so I thought it was just a sliver or perhaps broken in half.
To my delight however, it was whole!  Of course, the "please be whole
prayer" was in full motion, and of course, a shout of praise went up
after I found this gem of a tooth, measuring 4 3/8".  This is the nicest
large tooth I have ever found.  I only have a few teeth in the 4.5" to
5" range from Calvert Cliffs.  Megs up further in the Bay where I
collect don't get very large, and a tooth in the 4" range is fairly
rare. 

Daryl.