History of Western Maryland. J. Thomas Scharf
arises; and then still higher, behind them all, the great lofty backbone of Sideling Hill ridge sets up a forest-fringed barrier, beyond which the vision cannot penetrate. A few miles to the left the placid bosom of the Potomac River gleams like molten silver in the clear light, while along its margins the tall, spreading sycamores and branching maples join with the dark oaks and glossy-leaved gum-trees in tracing their images down into the limpid water. In the neighborhood of Hancock broken rocks, and occasionally bowlders of white sandstone, lie scattered over the flanks of the hills or rest in piles along the beds of the ravines. Ridges of brown, gray, and olive sandstones and slates project with massive front from places where the torrents of by-gone periods have torn their channels, while on the precipitous sides of the ridges, and from the walls of the frequent gaps, pale cliffs stand out with forbidding sharpness, or threaten to foil from the overhanging heights.
On the Virginia side of the Potomac the country is very rugged, and broken by frequent low ridges of the shattered sandstones and slates; but it is wonderfully picturesque, and the hills are covered by forests and verdure as far as the eye can reach. Frequent shallows in the river open good fords, which form the principal avenues of travel across the country. The absence of bridges, which appears a serious obstacle to the progress of the stranger, is apparently but little felt by the inhabitants of the region. At most times the stream seems to be only moderately rapid, and not at all too swift to be crossed by horses and cattle; but when heavy rains fall on the mountains beyond, it becomes a roaring flood which carries everything before it. Three miles west of Hancock the remarkable knob called Round Top stands at the southeastern angle of Tonoloway Ridge. It rises on that side somewhat in the form of a rounded cone, but from heights in the rear it is seen to be a short backbone extending back in a gradual slope for more than a mile. This detached dome is notable for the singular manner in which its rocky mass has been folded, and for the superior cement limestone that it contains. Here the heavy limestone and sandstone layers forming the rocky skeleton of this huge dome have been bent back and up three times in the lower half of the mass. The result has been to force the cement layers into closely compressed loops, doubling and increasing its thickness accordingly. At the same time the eastern side of the beds has received a diagonal twist, which has thrust them off in a projecting keel at nearly right angles to the rest, and opened a seam along that line.
These cement limestones are mainly of a bluish or drab color, interstratified with other limestones, and with drab and olive sandstones and slates. The cement rock is now excavated from nearly horizontal drifts or tunnels, ranging from eight to twelve feet in height, and fully as much in width, one of which has been pursued quite through the end of the mountain. A part of the great thickness of these layers is owing to a double fold of the thickest portion of the rock being brought in close contact with a second and shorter one. The rock is closely bent together, and fully exposed in at least six outcrops within a distance of scarcely more than six hundred feet along the canal. It appears to be present in practically inexhaustible quantities. The hydraulic cement is calcined, ground, and prepared in a large mill, situated on the spot, and is sent from thence by canal and railroad to all parts of the country. It has a high reputation with United States engineers and master-builders in various part of the country, who have used it extensively in the construction of large buildings for the government, and for various public works, besides those of the aqueducts, locks, and walls of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Nearly half-way up the steep front of this mountain there is a thick layer of calcareous spar of great purity. It is chiefly ribbed with parallel series of narrow, columnar crystals, remarkable for their length. Above this stratum of spar, a nearly square hole leads into a cavern hollowed out of the upfolded limestone by the tremendous forces which have crushed the mountain and split wide open the beds of stone. This cave has never been adequately explored. It is reported to have been the abode of a family of black bears, which were traced into it and finally destroyed. It is supposed to be of enormous length, and to be formed in part of vast fissures extending to fearful depths.
This region varies greatly as to its capacities for agriculture. On the sides of the slate hills the soil is thin, and not supplied with the moisture necessary for the production of large crops. This is also the case in a less marked degree of the blunt ridges capped by the white conglomerate. But on the limestone bottoms and throughout the alluvial basins a deep fertile soil prevails, which yields abundant crops of clover, cereals, and Indian corn. The streams here are of small size, although springs are numerous, and send forth little brooks in many directions. Three creeks wind in tortuous channels across this narrow belt of country, and contribute their quota of fertilizing elements to the narrow valleys through which they run. They are the Big and Little Tonoloway and Deep Creek. Like all the other streams of this region, they run in deep channels through the winding gullies and ravines between the hills, are moderately rapid, and flow for the most part over broken rooks and scattered bowlders.
The majestic Sideling Hill ridge, which forms the most westward summit .of Washington County, is a grand, high backbone of red and brown sandstone, capped and flanked by the Oneida white sandstone, and is picturesque, precipitous, and in places almost inaccessible. Its summit near the turnpike rises above an altitude of sixteen hundred feet, and affords some of the finest views of scenery to be had in this country. Looking east the eye takes in the whole range of the Potomac Valley as far as North Mountain, and rests successively upon three or more prominent and beautiful mountain groups set in the intervening landscape. The minerals of this section are' of few species, and have not yet been discovered in large quantities. Most important of them all is the specular oxide of iron, which occurs near Sideling Hill, in the calcareous shales. It has not yet been properly developed, but future investigations may determine its presence in profitable amounts. The general color of this ore is red, while bright scales of the dark metal project from the surface of the lumps.
Coal has always been an object of special interest to the people of this part of Washington County. It has been frequently reported as occurring in various places where the black shale crops out at the surface of the ground. Notwithstanding the adverse reports of several competent geologists, extensive drifts were pierced into the precipitous flank of Sideling Hill, next to where the grand, picturesque gorge of the creek opens into the basin of the Potomac River. Several of these have been excavated at a great height above the bed of the creek, and at a heavy expenditure of money and time. The result has been an accumulation of large piles of black, bituminous, decomposed slate and shale, which has proved but a poor substitute for the much-coveted anthracite coal. No true coal-measures exist in this county; the position of the geological scries would place them above all the formations found within its limits, and hence they would occur upon the surface and not below.
Sulphuret of iron is met with in small pieces, or in crystals bedded in the slate and limestone rocks, but it has not been found in masses or quantities large enough for commercial purposes.
Gold, silver, zinc, copper, and lead have not thus far been discovered in useful amounts, and the formations peculiar to the country are not in favor of their being so found.
Limestones suitable for agricultural purposes, besides the cement rock, appear in immeasurable deposits, but no true marbles belong to this region. Purple, brown, olive, and white sandstones of compact texture and fine grain abound, and can be obtained of any workable size. Glass-sand of pure white color is found, both in the rock and disintegrated, in vast beds along the western flanks of Tonoloway and of Sideling Hill.
Allegany County has an area of about five hundred square miles, and extends from Sideling Hill Creek on the east to the ridge of the Great Savage Mountain on the west. Its general outline is somewhat that of a bent gourd, with the bowl on the east and the handle running diagonally on the west. It is bounded on the north by Pennsylvania, and separated on the south from West Virginia by the Potomac River. Its length from east to west is about thirty-two miles, and its greatest width from north to south is twenty miles. The surface of the country on the east is frequently broken by abrupt, moderately elevated mountain ridges, with intervening narrow valleys; but on the west it rises to nearly the highest elevation reached in the State.
The first stream reached after crossing Sideling Hill is the romantic Sideling Hill Creek. It rises in Somerset County, Pa., runs along the base of the mountain, and has pierced through numberless obstructions of rock, bluff, and bowlder until it has conquered a deep wide channel all the way to the