MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 221 



operations because of the competition of mills more favorably situ- 

 ated. 



Chrome. 



Along the northern limits of the county from Conowingo and 

 Bald Friar on the Susquehanna eastward for a distance of about 

 fifteen miles extends a series of " barrens " underlain by serpentine, 

 which in many instances has yielded rich deposits of the unusual 

 mineral chromite, an oxide of the metal chromium. As early as 

 1827 it was recognized by Mr. Isaac Tyson, Jr., that the black, 

 metallic mineral chromite was the same as that which was bringing 

 a hundred dollars a ton in the European market. It was not, how- 

 ever, until a year or so later that chromite-bearing serpentines were 

 traced into Cecil county and thence across the State boundary into 

 Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. The richest deposit found in all 

 this belt lies just across the State line five miles northwest of Rising 

 Sun on the Wood farm. At the surface the ore body was 30 feet 

 long and 6 feet wide and the ore so pure that 10 cubic feet produced 

 a ton of chrome ore averaging 54 per cent chromic oxide. At one 

 time almost all of the chromic ore used the world over was produced 

 from this single mine, which shipped as high as 400 or 500 tons each 

 month. At first the ore was hauled by wagon to Port Deposit, where 

 it was loaded into vessels and sent either to Liverpool or Baltimore. 

 Later when the central division of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and 

 Baltimore railroad was built through Rising Sun it was customary 

 to load at that point, shipping the material to Baltimore by rail. 

 This mine was worked almost continuously from 1828 to 1881, when 

 operations permanently ceased. There was no work, however, dur- 

 ing the years 1868 to 1873. The operations ceased partly because of 

 the depth to which the mine had gone, but more especially because 

 the ore could be obtained more cheaply from the rich deposits dis- 

 covered near Brusa, a small town about 75 miles southwest of Con- 

 stantinople, which at present supply the chrome ore for the demand 

 of the entire world. 



All along either side of the Mason and Dixon Line between Rock 



