MINERALS OF MARYLAND. 115 



A few miles north-west of the city of Frederick, there is a 

 micaceous gray sandstone of the coal series, containing 

 vegetable remains converted into coal. Beneath the sandstone 

 these is a bed of shale, four or five feet thick. This is a coal 

 field, geologically speaking ; but whether it contains productive 

 beds can only be known by boring. The rocks have been 

 much deranged, and a fault exists at the only spot where the 

 shale has been seen. 



A pressure of other engagements renders it necessary to 

 bring these notices to a close. In the next publication it is 

 proposed to give some account of the minerals in the western 

 parts of the iState, embracing the fourth, fifth, and sixth 

 divisions. At present they will be briefly alluded to. 



The fourth consists of the Catoctin and South mountains 

 and the narrow valley between them. Both of these moun- 

 tains consist of primary rocks, composed of granular quartz, 

 with epidote and chlorite, and covered by graywack, coarse 

 gritstone, and amygdaloid. Middletown valley laying be- 

 tween them, consists of argillite and chlorite slate. Pyritous 

 and carbonate of copper are extensively disseminated in the 

 rocks of the Catoctin mountain, and native copper has been 

 seen, but I am not aware that there are indications of a true 

 vein, or of a quantity of the ores likely to be of practical im- 

 portance. 



The fifth division extends from the western base of the 

 South mountain to the western base of Will's mountain, and 

 has been supposed to belong exclusively to the transition 

 series. It consists almost entirely of mountains, with the ex- 

 ception of Hagerstown valley, about twenty miles broad, and 

 a few other valleys of small extent. We are disposed to 

 question whether the portion of this division, lying between 

 Sideling hill and Evatt's mountain, does not belong to the 

 older secondary or carboniferous era. There is, in fact, but 

 little known of the mineralogy or geology of this division. It 

 consists of the blue compact limestone, sandstones (red, gray, 

 and white) with conglomerates, slates, shales, &c. 



Red sapphire, in minute grains or crystals, exists at the 

 eastern base of the South mountain. Sulphuret of lead and 

 iron, specular oxide of iron, and sulphate of baryta occur near 

 Hancock. Anthracite, forming a productive, field has been 



