[23] 



28 



Tlie rock in this vicinity is mostly composed of sniall aggregated crys- 

 tals, of less size and finer texture than the " alum marble." 



The old quarry was first visited. It is situated on a hillside, fifteen feet, 

 by the barometer, above the drainage level of the northwest branch of Beaver 

 dam. The top rock here is not pure, nor even bedded; but beneath, at 

 the above level, commences a marble of snowy whiteness, passing into one 

 with a blue tina:e; see specimens 10?^? and 106/. This marble spauls with 

 ease and precision, nearly as well on the edge as the bed, and is free to 

 work in every way. This is also the case Vv^ith the marble taken from 

 Baker's lower quarry; and indeed all the finer marbles have the same prop- 

 erty, unless they are laminated and schistose. The marble here admits 

 of i3eing split out of considerable length, twenty or even forty feet. The 

 face, however, when thus split, is more or less irregular, varying four to six 

 inches or more from a true level surface. 



On the other hand, the facility of spauling enables it to be brought 

 to the desired dimensions with comparatively little labor. The blue- 

 tinged variety quarried here is but little inferior in appearance to the 

 virgin white. Both varieties, though they do not admit of receiving 

 a high polish, like the best quality of Carara marble, can nevertheless be • 

 wrought into very fine ornamental work, with a beautifully sharp arris, as 

 may be seen by the specimen with raised lettering, and that cut into a cap- 

 ital carved by Mr. Parkie, of Baltimore. 



The lower beds are not exposed on the quarry face, but outcropping 

 ledges can be seen in various places around the slopes of the rising ground; 

 also in the bed of the creek, and everywhere in the bottom, where ditches 

 have been dug two to three feet deep; all indicating that a region of coun- 

 try of three quarters of a mile square is underlayed by rock of similar 

 character. 



Mr. Worthington has opened a new quarry on a hill about half a mile 

 southwest, and by barometrical measurement 40.8 feet above the level of 

 the northwest branch of Beaver Dam creek, at the stone saw-mill. This 

 quarry is about three-quarters of a mile on the east side of the railroad. 

 The upper masses are alone at present exposed. 



They are rather more disposed to crumble than the best quality of the 

 old quarry rock, but it is far superior to the upper beds at that locality, 

 and there is every reason to believe that the best quality of rock is not yet 

 reached ; indeed, probe-holes have been already sunk three fieet into the 

 floor of the present quarry, which show that there are solid ledges of 

 white marble of the same texture beneath. 



The hill on which the new quarry is situated is estimated, at the low- 

 est calculation, two hundred yards sqnare ; and it may be excavated for 

 twenty-five feet in depth without being incommoded with water. 



Within the last five years, at least twenty-five thousand cubie feet of 

 dimension-stone have been taken out of these two quarries. 



An experienced stonecutter of Baltimore, who has worked a great 

 deal of fine-grained marble, thinks there may be some diOiculiy in pro- 

 curing dimension-stone of that quality of greater thickness than twenty 

 inches. The same individual is of opinion that Baker's lower qnarry 

 might furnish a material of uniform color, of sreater thickness. He has 

 work(;d both the fine and the coarse crystallized marbles of Baltimore 

 county; and his experience is, that the fine-grained marble dulls the tool 

 more than the " alum stone," and is more difficult to saw, because, as he 



