THE WILSON STEATITE QUARRY 



127 



plentiful. Ill the fields near the house masses project from the ground 

 and fragments are scattered about in great i)rofusion. A number of 

 worked places were seen, and a grooved pick made from a grooved ax 

 and the ])oint of an ungrooved jiick of medium size were collected. 



Wilson (luan-ji — The site most ])roductive of implements for working 

 steatite is located within 5(» yards of the Patuxent, half a mile below 

 Brown's bridge, on the farm of 3Ir VV. F. Wilson. The (juarry sites 

 have been cultivated to such an extent that but slight indications of 

 the ancient pits .are seen. A few small outcrops of the steatite are 

 found, and within a radius of (iO feet about one of these over thirty 



V 



Fig. 23 — Iiiiplenieiit used in rutting steatite; from quarry in ITowani County, "Maryland. 



tools were picked up. This series includes chisels of ordinary varieties 

 (<■, plate xciv) and rude grooved i)icks of the extemporized variety, 

 one of the latter apiiearing in plate xciii. 



Fragments of unfinished vessels of various foims were observed on 

 the laud of Mr Wilson on the northern side of the river within the 

 limits of Howard county. Several acres of forest land are covered 

 by rough-looking masses of dark steatite. In some places it has 

 been worked and indistinct pits can be traced, and rudely shaped 

 pieces of the material, together with specimens of the tools, were 

 encountered. Beyond this spot, on the farm of Mr Henry Kruhm, 



