1883. * 125 Trans. N. Y. Ac. Set. 



Scotia stone." However, 95 per cent, of the imported stone is derived 

 from New Brunswick (probably 85 per cent, from Dorchester, N. B.), 

 and the remainder from Nova Scotia and other points. The popular 

 name has been applied to light-colored stones of every quality, quarried 

 at various points of Eastern Canada, over a wide section of country, hun- 

 dreds of square miles in extent, and variously worked out at tide-level, 

 under tide-water from exposed reefs running out into the sea, or, as at 

 Dorchester, N. B., from a hillside 900 feet high and a quarter of a mile 

 from tide-water. The small quarries usually work out only such stones 

 as they can obtain from outcropping ledges and boulders, and these 

 are apt to be of bad and varying color, more or less full of iron and 

 other defects ; for example, the surface-quarries of Hillsboro, N. B., 

 long since abandoned, used in the houses in 42nd street near Madison 

 avenue, in Second avenue near 55th street, some of the bridges in Cen- 

 tral Park, etc. At the quarries of Dorchester, N. B., it is stated that 

 from 35 to 50 feet of inferior rock and debris are first stripped off to 

 reach the sound rock which is sent to this market. The introduction of 

 this stone into the city as a building material has been too recent to 

 allow any measure of its durability. A little exfoliation may be how- 

 ever distinguished near the ground-line, and on the sides and posts of 

 Stoops, in many cases. Also, in panels, under heavy projecting mould- 

 ings, cornices, etc., where the sun has no chance tor each and dry up the 

 dampness, the stone moulders away slightly over the surface. In the 

 cemeteries it is rarely or never used ; in one example, possibly of this 

 material, in St. Paul's churchyard (W. J. M., 1841), the decay is plainly 

 beginning around the carvings. The discoloration of good varieties of 

 the stone would be very slow to affect vertical surfaces, properly pro- 

 tected by drips; but on sloping, horizontal, or shaded surfaces, espe- 

 cially near the street-level, street-dust is sure to lodge and cling, all the 

 more after the surface becomes roughened by a slight disintegration »' 

 while the rough usage to which the stone of balustrades and stoops is 

 always subjected in a busy street, renders this, as well as all other soft 

 varieties of freestone, liable to chipping as well as offensive discoloration 

 (e. g., in the courses, trimmings, and posts of the church on the 

 corner of 42d street and Madison avenue, etc.) and unsuitable for 

 use near the ground-line. 



Ohio Sandstone. — The buff variety from Amherst is said to contain 

 "97 per cent of pure sand." Buildings constructed of this material 

 in this city since 1857 {e. g., on the corner of Barclay street and 

 Broadway, on the corner of Howard and Crosby streets, etc.), 

 show no decay, but only discoloration. In other instances {e. g„ 

 rows of houses on 50th street.west of Fifth avenue, on Madison avenue 



