BUILDING AND ORNAMENTAL STONES. 521 



Unfortunately, Dr. Hawes did not live to carry out the plans he 

 had so carefully laid down, hut the vast amount of material he had 

 been instrumental in bringing together remains to-day in the National 

 Museum, a lasting monument to the industry of the man, and probably 

 the most systematic and complete collection of its kind in any museum 

 in the world. As now being arranged in the museum, the collection 

 comprises some four thousand specimens of building and ornamental 

 stone from upward of fifteen hundred quarries in the United States, 

 together with very many from foreign localities. 



The importance of such a collection can not be overestimated. 

 Here, within the space of an hour, one can see and examine every 

 variety of stone now quarried, and ascertain its scientific name and 

 chemical or mineral composition, together with the exact locality 

 whence it was derived. That such a reference collection will prove of 

 great advantage to the country at large is evident from the fact that 

 New England granites have been used in nearly every city of impor- 

 tance from Maine to California, sometimes to the almost entire exclu- 

 sion of equally good material close at hand, but of whose existence or 

 valuable qualities interested parties were ignorant. As an illustration 

 of this, it may be stated that many of the public and private buildings 

 of Cincinnati, Ohio, are built of Eastern granite brought by rail and 

 water a distance of over fifteen hundred miles, while within one tenth 

 that distance lie rocks in every respect equally good for the purpose, 

 and that could be furnished at far less cost ! From the published 

 report of the census as it now appears, there were quarried during the 

 year ending May 31, 1880, 115,380,113 cubic feet of building and orna- 

 mental stones, valued in the rough at $18,365,055 ; this being the prod- 

 uct of 1,525 quarries representing an invested capital of $25,414,497, 

 and affording employment during the busy season to upward of 

 40,000 men. The kinds of stone quarried are principally granites, 

 limestones (including dolomite), sandstone, and slates. In value of total 

 product, regardless of kinds, the leading States rank as follows : Ohio, 

 Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, Maine, and 

 Connecticut, each of these producing upward of $1,000,000 worth of 

 material. Massachusetts and Maine produce the most granite ; Ohio, 

 New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut the most sandstone ; Ver- 

 mont, Illinois, Ohio, and New York the most limestone, while Penn- 

 sylvania leads in the production of slate. 



The larger portion of our granites are some shade of gray in color, 

 though pink and red varieties are not uncommon. They vary in text- 

 ure from very fine and homogeneous to coarsely porphyritic rocks 

 in which the individual grains are an inch or more in length. The 

 largest woi'ks at present in operation are at Vinalhaven, Maine. The 

 quarries of the Bodwell Granite Company were first opened here in 

 1850, and the present annual product is some 217,000 cubic feet, val- 

 ued at $112,000. The capabilities of these quarries may behest illus- 



