BUILDING AND ORNAMENTAL STONES. 527 



purposes, but unsuited for any kind of ornamental work, is brought 

 in considerable quantities from Chester County, Pennsylvania. The 

 stone is dull-green in color, soft enough to work readily, and is capa- 

 ble of producing most excellent effects, particularly in rock-faced and 

 rubble work. So far as the writer has observed, however, it has not 

 yet been used to advantage, either alone or in combination with other 

 stone, a majority of the buildings thus far constructed of it being not 

 only failures from an architectural stand-point, but showing a remark- 

 able lack of taste in color combination on the part of their designers. 

 A dull-green building with light, yellowish-gray trimmings can scarce- 

 ly be considered a success artistically, yet this is the style almost 

 universally adopted. The stone has been used quite extensively in and 

 about Philadelphia, and is the one employed in the construction of the 

 buildings of the University of Pennsylvania and Academy of Natural 

 Sciences in that city. It has also been used to some extent in the cities 

 of New York and Washington, though I have not yet observed it 

 elsewhere. 



No marbles are at present quarried in this country similar to the 

 white blue-veined Parmazo marble from the Miseglia quarries, like the 

 red-veined from Levanto, like the yellow from Siena, the red " Griotte " 

 from the French Pyrenees, or the black and gold (Portoro Venere) from 

 the Spezia quarries. A stone somewhat resembling this last has been 

 received at the museum from Helena, Montana, but the quarries are not 

 worked, nor is the extent of the deposit known to the writer. A beauti- 

 ful bright, flesh-pink marble occurs in abundance in Swain and Chero- 

 kee Counties, North Carolina, but is not now in the market, owing to 

 lack of transportation facilities. 



Of limestones and dolomites, aside from marbles, large quantities 

 are quarried in the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illi- 

 nois, Iowa, and Missouri. These are mostly of a dull-grayish, uninter- 

 esting color, and their uses are chiefly local. The light-colored oolitic 

 limestone of Bedford, Indiana, is, however, an exception to this rule. 

 Not only is the color pleasing and its lasting qualities fair, but its fine 

 even grain and softness render it admirably adapted for carved work. 

 Several of the Southern and Western States have an abundance of lime- 

 stone and sandstones suitable for general building purposes, but so far 

 as observed few, if any of them, are of such quality as ever to attain 

 anything more than a local market. Kentucky has limestones in abun- 

 dance and of good quality. Kansas is pre-eminently a State of lime- 

 stones. These are, however, for the most part soft and porous, of a 

 dull color, and must be found lacking in lasting qualities in other than 

 a very dry climate. A white, chalky limestone is quarried in Trego 

 County, in this State, and is used in the manufacture of whiting. Oth- 

 erwise than from the product of this quarry, all the other w r hiting man- 

 ufactured in the United States is said to be prepared from imported 

 English chalk. Texas furnishes cretaceous limestones of fine and com- 



