348 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



there. Before the war there were no powder-mills in 

 America. The American powder is said to be weak, 

 and not of the adequate effect. But this cannot well 

 be ascribed, as has been done in English journals, to 

 the faulty nature of their domestic saltpetre. Accord- 

 ing to these statements American saltpetre, which had 

 been used among other purposes for brining meat, had 

 shown injurious, corroding, and unhealthful properties. 

 Here and there indeed there may have been a failure 

 in the preparation, and the saltpetre not enough sepa- 

 rated from other salts ; but that which I saw at Dr. 

 Wiesenthal's was in appearance and to the taste alto- 

 gether fine and pure. 



In productions of the mineral kingdom the region 

 about Baltimore is likewise not poor. There are found 

 there rich beds of swamp iron-ore, good sand-stones 

 fit for squaring, all sorts of clay-earths, fine white and 

 grey marble, soap-stones, shorl-crystals, several varie- 

 ties of breccia, and other species of stone, which I pass 

 over here having elsewhere * given a circumstantial 

 account of them. The flora of this region, judging by 

 what was still to be seen towards the middle of Oc- 

 tober, appeared to be very little different from that 

 about Philadelphia. 



Several circumstances obliged us to spend a few 

 days longer in this neighborhood, and gave opportunity 

 for a little journey to Annapolis, the capital of Mary- 

 land, to Alexandria, Georgetown, and Bladensburgh. 

 The first six miles from Baltimore was altogether 

 through forest, mostly young wood. A forge near 



* Vid. Beytfdge zur mineralog. Kenntniss von Nordamerika. 

 22, 23. 



