Report on the projected Survey of the State of Maryland. 19 



Bnnually, is eleven hundred thousand pounds ; valued at forty five 

 thousand dollars; the exports are valued at forty thousand dollars. 

 It is believed that the production of this article in Baltimore has en- 

 tirely superseded the necessity of its importation for any portion of 

 the United States, and has also greatly reduced its former price. 



Still another substance, doubtless about to prove, ere long, a source 

 of considerable revenue to the counties where it occurs, has been al- 

 ready alluded to as having been found in Cecil and Harford coun- 

 ties. It is the mineral commonly called porcelain clay or porcelaffi 

 earth. This material is regarded as proceeding principally from the 

 natural decomposition of the coarse grained granite, a very common 

 rock in the state of Maryland. 



For the porcelain works at Philadelphia, it is derived, almost ex- 

 clusively, from the neighborhood of Wilmington in Delaware ; but an 

 analogous formation was observed in Cecil county, eastward of the 

 Big Elk, in the vicinity of the stopping place known as Dysart's. 

 The mineral, called by mineralogists Kaolin, is here well character- 

 ized, and is believed to occur in quantity ; and as the undersigned 

 know that demands for it have lately been made in Baltimore, they 

 would indicate this locality as one likely to afford a supply. To the 

 inhabitants of the county, it is well known as what is not unfrequent- 

 ly mistaken for limestone. Specimens of Kaolin have been sent 

 from Harford county also ; but the exact locality has not been ascer- 

 tained. The undersigned have likewise noted its occurrence on the 

 route of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road, between Ellicott's Mills 

 and Mariottsville. 



Resuming now the consideration of the most prominent circum- 

 stances in the geology of that section of our state, which compre- 

 hends the primitive or primary rocks, and specifying the share of in- 

 terest which belongs to each county within it ; it will be seen that, — 



Cecil county possesses in her porcelain earth, an article of ex- 

 change likely to become soon of considerable value. The magne- 

 sian earths, and chrome ores abound towards her north western lim- 

 its. The granite formation at Port deposit is well known not to yield 

 in value and importance to any in the state. To complete her ad- 

 vantages, and to supply proper mnterials for the industry of the ag- 

 riculturists of the upper portion of the county, there seems to be want- 

 ing only a discovery of limestone, if not within her boundaries, at 

 least at a more accessible distance than it is now known to exist. 



