THE GREAT BLUESTONE IXDUSTRY 



357 



tons. It was quarried at the Sawkill, in the town of Kingston, and 

 is said to be the largest stone ever brought to tide water. It took 

 eight horses to haul this monster to the docks over a stone tram- 

 way, and it is alleged that the side of a toUgate had to be taken 

 down to allow the stone to pass through. In quarrying bluestone 

 much stone that is practically worthless is met with. Sometimes 

 what looks at first glance like a fine, straight-seamed block will 

 be uncovered, when, at the first attempt to work it, it will break 

 up into small pieces like a pile of brick. These blocks are known 

 to quarrymen as cat faces. This formation exists in small blocks 

 between all good working blocks, as well as sometimes in the 



H ;,_. 







Flu. 4. SHii'PiNr, Dock on Rondout Ckeek at Kingston, N. Y. 



larger ones. Cat faces are worked up into blocks for street pav- 

 ing, many having been used in the Hudson River cities, where 

 they are set so the wear cuts across the grain, and have been 

 found to wear superior to granite block, as they never become 

 slippery, and furnish always a sure footing for horses. The 

 worthless stone of the quarries, called rubbage, is hauled to the 

 dumps, where immense mountains of broken stone, often one 

 hundred feet in height and several acres in extent, have been 

 built up. 



The quarrying of bluestone and its allied industries furnish 

 employment at good* wages to a large number of people. It is 

 estimated that throughout the entire bluestone country reaching 

 from Albany County, New York, to the Pennsylvania region on 

 the Delaware River at least twenty thousand people get all or a 



