* * * * *
Baltimore and the Point[Footnote: Or Fell's Point, the name given to a
small but well-situated town about a mile lower down the bay.] may be
considered but as one town, as the interval that parts them is already
laid out for building.
There is not perhaps on the face of the earth so many excellent situations
for a sea-port as in this vicinity; and yet they have fixed on the very
spot where the town should _not_ be.
Baltimore, by being built so far from the bay of Chesapeak, has not depth
of water for a vessel of two hundred tons, nearer than the Point. The
lower part of the town is a dead flat, intersected with canals and docks,
filled with stagnated water from the Basin: owing to this circumstance the
town is unhealthy at certain seasons, and subject, in the fall, to
musquitoes: these inconveniences might have been avoided by building the
town a mile lower, on either side the bay.
But there is a much better situation for a town and port on an inlet from
the Patapsico, west of the town, round a point, which runs about W.N.W.
where I have marked No. 10.
On this spot is water for a vessel of eight hundred tons burden,
sufficiently fresh to exclude the worms, and at the same time a current
strong enough to prevent stagnation. A bay perfectly secure from the N.W.
and other dangerous winds, a gradual rise of ground consisting of a fine
dry gravel to build upon; in short, every natural advantage.
