326 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



the hills before Frederick-town, seems to continue as 

 far as the neighborhood of Baltimore, sinking deeper 

 and deeper. Where wells are dug in that region the 

 green stone appears at various depths beneath the 

 overlying sand and other species of stone. At such 

 times also much greenish earth is dug up, which tasted 

 to me something like copperas. The same kinds of 

 greenish earth and stone are found along the Cone- 

 gacheag road, many miles out from Baltimore. 



Notwithstanding the numerous hills it is plain 

 enough on coming from the mountains that one is 

 travelling over a surface sloping to the sea. 



Baltimore. Rapidly as Philadelphia grew to its 

 present importance, Baltimore seems to have hastened 

 after. It is hardly thirty years since the town was 

 established, and already it may be counted among the 

 larger and richer American cities. It numbers almost 

 2000 houses, for the most part built of brick neatly 

 and conveniently ; and this number is very nearly 

 equal to that of all the houses in the remainder of the 

 province of Maryland. The inhabitants are estimated 

 at 12,000 and more (and again at 15,200). The ad- 

 vantageous situation of the harbor at the mouth of 

 the Patapsco river and at the upper end of Chesapeak 

 Bay, gave the first occasion for the founding of the 

 city. It is safe and commodious ; can ride ships of 17- 

 18 ft., and has the great advantage, placed as it is al- 

 most in the middle of the province of Maryland, of 

 lying near to a part of Virginia and Pensylvania, be- 

 tween the Delaware the Susquehannah and the Potow- 

 mack, and at the same time nearer and more convenient 

 for trade with the regions in and about the mountains 

 than any other of the cities on the coast. Therefore 



