[ 28 ] 30 



the quarries in this vicinity; see specimen No. 12. I had not an op- 

 portunity of examining this quarry in person. 



South of Fell and Robinson's quarry at Texas, on land owned by Mr. 

 Cockey, there is some fine, white, close-grained crystalHne marble. It 

 lies, however, low — not more than eight or ten feet above the bed of Cold 

 Stream creek. The quarry is not open, so that one cannot judge of the 

 bed. Mr. Cockey says the same kind of rock has been found half a 

 mile west. This is the only proof of its being extensive. 



On the whole, it appears that there is a region of country extending 

 for about two miles from north to south, and three-quarters to a mile from 

 east to west, occupied by this marble, extending from the level of the 

 water-courses to forty to forty-five feet above the same, and constituting 

 the whole of the hills witliin this tract of country, not all of the purest 

 white, but varying from a snow-white to a light blue. It may be esti- 

 mated that about one-third is of tolerable purity, and either of the crystal- 

 line texture or of the fine grained crystalline structure, approaching ia 

 quality to the Carara. 



Nor can this be considered the limit of the formation. Scott's quarry, 

 five miles beyond these, in the vicinity of the railroad, supplied a portion 

 of the material for the Washington monument at Baltimore, and other 

 quarries of white marble were pointed out to me from Prospect Hill, seve- 

 ral miles off. 



It cannot be doubted that these quarries are capable of supplying an 

 unlimited amount of fine building-material, either of the fine grained 

 marble or of the '* alum stone." Whether the former could be obtained 

 for the entire Smithsonian building, of a uniform color, free from gray 

 spots and veins, is less certain; though Worthington confidently asserts, 

 if he be permitted to supply white and faint-blue indiscriminately, similar 

 to specimens Nos. 10 ro and 10 bl, he can furnish far more than the build- 

 ing requires, without blemish. 



From all I have seen and heard, I incline to believe that the fine-grain- 

 ed marble will be somewhat more expensive to cut than the ^'alum stone;" 

 but, on the other hand, if the ornaments have bold projections, and much 

 undercutting, the coarser '' alum stone" is unsuitable; it chips off more 

 readily, and is less tough than the finer-grained varieties. 



The ''alum stone," as far as I can learn, works much like the West- 

 chester marble; and if in the latter all the necessary Norman ornaments 

 can be cut, so can they also, most probably, in the former. 



After the inspection of the Baltimore marble quarries, I proceeded, ac- 

 cording to instructions, to the Point of Rocks, to examine Mr. Mc- 

 Glauchren's quarries. 



I found them situated on Hook's run, two and a half to three miles 

 west of the Point of Rocks, or about seventy-three miles from Baltimore, 

 embraced in liighly disturbed, contorted, and deranged chloritic and tal- 

 cose schists, and distant only about three miles from the brecciated Poto- 

 mac marble formation. 



Nothing but hand specimens, and a ie\v^ surface rock for making lime, 

 have been as yet procured here, so that there is but httle opportunity of 

 judging the extent of the formation. The surface indications are not fa- 

 vorable, neither as regards uniformity of texture and composition, nor yet 

 extent of beds. 



The chloiitic schists dip here at a high angle to the south. The out- 



