212 THE MINERAL RESOURCES OF CECIL COUNTY 



beyond the prospecting stage except in the case of the Maryland Clay 

 Company which has been engaged for some time in the actual mining 

 and washing of the material. 



Kaolin has been located at many points within the county and the 

 industry is likely to expand during the next few years. Owing to 

 the presence of beds of sands, clays, and gravels of Patuxent and 

 Columbia age, kaolin is rarely exposed at the surface and conse- 

 quently is usually found either in making road or railroad cuttings or 

 in the digging of wells. Where it is thus encountered or its presence 

 suspected the extent of the deposit is further determined by test pits 

 or borings. The amount of overburden above the kaolin varies from 

 as little as two feet to as much as twenty feet in thickness. The depth 

 of the kaolin itself is also quite variable and depends naturally on 

 the depth to which weathering has decayed the parent rock, and also 

 on the extent to which the deposit has been eroded by the currents 

 which deposited the Patuxent sands. These sands are often of a refrac- 

 tory character and are sold as fire sands. They represent the quartz 

 and partially decayed feldspar particles which were present in the 

 residual clays. The clay particles being very fine have either been 

 floated off, or balled up into little plastic lumps from \ to 1 inch in 

 diameter, which are found in the sands. 



Maryland Clay Company. — The following account of the kaolin 

 deposits in Cecil county, together with the description of the one 

 active plant in the area, is taken from the more exhaustive report on 

 the clays of Maryland by Professor Eies. 1 



The Maryland Clay Company is the only one which is at present 

 mining and washing clay. Its pits are located about 1 mile southwest 

 of Northeast station, and between the highway and the Philadelphia, 

 "Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. 



The kaolin is a decomposed feldspar mica gneiss overlain by Pa- 

 tuxent sands on the western side of the pit and by Patuxent and 

 Pleistocene deposits on the eastern side. 



These sands, which are often quite micaceous, vary in thickness 

 from 10 to 40 feet, and have to be stripped off before the kaolin can 



J Maryland Geological Survey, vol. iv, 1902, pp. 456-461. 



